Enhancing Visualization Skills in Freshman Engineering Students

I. E. Esparragoza
School of Engineering Design, Technology and Professional Programs
Pennsylvania State University , 25 Yearsley Mill Rd., Media, PA 19063

ABSTRACT - Engineers are required to have a high volume and size that can be sketched for further
level of visualization skills necessary in the design analysis. As shown in Fig. 2, the design ideation
process and in the solution of engineering problems. requires visual analysis and synthesis.
However, many of the freshmen engineering students
have problems in processing and understanding visual
information or in developing mental images. Due to this
fact, the freshman engineering design and graphics
course offered on this campus has been structured to
expose the students to a series of problems, activities
and exercises that assist them in developing and
enhancing their visualization skills. Among these
activities, the use of two tutorials has resulted in a very
Fig. 1 Role of graphics in the solution of
effective tool for the students not only to grasp the
engineering problems
theoretical concepts of technical drawing but also to
enhance their ability of processing and synthesizing
visual information.

I. Introduction
The study of engineering requires from the students
the ability to process visual information and the ability
to create mental images of existing objects or objects to
be developed. Both abilities are necessaries in
engineering. The use of graphics to represent quantities
and solve problems, which is a common practice in
engineering, implies the ability to model graphically
and/or understand the graphical representation of the
problem. Classical examples are the use of vectors to Fig. 2 Fundamental role of visual thinking in the
design ideation
represent quantities and the use of free body diagrams in
the analysis and solution of engineering problems as
Creativity and innovation in design requires a high
shown in Fig. 1. In the design process, the ideation
level of imagination and it is evident that imagination is
implies the ability to create mental images of objects or
close related to the mental process of generating and
mechanism resulting in a mental picture with form,

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processing ideas and images. Great designers and
inventors have used the combination of drawings and
imagination to develop magnificent ideas. Many of
these ideas have evolved thanks to designers with
amazing visual reasoning skills. All human beings have
the ability of process visual information the same as all
human beings have the ability to walk. There are some
people who can run faster than others the same as there
are some people who have the ability of processing
visual information better than others. If practice can
allow some people to run faster than others, similarly,
practice can allow some people to process visual
information better than others. The difference here is
that one requires physical training and the other one
requires mental training. The ideal situation for
engineers is not only to process the visual information
fast but to enhance visualization skills to be used in the
design process and in the solution of engineering
problems. Enhance visualization skills means to
improve the ability to process and interpret visual
information and to generate visual ideas that can be
transformed into concrete drawings and objects.
Engineers, designers and scientists should have visual
abilities above average people to be creative and
resourceful professional.
However, many of the freshman engineering
students have not had the opportunity to develop the
visualization skills necessary in engineering. They have
problems in the representation of a three dimensional
space in a two dimensional plane or visualizing a two
dimensional drawing as a three dimensional solid
object. This problem has been addressed in many
engineering graphics textbooks but it probably does not
have the necessary attention in the classroom. It is
important to emphasize that poor visualization skills in
engineering represent problems for the engineering
student in many courses and problems for the engineer
in his or her future performance. Due to this fact, the
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freshman engineering design and graphics course
offered on this campus has been structured to expose the
students to a series of problems, activities and exercises
that assist them in developing and enhancing their
visualization skills. The use of two tutorials: Visual
Reasoning Tutor and Orthographic Projection Tutor,
developed by Professor Yong Se Kim at Sungkyunkwan
University, Korea, has resulted in a very effective tool
for the students not only to grasp the theoretical
concepts of multiview drawings, and axonometric
drawings but also to enhance their ability of processing
and synthesizing visual information. These tutorials
provide the students the opportunity to solve graphics
problems interactively using solid modeling and
computer animations allowing the students to visualize
in a very effective way the relationship between the
solid object and its projection in the two dimensional
plane.
II. Engineering Graphics and Visualization
Giesecke et al (2004) define visualization as the
ability to study the views of an object; Bertoline and
Wiebe (2003) describe visualization as the ability to
process and interpret 3-D objects and sketch them in a
paper. They also recognized the importance of
visualization in the design process. It is clear that most
of the authors in engineering graphics associate
visualization to the ability of processing and interpreting
the visual information of a 3-D object and the study of
its projected views. Based on these definitions and
recognizing the necessity of enhancing visualization
skills in the engineering students, the freshman
engineering design and graphics class is the perfect
course to start exposing the students to the visual
thinking process. Visualization is a mental process that
requires practice rather than theoretical definitions.
Therefore, the training to help the students to develop
and enhance their visualizations skills can be done by
means of problems and exercises in the orthographic
projection and axonometric drawings topics. These
basic topics provide the elements to visualize a 3-D
object, to synthesize or have a mental image of the
object and draw the image in terms of views or
isometric drawings.
In the freshman engineering design and graphics
course taught in Penn State Delaware County campus,
students are required to sketch multiview drawings and
isometric drawings using instruments and AutoCAD.
