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.