Industry Placement; Day One

26th March 2012

Start Time; 8am

As my first day at SetSquare Staging; the first thing I needed was a health and safety induction; ie being shown around the workshops and  the fire exits. I met a lot of the team, and I saw the massive spaces SetSquare has. I was mostly based up in the office with the Draughstman, with him going through his drawings and showing me a few tricks and tips that I did not know!

Trim - right click; no need to select trim lines.

Boundary - faster way of joining lines together to make polylines (click inside the lines you want to group)

Ctrl + Alt+ V - Paste as a block (can edit blocks to repeat the same command)

Quick Select; highlight area or whole drawing; will select colour/layer/linetype

TV Holes are holes that do not affect the build of an object but make it lighter - always with a filleted edge to incerease strength (stronger than a right angle).

You can also import a SketchUp model into AutoCAD to give you a starting point, but it isnt a proper drawing to scale.

I was also introduced to the CNC cutter and also the programmer; it uses MasterCam Files, NC files and also CAD files. You also have upcut blades, downcut blades and dualcut blades for the CNC machine; very expensive routers. The general rule is; MDF cut to the left of the line (clockwise) and ply to the right (anticlockwise).

Materials I was introduced to for the project that is currently being built;

Foamex (like foamboard but denser - used to print graphics)

Dibond - Aluminium coated plastic used for finishing (can be cut into to be bent, no need to mitre)

LED Lightrope - gives a soft glow, flexible. Looks rather lovely.

I had to organise some costings for Alex with a flooring company, counting carpet tiles and phoning through to a company to get a pro-forma invoice emailed to Alex.

Finish Time: 5.15pm