1. UNIVERSITY AT BUFFALO
Project 01
An Introduction to CAD - MAE 377
Jonathan E. Jones – 3451-8370
9/17/2009
Project 01 was meant to introduce an aspiring Engineering student to the basics of ProEngineering
Wildfire 4.0. By completing the three drawings, I learned such techniques as protrusion, cut, hole,
chamfer, and mirrors, among others.

2. Table of Contents
1 Introduction .......................................................................................................................................... 3
2 Problem Statement ............................................................................................................................... 3
3 Results ................................................................................................................................................... 3
3.1 Part A............................................................................................................................................. 3
3.2 Part B ............................................................................................................................................. 4
3.3 Part C ............................................................................................................................................. 4
3.4 Part D: Bonus ................................................................................................................................ 5
4 Discussion.............................................................................................................................................. 6
5 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................. 6
6 References ............................................................................................................................................ 6
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3. 1 Introduction
Project 01 has served as an introduction into the world of ProEngineering three-dimensional CAD.
Through the modeling of four separate and differentiable parts, I learned basic techniques in ProE that
will help me draw and design engineering parts for years to come.
2 Problem Statement
In order to better my CAD skills, I was tasked with drawing four figures from our engineering textbook
ProENGINEER Wildfire 4.0. Our textbook generally walked me through the process step by step, with a
few wrinkles along the way (these will be gone into later). This entire process was meant for me to
garner the techniques of protrusion, cut, hole, chamfer, round, mirror and revolved-protrusion among
others, all within the felt of ProEngineer Wildfire.
3 Results
Happily, I was able to recreate each and every part assigned to us in Project 01. The following will detail
the procedure and development of each model along with any hiccups I may have encountered along
the way.
3.1 Part A
Part A was probably the most painless model to create. After sketching the bottom face, extruding it to
the desired length, and removing the U-shaped interior with another sketch and remove material
command, the bulk of the piece was already completed. Adding rounds on the inner edges, mirroring
the hole from one side to the other, and chamfer the outer edge was finished easily and without much
distress. Literally all that was left was adding the right radii to the arced corners, and Part A was
complete.
(a) (b)
Figure 1 (a) The CAD model of the block made in Part A; (b) the same CAD model of Part A at a different view.
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4. 3.2 Part B
Part B proved to be one of the trickier parts to model. The base of the object proved simple enough,
simply extruding the pentagonal front view a specific depth. The cutouts were made without headache,
utilizing newly learned loop cut tool and mirroring from front to back. Following the book’s instruction,
the holes were made through only the top thickness, and mirrored across the model. The feature that
proved most troublesome was the rotated-protrusion on top. I was able to create a side-view sketch of
the general shape without much dismay, but after the actual rotation the protrusion would simply be
rotated about the edge of the top face, completely throwing off the model’s symmetry. After seemingly
hours of troubleshooting, we learned that our base model had not been drawn on the origin of the
drawing, and once this had been fixed the revolved protrusion came together without a hitch.
(a) (b)
Figure 2 (a) The CAD model of the block made in Part B; (b) the same CAD model of Part B at a different view.
3.3 Part C
I went into the creation of the model of Part C perhaps a little too confident. I figured that all I needed
to do was create the base, one simple fin, and then somehow magically pattern that around the turbine
shaped figure. The inner base did prove easy, only requiring a revolved sketch of specific geometry.
However, after using my newly garnered knowledge of the thickness tool (another tool learned through
trial and error, you can’t extrude, sketch, and then thicken, one has to sketch, extrude and then thicken)
I was able to create the fin minus the cut seen in Figure 3. I was also able to make a sketch to revolve a
remove material command to create the shape of the fin, but try as I might I was not able to pattern the
true fin shape around the turbine. I could pattern a rectangular fin fine, but the true fin shape proved
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5. difficult. After finally noticing that (and then fixing) the patterned rectangular fins did actually not have
any thickness whatsoever, one more revolved remove material of a side-view sketch at long last brought
out the desired fin shape. I think that I may have initially went wrong with the order of use in the
thickness section of the initial fin creation, and that just compounded my issues.
(a) (b)
Figure 3 (a) The CAD model of the block made in Part C; (b) the same CAD model of Part C at a different view.
3.4 Part D: Bonus
After the headache and verifiable torment of Parts B and C, Part D came together quickly and without a
hitch. Creating the sketch of the bottom face with a few circles, lines, and arcs and extruding up took
little time. Likewise, extruding two different sized circles upon that were menial tasks, along with the
rounding and chamfering of a few edges. The bonus part indeed proved easy.
(a) (b)
Figure 4 (a) The CAD model of the block made in Part D: Bonus; (b) the same CAD model of Part D at a different view.
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6. 4 Discussion
The specific problems detailed in Sections 3.2 and 3.3 regarding the creation of Parts B and C have
already been duly noted. Another issue I have with the program is the ultimate dependence on the use
of the middle mouse button. This stroke is used in a very large percentage of tasks, including the
orientation of the model, the ability to pause and resume a specific line draw in sketcher, and most
aggravatingly the final command to insert a dimension. Sure, these tasks are completely quickly and
without resent when a mouse is readily available, but going into my first real CAD project and wanting to
work on my “mouse-less” computer proved maddening and time consuming at best. Having to break
down and buy a wireless mouse was not on the top of my priority list, but it sure did midway through
Project 01.
5 Conclusion
Project 01 did end up being quite the lengthy project, accumulating approximately 20 hours in total.
The problems mentioned in sections 3.2 and 3.3 with Parts B and C really slowed down the process and
without a readily available answer-mage at all hours of the night, my fellow engineers and I struggled to
understand the sometimes finicky nature of ProEngineer Wildfire. I was able to eventually create all of
the models up to specifications, and learned quite a few handy CAD techniques in the process. Each
part truly brought out a new wrinkle in the design capabilities of ProE, and I feel that I have mastered
the basics quite well.
6 References
1.) Toogood, Roger, ProENGINEER Wildfire 4.0. Edmonton, Alberta: ProCAD Books Ltd, 2006.
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