SolidWorks Drafting and Design

Catalog Description

The SolidWorks Drafting and Design Program provides students with a solid foundation for an entry level position using the most current SolidWorks drafting technology available. This program is designed for students who are planning a career in drafting, as well as those who are already working in the industry and want to improve skills in 3D drafting and design. This will provide the knowledge and skillset to advance the student’s professional goals.

Program Requirements and Prerequisites:

DT103 – SolidWorks I (No prerequisite)

DT104 – SolidWorks II (Prerequisite (SolidWorks I)

DT117 – Print Reading and Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing (GD&T) (No prerequisite)

Enrollment Limitations

None Known

Student Learning Outcomes:

Demonstrate advanced modeling techniques to create complex mechanical parts and assemblies incorporating organic shapes

Create advanced assemblies to construct joint connections between components constituting a basic mechanism

Apply industry standard geometric dimensioning and tolerancing practices to mechanical drawings for documentation and manufacturing

25 Certificates Annually

Program Goal:

The goal of this program is for local workforce preparation. This certificate will prepare a student for an entry level drafting position while completing a more advanced, robust AS Degree and/or Certificate of Achievement in Drafting if desired. The three courses in this certificate are inclusive in two AS Degree and Certificate of Achievements currently offered at Palomar College: Mechanical Engineering Drafting and Design Technology (27 units) and Drafting and Design CADD/CAM Technology (24 units). This stackable certificate is designed to quickly prepare a student for an entry level position in Drafting (part time or full time) while completing the above-mentioned awards. Additionally, this certificate is designed to take a student who may be working out in the field at their present company, and move them into a higher wage-earning job at their current company in the CAD Department.

Program Objectives:

This certificate as well as the required courses in the certificate provide an engaging teaching and learning environment for students of diverse origins, experiences, needs, abilities, and goals. The Drafting Technology Department supports and encourages students who are pursuing transfer-readiness, basic skills, career and technical training, and lifelong education.

The Drafting Technology Department is committed to helping our students achieve the learning outcomes necessary to contribute as individuals and global citizens living responsibly, effectively, and creatively in an interdependent and ever-changing world. 

The courses in this certificate are directly aligned with the course and program outcomes to promote students’ success in subsequent educational, employment, and career goals.

The courses offered in the Drafting Technology Department align directly with the skills required by local industry engaged in Design and Manufacturing, Engineering, and related fields of employment. A few skills obtained in this course are:

Employ advanced modeling tools and techniques to define organic shapes not easily achieved with basic primitives.

Build smarter models using more complex relations and parameters.

Build simplified representations of large assemblies.

Perform feasibility/optimization studies and create a simple finite element analysis to determine the effects of forces on a part.

Develop soft skills such as leadership, team work, communication, problem solving, work ethic, flexibility, adaptability and interpersonal skills throughout the course.

This modification is a change of title for the program only. 

Program Requirements Narrative

This is a 3 course 9-unit Certificate attainable in two semesters.

Program Requirements

Program Requirements includes course requirements and sequencing that reflect program goals.