Got some slowly catch-up for you guys for the uncompleted updates in project engineering department, there were so many cool stuff but I just couldn’t get a chance to update! So yah, if you are still curious about my story in PE department, keep scrolling down 🙂
If the first week in PE was to get familiar with the AutoCAD software, then the second week was definitely the week that I get to master AutoCAD and understand all the common technical design of the general system. Signals are flowing from left to right which the devices on the schematics are being placed from source to output, at the same time every detail on the schematics including the ports, cable types and connectors all need to be marked down clearly. Therefore, after getting used to all the functions and templates for schematics, there is another thing that has to be created in PE department, which is elevation. Elevation is a piece of document that draw out how the AV equipment would be mounted and sit in the room, any network sockets and power supplies will also be marked out on the drawing which also helps with considering the schematic design to match up with the equipment that needs to be put in the area.
The first brand-new project I got was a simple VC conference device placed in the room with a single display mounted from the ceiling pole. Since it is a very simple layout so it literally took me like 20 minutes or even less to complete the schematic, and the challenging bit was the elevation. In elevation, every physical bit that is being placed at the display area needs to be drawn out. As I mentioned earlier, it is a ceiling pole mounted display, there are four different components that are made to complete the whole ceiling mounted pole. In that case, I will have to get all four drawings of each individual component and combine them by myself in AutoCAD. Most of the manufacturer will provide a CAD drawing file on their website which shows every physical detail and dimension of that device, what I need to do is to convert them into a realistic length and group up the connected components. In elevation, there isn’t just the front view that needs to be drawn out, side view is also essential and there is a function in AutoCAD that allows you to change the whole grouped object into either front, side, up and bottom view by selecting them. I will say the difficult part of creating the grouped object is to combine them on CAD, although it has been drawn in detail, by looking at the screw heads on the drawing, it is still pretty hard to match them properly. However, by resizing and align the components for a few times, I still managed to get a pretty neat object that present how the display will be mounted by building the ceiling pole. While drawing out the elevation, the mounting position will also need to follow the standard viewing height, which is generally 1200mm from the floor that provide a decent viewing experience either in a standing or seating position.
PE department covers a wide range whether in technical aspect or physical layout, and during the process of creating either schematics and elevation I can go through the whole system at the same time. I have learnt a lot when I was in PE since I am actually trying to complete a project even if it is just a small one instead of just sit beside and shadowing. The next project that I got a chance to take on was the large enterprise project that has been carried on for months. What I have to do is to create the schematics for all eight different types of room from sketch. Thanks to this particular enterprise client who always use the same layout and equipment among the similar room types, I have got some previous schematics to refer to my new drawing. I will tell you guys more about the details for this big project next time, see you there!
Mandy xx
