The Meandrous Engineer

Throughout my life, there have been very few things with as much of an impact as drawing.  I started drawing like any young boy with dinosaurs and monster trucks.  It’s funny that something so innocuous can become something so powerful with connections to art, engineering, math, and making in general.  I’d like to try to show you how I see the world and hopefully inspire you to make something awesome. 

Why Drawing?

Drawing is not only a medium unto itself but can be a facilitator for your mind and your creativity.  It can be the final product, or a means to get your ideas on paper in order to flesh them out for other creative venues.  One thing that people may not realize is that math and art are related.  It may seem far-fetched, but the more you learn about different disciplines, the more you realize that things that can initially seem completely foreign to each other, may have a lot more in common than you think.  This even happens in engineering where similarities in formulas can be found in fluids, electrical, thermal, and mechanical fields.

When proposing a project in art school, professors would ask us to draw no fewer than 10 ideas in our sketchbooks to help us develop our ideas into a more solidified concept.  If your end goal is to build something, would you rather build it 10 times or go through it in your mind 10 times before you start so you can be that much more prepared?  Drawing your project forces you to think through the physicality, the shapes, and the aesthetics of your ideas. 

For makers and engineers, it forces you to think about functionality as well.  There is no better way to give your projects a head start than to sketch it out first.  Even if you stink at drawing, it’s a form of notetaking that gets your idea on paper so you can document and improve upon that idea.  I think that’s what stops a lot of people from learning to draw, the fear that it isn’t good enough. 

So what if all you can draw is stick figures?  You can always practice and get better.  You’re not putting this in an art gallery right off the bat are you?  Draw for yourself and not others.  Eventually it will be good enough to share.

Communication of Ideas

Drawing is beyond useful for the communication of ideas.  This is another example where even a bad drawing can help convey concepts that are elusive with words.  I can’t tell you how many brainstorming sessions I’ve had with colleagues that went so much better after we just got out the white board and showed each other what we were trying to explain.  A picture can absolutely express 1000 words or more.  Cliches are often cliches for a reason. 

Uses Beyond Drawing

I discovered something interesting when I was a programmer for a waterjet.  CAM stands for Computer Aided Manufacturing.  A waterjet is a CNC machine that can cut through metal, rubber, and even stone.  CNC stands for Computer Numerically Controlled.  To program this machine you have to use CAD (Computer Aided Design) to draw your part.  Take that drawing and import it into the CAM and program your cutting path for the waterjet and generate the program to make the machine work.  This is basically how any CNC machine can be programmed.  

So, remember when I said that math and drawing are related? 

This company I worked for would also cut new head gaskets for combustion engines out of copper.  We would often be given a worn out gasket to reference.  You can imagine how hard this would be to reference the center point of each round hole along with water ports that have no discernible geometry.  We would take these gaskets with a scale reference and scan them in on a bed scanner.  Import that picture into Autocad and trace it at the correct scale.  It was not an exact science, but it would get you very close so you could cut samples out of cheaper material and compare to the original for refining. 

Do you see where this connects to drawing?  Can you see where I’m going with this?

It didn’t take long for me to be inspired by this process.  A person can draw in CAD and have a machine make whatever that shape may be.  Not only that, you can take a free hand drawing, scan it in, trace it in CAD, and then do exactly the same thing.

Drawings on paper can become designs in steel. 

Infinite Creativity

Any organic curve or line you can draw with your pencil can be translated to a coordinate system by assigning numbers to X and Y dimensions.  You can also take that drawing in CAD and extrude it, making it a 3 dimensional object giving it a Z dimension.  Boom, a direct link between your creativity and an industrial machine that can make anything you want with a human touch. 

My mind is still blown by this. 

There is a poetry in how two seemingly different things can work together

There is not enough time for me to explore all of the possibilities that this presents, but knowing it is available and I can make almost anything is empowering. 

Open Your Eyes to the Beauty of our World

Drawing can change how you view the world.  You have to look at all the shapes, details, and lines to truly draw something on paper.  If you draw an apple, you have to look at its outside shape, its features, and even shading.  Learning how to look at the world with this level of detail can change your perspective.  The meditative quality of this act can take your mind to a peaceful place, and you might see a beauty in the world that was previously taken for granted. 

Make Something Useful

Keeping all of this in mind, I urge that if you don’t know how to draw, learn.  If you know how to draw, push your limits and try to get better.  Use your drawing to be creative and get those ideas on paper.  Make something useful to you and others.  The world doesn’t often reward true creativity, but we are all the better for it.