They are also exposed to two design projects during the
semester and the first one requires the multiview
drawing of the structure and the second one requires
multiview drawing and solid model drawing. Besides
that, some simple exercises and design problems are
solved by the students in the classroom during the
semester. The primary goal of the class and of each
exercise is to provide the necessary practical training for
the student to develop and enhance visual reasoning that
they can apply later in other courses and the career.
However, it was found that even though the
exercises across the semester, many students still had
problems visualizing 3-D objects from the principal
views or sketching the views from the volumetric object
at the end of the semester. One of the reasons for this is
that most of the problems, as presented in the textbooks,
are in the 2-D plane format of the book. It means those
students having problems at the end of the semester
need a level of visualization skills which has not been
reached at this stage and using the traditional format in
the classroom. Therefore, it was necessary to introduce
more visual aids and exercises to assist the students to
guarantee at the end of the semester a reasonable level
of visualization skills for all the engineering students.
The use of visual aids in the learning process has
been recognized by many educators and researchers as
can be seen in Juarez-Espinosa et al. (2000), Lowrie
(2002), Les and Les (2003) among others. The use of
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physical models is always a good option since they
allow the students to use the five senses with the model.
However, time and cost building the object make those
models no efficient. With the new technology and the
use of computers and multimedia programs, in the
freshman engineering graphics course, the use of
physical models to show objects has been replaced by
the use of multimedia tutorials and complemented by
the use of solid modeling using AutoCAD and
SolidWorks, where complex objects can be analyzed
and created efficiently.
III. Multimedia Tutorials
The use of computers and multimedia systems has
become very popular. Multimedia system is considered
a computer-based communication system as defined by
Burleson, et al. (2001) that includes the use of text,
audio, video, graphics and computer animations. The
use of multimedia software is becoming very important
in the learning process. Therefore, the integration of
classroom lectures and multimedia tutorials provides
not only the theoretical foundations but also the visual
component for the engineering problems that help the
student to grasp the concepts and enhance their
visualization skills.
Poli et al (2003) have shown that multimedia
tutorials are an effective learning tool. They have all the
necessary features for a pleasant and effective learning
experience. In a multimedia tutorial text, audio, visual
effects, videos, pictures, and animations might be
integrated in a single program allowing the tutorial to
present the topics and support them in a very
resourceful form. This makes the multimedia to differ
from the traditional textbooks. Books present the
concepts with inanimate text and figures while the
computer-related tutorials are dynamic pages containing
audio, video and graphics animations. In technical
drawing the computer graphics animations are a
powerful instrument to exercise the visual thinking
without necessity of using physical models. Besides,
multimedia tutorials can provide immediate feedback to
the user.
Due to the necessity of providing more and better
exercises to the student and taking full advantage of the
new technology, two multimedia tutorials were
introduced in the freshman engineering design and
graphics course to complement the traditional lecturing
and exercises in the classroom: the Visual Reasoning
Tutor (VRT) and the Orthographic Projection Tutor
(OPT). Both tutorials were developed by Yong Se Kim
at Sungkyunkwan University, Korea.
Visual Reasoning Tutorial (VRT). This tutorial
consists of fourteen missing view problems. Here,
students have to construct a solid model from the two
orthographic projection views given by means of
sweeping operations which are the reverse procedure of
orthographic projection. Only two principal views are
given; therefore, more than one solution is possible in
some of the problems. Students are instructed to
determine if more than one solution is feasible and to
find all possible solution. This exercise will help them
to practice the visual reasoning. These missing view
problems are designed for the student to complete the
visual thinking process depicted in Fig. 2: visual
analysis by seeing the given views, visual synthesis by
imagining the object, and visual model by drawing the
solid model. This tutorial provides assistant to the
students during the solution of the problem; therefore,
they can check their progress at any stage and determine
if the sweeping operation performed (inverse
projection) has produced a feasible solid face.
Figure 3 shows one of the problems available in the
VRT tutorial. 3(a) shows the statement of the problem.
A solid model is to be constructed using the given top
and front orthographic views. To construct the solid
model, faces are to be defined and then swept to the
right position in the solid model. The different
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sweeping operations available in the program are
listed under the action button in the pull-down menu
at the top of the screen. The sweeping operations
command can also be invoked by clicking the right
button of the mouse. The first step consists of selecting
the sweep face option from the menu. Then, the edges
forming the face are selected by clicking them with the
mouse. Once a close contour of a feasible face is
completed the face is entirely defined by clicking the
center button of the mouse. The sweeping operation can
be performed by dragging the face with the mouse until
the face is aligned with an edge in the corresponding
projection plane. Once the operation is completed the
face of the solid is in place as revealed in Fig. 3(b) that
shows a partially completed solid model. The operation
is repeated for all the faces that can be swept. Edges and
vertices can also be swept to complete the inclined and
oblique planes: edges are swept to complete inclined
surface, like the one to be completed in Fig. 3(b) where
first the face is swept and then and edge is swept to
complete the inclined face; vertices are swept to
complete oblique planes. Those faces that cannot be
completed by sweeping operations can be finished by
using the construct command in the action button
after all the sweeping faces are in place. In this case, the
edges for the face to be constructed are selected after
the construct command has been invoked. Users can
have immediate feedback after each sweeping or
construction operation by activating the teacher
window. If the operation performed generates a feasible
face, this face will appear green in the teacher window;
if the operation performed generates a partially correct
face, this face will appear yellow in the teacher window;
a wrong face will appear red in the teacher window.
