The Mechanical/Manufacturing CAD Certificate Program emphasizes the basic skills needed to begin a career in industry. Designed for high school graduates or those entering industry for the first time, the program covers four important areas. These areas include the study of materials and how they behave; basic manufacturing processes and quality used to create everyday products; computer-aided design concepts; and the use of modern computer software including word processing, spreadsheets, and databases.

Candidates cannot already hold a degree in Industrial Engineering Technology or Mechanical Engineering Technology. Candidates must also meet the requirements of a first-time college student or transfer student (see Admissions  section). Candidates must take at least 16 of the 19 hours at Southwest. Each student should assure that he or she has met the prerequisites before attempting to register for a course.

Students who complete this certificate program will be qualified to enter the Cooperative Education (Co-op) Program and entry-level positions in industry. The purpose of the Co-op Program is to train students in the industrial world combining classroom with industrial experience. Many of these programs provide tuition for those who wish to continue their education. Certificate holders can work as technicians in the quality assurance, engineering graphics, design, production, maintenance, warehousing, and distribution areas. These courses will transfer to other programs such as the Mechanical Engineering Technology Associate Degree Program in either the Mechanical Design or Manufacturing Concentration.

Program Learning Outcomes

Upon successful program completion, the student will be able to:

1. demonstrate an ability to apply basic sketching techniques to communicate technical information
2. apply orthographic projection principles to generate basic working drawings using a CAD system
3. safely operate common metalworking machine tools                
4. explain cutting speeds and calculate spindle speeds and feed rates
5. demonstrate an ability to interpret working drawings containing orthographic, section and, auxiliary views      
6. demonstrate the ability to interpret dimensioned drawings
7. manually write, edit, debug, and use N/C programs to produce a part                 
8. utilize canned cycles, loops, and subroutines
9. list and define nine material properties
10. name and compare the three primary lattice structures of ferrous materials