Saw a huge shift in drafting tech at the state fair exhibit hall

I was at the state fair in Springfield last week and they had a whole building for trade schools and tech. The drafting section was packed with these huge touch screen tables for 3D modeling. One instructor told me they've had over 500 students try them in just three days. It's wild to see people building full assemblies with their fingers instead of a mouse and keyboard. Makes me wonder if this is the future for learning the basics. Has anyone worked on gear like that, and does it actually help with understanding spatial relationships?

3 comments

3 Comments

ruby_henderson3612d ago

Watched a kid at my local library try to build a simple gear system on one of those tables. He kept trying to spin the parts with his whole hand instead of using the rotate tool. Does the touch interface actually teach you how parts move together, or does it just let you push shapes around like fancy digital clay?

lewis.finley12d ago

Sounds like a gimmick to me.

hill.margaret12d ago

Oh please, everything's a gimmick until it works. You'll probably be using it in a month and pretending you liked it all along.