Hey, I was wondering if you could help me with some stuff, like what software do you think would be most probably used for this course?
http://www.admissions.ox.ac.uk/courses/engi.shtml
It might be an extreme goal but hell, im going to try,
Also does anyone know the average wages you would get for mechanical engineering in the UK?
I'm in 3rd year in Mecanical Engineering right now, and looking at the program description, it looks really similar to what im taking.
We had a Autocad course in the first year (witch I got exempted btw) to learn basic of drawing and cotations. Its an easy course, because some people never used a drawing program when they first take the course. We then had a course with Catia V5 in second year, witch is a commonly used software for engineering. Its a volume based program, so modelling works by extrusions, lathes, holes, etc from a base sketch. But the software as a wide selection of different modules. I used only the part design, assembly module and definition drawing module, but that about 5% of the whole software. In my automn, i'll learn nurbs and other this in another Catia course.
It's a very handy tool depending of your uses. I would not advise building a car in this software, it's not made for that (considering I have not yet learned the nurbs part of the software). I use it to make 3d plans of furniture I wish to build. You can then layout the parts in 2D and cote then really easily.
Its most likely you'll use this software in engineering, at school or at work. Solid Edge and Pro Engineer are also common in thoses schools but not as powerul and complete.
I study in Canada though and this may not apply in Europe, but Canada is still under the British monarchy officially , so maybe the school system is similar.
As for the wages, I could only say in Canadian dollars, and in this part on the world. Here, if u start in public sector, you'll get around 40-50k a year. In the private sector, you usually start lower, but can go higher with the year of experience. If you continue post graduate studies, well the wages will go up as well.
Feel free to ask any more questions on this I you need more anwsers.
well, I got to revise my sayings... , I've never used pro-engineer myself, I've only heard this comment from many (school, etc). I also know of many major compagnies who use Catia as their main design-test-whatever software. Bombardier is one of them (their are a regional plane builder in Canada ).
So I'm sorry for saying this so quickly..
I have however used Solid Edge (at another school), witch I find less powerful than Catia.
I think its good to learn on a software that you'll use in your job.
Anyway, I used Solid Edge first and the migration to Catia was easy because they both offer similar build methods.