Don, Thanks much for the info. 3ds Max is an Autodesk product that is used in movie and 3D game design. It has complete 3D modeling capabilities as well as rendering and animation functions. It is more of a presentation tool than a CAD tool. It is easier to create organic shapes in Max than other pr...

Mike, Thanks for your take on the software. We will most likely be teaching Illustrator and Photoshop. We have people on staff who can do that (not me). I will look into CorelDraw. I know that we have it some places here at school. We use it with our laser engravers. Not sure if anyone on staff is v...

JuanCAL123, Just looked at the Cintiq Hybrid. Very nice piece of equipment. I could see how that would come in handy for artwork. I will have to see if my boss will approve one of those so that I can make an educated recommendation ;) . I would think that some type of digitizer would be necessary fo...

Thanks Mike, I think you are absolutely right about the definitions of Technical Illustration. Because many of our local employers are manufacturers, B&W line drawings would be a big part of our focus. However, I would like to include training in rendering and animation because I do believe that wil...

Thanks James, Good information. Being a two-year technical college, we would not have time to get into all of the art that you had but I can see that it would be most helpful. I will have to see about partnering with other schools in the area for that type of thing. In addition to a degree program, ...

Another question for you all, What kind of an art background would a technical illustrator need to have? I know that many of you have had art training of some type. I would think that sketching, shading, color theory, etc. would come in handy when creating illustrations that are used for presentatio...

JuanCal123, Thanks for the info. I agree that a rudimentary understanding of one of the solid modeling packages (CATIA, Inventor, SolidWorks, etc.) is very important. We have found that once a person learns how to use one of them, they can usually find their way around the others. I will have to see...

Thanks JuanCal123, Our students get jobs with local manufacturers that are using products like, CATIA, Autodesk Inventor, SolidWorks, Pro-E (Creo), and AutoCAD to do their mechanical design. The TI students that would come out of our program would be working for these companies. All of those softwar...

This discussion is very timely for me. I teach mechanical design at a 2-year technical college and we are in the process of creating a technical illustration degree program. We are working with our local business and industry advisors to establish the need for this skillset but could use some help o...