CAD education and training

Description

The ever-increasing use of CAD systems for the development of digital prototypes to be employed within product design and development processes requires a growing ability to create robust geometric models. These models must be suitable for the creation of virtual prototypes that are easily modifiable and capable of supporting the decision-making activities typical of an iterative process such as mechanical design. Furthermore, such virtual prototypes must be conceived so as to be easily used for analyses and simulations through computer-aided engineering tools.

On the other hand, commercial modeling and analysis tools (MCAD) have become increasingly complex and sophisticated over the years and are now largely based on hybrid geometric modeling environments. This situation poses a new challenge for education and training, as it requires a teaching strategy that goes beyond the simple accumulation of command-based knowledge for surface modeling and solid modeling. Research activity in the field of CAD education and training is characterized by three main aspects: the investigation of a new educational approach that integrates positive knowledge (knowing what to do) with negative knowledge, namely the ability to know what should not be done (critical situations to be avoided); the definition of a new metric for the evaluation of robust models, based on the concept of dormant deficiency, which takes into account the aspects of dimensional and morphological variability that models must be able to accommodate; the development of software tools, also equipped with usage-monitoring agents, which can be used by students for self-analysis of the quality of the models they create and by instructors to verify tool usage patterns; and the development of visual environments for the representation of parameters that characterize model quality, in order to support instructors in model analysis and thus enable the provision of appropriate formative feedback.

Publications

• Mandorli, F., Otto, H.E., Impact and Effect of Formative Feedback Improvement for Dormant Deficiencies in MCAD Education, Computer-Aided Design and Applications, V.23, I. 4, pp. 381-397, ISSN 1686-4360, doi: https://doi.org/10.14733/cadaps.2026.381-397, 2026.
• Otto, H.E., Mandorli, F., Dormant deficiency: a novel concept to direct cause–effect CAD model analysis, Research in Engineering Design, V. 35, I. 1, pp. 43-71, ISSN 1435-6066, doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00163-023-00423-5, 2024.
• Mandorli, F., Otto, H.E., Improving the Learning Experience within MCAD Education: A Tool for Students to Assist in Self-Assessment during Modeling Exercises, Computer-Aided Design and Applications, V.19, I. 3, pp. 534-560, ISSN 1686-4360, doi: ttps://doi.org/10.14733/cadaps.2022.534-560, 2022.
• Otto, H.E., Mandorli, F., Advancing Formative Assessment in MCAD Education: The Visual Analytics of Parametric Feature-Based Solid Models, Advanced Engineering Informatics, V. 48, ISSN 1474-0346, doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aei.2021.101308, 2021.
• Otto, H.E., Mandorli, F., A framework for negative knowledge to support hybrid geometric modeling education for product engineering, Journal of Computational Design and Engineering, doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcde.2017.11.006, 2017.

Staff

Prof. Ferruccio Mandorli 
Tel. +39 071 220 4790
E-mail: f.mandorli@staff.univpm.it