This course is intended to introduce students to basic concepts of Computer-Aided Design as they have been implemented on the personal computer. It is particularly intended to meet the needs of students with little or no computer or CAD experience. It will be taught as a survey course, which will include a number of short projects intended to introduce students to the basic concepts involved with digital photo processing, computer-aided drafting and modeling, desktop publishing, and exploring and publishing on the World-Wide Web. The course will also stress the integration of these types of programs, explaining some of the methods by which data can be transported from one program or one machine to another.
The goal is to provide students with generalizable skills and a knowledge of the underlying concepts involved. However, the programs which have been selected to illustrate these concepts are all popular, real-world commercial applications. Students will therefore pick up specific skills relating to particular Macintosh and PC-based packages which they are likely to encounter as they pursue their careers. The software packages that will be used in the course include: Photoshop (image scanning, painting, and photo composition), AutoCAD Release 13 (drafting and 3D modeling) and PageMaker (desktop publishing). The "generic" aspects of these tools will be emphasized. In addition, students will also be exposed to the vast world of the Internet and on-line browsing and publishing using the World-Wide Web.
You are expected to attend the lectures (attendance sheets will be collected and pop quizzes will be given) and participate in discussions. The computer lab in the Art & Architecture Library has been reserved for your use on Mondays and Wednesdays, 5:30-7:30 pm. These lab sessions are not required, although it is strongly recommended that you attend at least one of these sessions each week. During these hours one or two instructors will be present in the library to answer your questions. Arch 411 students will have priority on the machines during these times. The library computers are also available on a first-come, first-served basis 24 hours a day, except for those times when other scheduled classes are meeting in the lab. You will most likely need to come in during these open lab times to do additional work.
Your grade for this course will be based on six assignments, five short pop quizzes, and class attendance/participation. The breakdown is as follows:
| Photo processing assignment (Photoshop): | 10% |
| Symbols assignment (AutoCAD): | 15% |
| Drafting assignment (AutoCAD): | 15% |
| Surface modeling assignment (AutoCAD): | 15% |
| Desktop publishing assignment (PageMaker): | 15% |
| HTML assignment (Netscape, etc.): | 15% |
| Quizzes: | 10% |
| Class attendance and participation: | 5% |
Late assignments are generally unacceptable. Under special circumstances (illness, family emergency, etc.), the student may request an extension of the deadline. We will deduct one point per late day for assignments turned in after the deadline without prior arrangement with the instructors. No late work will be accepted after June 25, 1995. This course does not give an incomplete as a grade.
Each student will be required to purchase at least four High Density 3.5 inch disks. You will use these disks to turn in assignments and to make back-ups of your work. Disks are available at bookstores and computer stores around town. Two of the disks will be formatted for DOS and the other two will be formatted for a Macintosh. You should always have at least two disks in the lab: one to be used as a "working" disk and the other as a backup disk. ALWAYS save often and back up your work.
You will also be required to have a computer (IFS) account for file storage, and a uniquename for computer access. If you do not have these already, they will be provided for you during the course, free of charge.
This course does not require the purchase of any textbooks, but a relevant bibliography is provided in case you need to find answers when working on your own.
Although you will be using a large-format plotter for the AutoCAD assignments, you will not need to purchase the plotter pens. However, you may need to purchase paper for the plotter (the Copy Center sells paper, or you can bring some from studio).
Grades for this course are determined primarily by performance on a series of assignments. You should give some forethought to your work for these assignments, so that they will fit together well. It will probably work best if they all concern the same design. Images from the first four assignments will appear in the last two. You should plan your work so that the images will fit together into a coherent and unified presentation, so that the desktop and on-line publishing assignments will go as smoothly as possible.
Students are always expected to use the software critically, pointing out the advantages and disadvantages of the tools used and commenting on their suitability to the task to be performed. Class discussions and presentations will focus on these issues.
Some of the lecture classes will include short pop quizzes, in the form of 1 or 2 questions requiring short answers or explanations of a couple sentences or so. These quizzes will cover conceptual issues relating to the software you have used, or topics explained during previous lectures. Syntax will not be stressed, though some conceptual questions may sound a bit like syntax questions. For example you might be asked whether it is possible to plot a Photoshop image using a pen plotter. While this may at first sound like a question about commands or preference settings, the answer really relies on a knowledge of what the hardware and software are used for, and what sort of information they handle.
An attendance sheet will be brought to each lecture class. Make a point to sign this sheet every class session; it will affect your grade. In addition, you will also be graded on your class participation in the discussions, so speak up.
One of several good third-party books on AutoCAD is:
Boersma, Tom, Jim Boyce, Frank Conner, Rusty Gesner, and Jeff Hester. Inside AutoCAD Release 13. Indianapolis, Indiana: New Riders Publishing, 1995.
User's guides for most software in the lab are available at the front desk of the Art & Architecture Library.
For links to information about the Art and Architecture library computing sites and about ITD (including answers to frequently asked questions) direct your web browser to this URL:
http://www.itd.umich.edu/~paulinss/aahtml/ [this link is now obsolete]
For an information sheet about plotting from AutoCAD to the 36" HP650C inkjet printer in the Copy Center go to:
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~sven/classes/plotting.html [this link leads to information that is now obsolete]
For information on how to compose HTML documents, direct your Web browser to:
http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/General/Internet/WWW/HTMLPrimer.html [while this page is no longer being updated, I still find it to be an informative and convenient source of information about the fundamentals of html]
May June
S M Tu W Th F S S M Tu W Th F S
1 2 3 4 --1-
5 6 7--8--9-10-11- --2--3--4--5--6--7--8-
-12-13-14-15-16-17-18- --9-10-11-12-13-14-15-
-19-20-21-22-23-24-25- -16-17-18-19-20-21-22-
-26(27)28-29-30-31- -23-24-25 26 27 28 29
30
Last update: January 18, 2009
Scott Johnson (sven@umich.edu)