Orthographic Projection Tutor (OPT). This
tutorial consists of 32 sets of problems each of them
with more than one exercise involving orthographic
projections concepts. The software is designed for the
students to start solving problems at the highest level. If
the students have difficulties solving the problems at
this level the software leads the student to a lower level
where he or she can solve simpler problems and review
the concepts needed for the higher level. The tutorial
uses a learning network where the concepts and
problems are related and linked according to the
definitions and concepts in orthographic projection;
therefore, students having problem at any level are sent
through the learning network to review the problems
and concepts needed for the problems at higher levels.
Even though the tutorial was designed to start solving
problems at the highest level, the tutorial has been
introduced in the freshman engineering design and
graphics course not only for the student to solve the
problems but also for the instructor to present the
concepts for multiview drawings. Therefore, instead of
Fig. 3 Missing view problem partially solved using the VRT tutorial
Figure 4 shows a typical problem in the OPT.
The example shown belongs to the highest level
(level 0) and is identified as Problem 1-AF. It is
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starting in the highest level, students are instructed to
start from the lowest level and move up once they have
solved all the problems in each level. This practice
allows the student to reinforce the concepts and being
better prepare for the higher level problems. Students
are instructed to move across the learning network so
they can choose the level and problems they want to
work in at any stage. This permits the students to
advance at their pace. In any case, the tutorial keeps the
ability to evaluate the performance of the students and
send them back to a lower level if they do not solve a
problem properly. The greatest feature of this tutorial is
the relation between the concepts, problems and
graphics animations. Each level contains a good set of
problems which are always complemented with a three
dimensional animation.
observed that on the left side, the solid model is
shown and this can be moved, rotated, panned,
zoomed in and out similar to the actions that can be
performed in any CAD software. On the right side the
statement of the problem is given with the space to
provide the answer. On this example four faces are
highlighted, one at a time, and the user should
identify the face number in the multiview drawing
shown. The user can check the response immediately
Fig. 4 Orthographic projection problem using OPT tutorial
IV. Conclusion
The use of VRT and OPT tutorials has replaced
the used of physical models in engineering graphics.
Both tutorials have been used effectively to teach the
orthographic projection topic and the glass box
concept which is one of the most critical issues in
technical drawing. Besides that, both tutorials provide
a good number of exercises for the student to practice
and enhance their visualization skills. It is through
practice that students can improve the ability to think
in three dimensions and draw in a two dimensional
plane. This mental exercise will enhance the
visualization skills necessary in engineering.
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by clicking the check button. This action also causes
the solution movie window appears and from here
the animation movie showing the projection of the
highlighted face can be played. It can be seen that the
animation has four options; therefore, the user decides
which projection he or she is interested in reviewing.
Most of the students have learned how to use the
tutorials very quick and only few of them require
additional assistance from the instructor for an
effective use of the instructional tutorials. Even
though some students have had previous classes of
technical drawing in high school and the others have
no previous experience, the entire class have adapted
to the programs easily since the tutorials include
problems ranging from very basic ones to more
complex and challenging problems. Therefore, the
variety and level of problems are adequate for any
stage of technical graphics knowledge
Students have shown that they enjoy the
interaction with the tutorials and learn visualizations
skills while they are challenged to solve the problems.
The immediate feedback makes the whole practice a
learning experience rather than an evaluation process.
The tutorials have solely been used for the students to
study, practice and learn but not as a grading tool.
This is an effective way of removing the grade related
pressure so students have the benefits of learning
while playing.
The use of traditional lectures and hand drawing
exercises is still a fundamental part of the course. The
tutorials have come to reinforce the concept taught
using the traditional methods. The use of some simple
physical models and exercises does not necessary
have to disappear from the classroom. The idea is to
integrate all the tools available0020to ensure students
have the opportunity to exercise the visual thinking
process.
Students have effectively applied the concepts
learned using the tutorials in developing three
dimensional solid models using AutoCAD and
SolidWorks. It has been observed that the use of
planes in the three dimensional space as well as the
use of two dimensional drawing in a plane and the
subsequent extruding operation to generate solid
models are better understood by the students as a
result of the tutorials. The use of these solid modeler
programs is an important tool in the design ideation
process where the visualization plays a fundamental
role as depicted in Fig. 1.
V. Acknowledgement
Thanks to Professor Yong Se Kim from
Sungkyunkwan University in Korea who developed
the VRT and OPT programs for allowing the author
to be part of the evaluation process of these two
tutorials and for the training in the use of them.
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