Effective CADCAM in an educational environment

The educational provision today for the needs of tomorrow´s industry requires the formulation of a cost-effective strategy. The ideal of an all-embracing, flexible and responsive system, put to good educational effect by hundreds of students with a diversity of needs and open to upgrade is one towards which the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Portsmouth Polytechnic has striven. This paper shares the Department´s philosophy in the implementation and use of its CADCAM system and experiences of the students´ CADCAM activities.