Freshman Year, ENGR 1202-M Cumulative Assignment
During the ENGR 1202-M class, students follow engineering drawings to create parts for an air engine using the CAD software of PTC Creo. For the end of the semester, the parts are turned into an assembly that is used to visualize the project. This design will later be manufactured during Sophomore year in a machine shop, where it will use compressed air to run.
Seen on the right is a rendered video of my air engine model from the design we followed in class.
Recreation of the Assignment utilizing SolidWorks 2025 Student Edition
Recently, I have found that it is important to shape my skills in SolidWorks as well as what I learned in PTC Creo. In ENGR 1202-M, we utilized a student version of Creo Parametric which seems to be a still strong but sightly more dated standard in engineering fields. I found personal motivation following the Spring 25 class to learn how to transfer those lessons and skills into a similar but slightly different engineering standard software, SolidWorks. I first went through many tutorials and test projects to understand all the tools and identify some key differences before refollowing all the engineered drawings I had saved from the ENGR 1202-M class. I then assembled them and was able to capture a motion study. This is very similar to the pinnacle of the class lessons, and it offered me a clear visual for the parts, subassemblies, and final assembly for the air engine.
Seen on the left is a capture of the motion study for the air engine using a revolving motor at 60 rpm.
Physical Air Engine
During my Spring 2026 semester, I took the Design Lab I course at UNCC also known as Sophomore Design. This course had a lab and lecture portion, but the correlation to the air engine project is the lab. This lab had students working in the machine shop located in Duke Centennial Hall. Students are given the engineering drawings for the air engine and are walked through the process of manufacturing the parts using various machines. I was not able to document the whole process, but I do have images documenting the finished parts/sub-assemblies as well as the final assembly. Here is a quick link to that section of my webpage: Physical Air Engine.
Updated SolidWorks Model
Following the completion of my real-life air engine, I thought it could be fun to update the SolidWorks model to include the stud, spring cup, and other provided hardware. The process was fairly simple to model the stud and spring cup using the engineering drawings provided by the machine shop lab. The nut and set screw were simly added using the SolidWorks Toolkit add-in, and the spring was modeled by using some rough dimensions that I took off my real model. The model is not a perfect one-to-one of my air engine as I did have a few minor mistakes in the machining process of some parts, but overall I am satisfied with the level of accuracy the model has when compared to my final assembly.