Alfonso, it depends on. Engineers are still required to deal with 3D objects and GD&T. So, many colleges teach engineers to create 3D, extract 2D sketches from them to create GD&T drawings to use in manufacturing.

3-D visualization is best taught through

• 3-D geometry,
• graphic design,
• mechanical design.

Pencil sketching needs to be introduced as a valuable prerequisite, foundational tool.

Engineering educators tend to emphasise procedural  and quantitative skills as these are easier to teach. . Visual and qualitative thinking tend to be deemphasised.

Dear Sir -------Not only in engineering but also in medical education and practice --- such as CYBER ANATOMY --- here the whole of Human Anatomy is learned and dissection is practiced on a screen (https://www.cyber-anatomy.com/). Thanks

Alfonso, I think we may be seeing your question from different perspectives. Visual thinking is required in all aspect of engineering design. If an engineer wants to design an object even on a sketch sheet, he/she would first have to develop a mind map/pattern which is then translated onto a sheet. Theoretically, I consider visual thinking, mind mapping and free-hand sketching as the same - schemata, which combines pieces of information and ideas in a pattern that makes meaning to the individual. While some authors may attempt to interpret this cognitive approach in different ways, theoretically, I consider them same. Additionally, while an individual may attempt to develop new ways of designing models of engineering tools/instruments, his/her experiences are very important in perfecting the design. I will relate this process to transformative theory which also allows the individual to develop his/her frame of reference by identifying the following; the purpose of the object he is designing, what practical experiences are necessary in the design of the tool, how he/she intends to use the object to solve problems, what knowledge and skills are required to complete that design and whether the design is an upgrade/modification of an existing one. Notwithstanding all these factors, the purpose of software and modelling tools in design systems is not to throw away creativity but to enhance and perfect the system through a standardised approach.   

Visual thinking, is not directly the ability requiring students; with him must be interconnected abstraction, the opening of mind and perception, which is linked with communication, in this case a model that represents the system, which can be by any tool or the old graphic design; Therefore, your creativity is reflected in the elements of the model that are not visible to others, or at least, not easily perceived.

Visual thinking, is not directly the ability requiring students; with him must be interconnected abstraction, the opening of mind and perception, which is linked with communication, in this case a model that represents the system, which can be by any tool or the old graphic design; Therefore, your creativity is reflected in the elements of the model that are not visible to others, or at least, not easily perceived.

Thanks, Mr. Torres. I mean that a way to mentally represent as well as to express concepts and ideas are made visually in a great amount. So creativity is supported by visual thinking as it is a way to reason and think concepts and ideas. What do you think? It therefore should not be a required skill for engineers?

In introduction to Industrial Arts we first had to learn to draw objects, both 3-D and exploded diagrams, before we could make them. This also included drawing Escher-like objects as a way to teach visualization of an abstract. If you cannot visualize beforehand what you want to create, then how are you to proceed?

I have taught problem solving, and tell the students that expressing a problem visually on paper is often a very helpful step.  Some research showed that for groups who were given the same problem, the ones who were told to draw it first came to an answer much more quickly than those who were not.  (Can't give the reference now.)

One of the difficulties is that students no longer write or draw.  The physical act of carrying this out helps memory.  In addition if the teacher draws something on the blackboard and the students copy it, they see how to construct it and are less likely to make mistakes by putting lines in the wrong places.  I find students get standard engineering symbols wrong because they copy without understanding.  This is also relevant to languages such as Chinese and Japanese, where the order of constructing the word is important.

I would say the educators have in general forgotten this.

Visual thinking includes, as an activity, modelling, simulation, and subsequent analysis. In more general terms: visual representation, relationship tracing, and subsequent discussion. But perhaps more, or better, 'visualisations that aid understanding and solution finding would be welcome.

How can we visualise a 27 dimensional object when we see in three dimensions: this statement suggests a limitation or challenge to the use, or need, for visualisation in some engineering topics. (Allying with Maizam Alias' comment. )

Noting the challenges of visual thinking as you described, we have deliberately returned some basic instruction on sketching and visualization in our first engineering course (statics and mechanics and materials in our program). We include lessons on sketching techniques (including orthographic projection and isometric views) and the role of drawings and models to communicate design, and we are integrating a CAD program throughout the course. The purpose of teaching sketching fundamentals is not to train our students to be draftsmen but to improve their abilities to represent 3D objects on 2D paper. We also provide them with drawings and require them to create 3D parts in CAD. 

We introduce these fundamentals in our first course for a few reasons:

We are in the midst of doing this for the first time and the feedback so far has been very encouraging - our students seem to genuinely enjoy the creativity that these activities include. We are hopeful that we will see improvements in our students visualization skills as they progress through our program. I'll try to return to this thread in the future to share the effectiveness and what we are learning in this process.

My experience teaching students structural analysis and design problems indicate that students are good at understanding of procedures but not of  concepts. One of the key concepts in structural design or analysis is the understanding of structural behavior under loads. I taught my students qualitative analysis technique to solve structural analysis problems where students need to sketch the expected changes in shapes of structural elements under load first before progressing to doing quantitative analysis of  these elements. Students find that solving problems qualitatively is much harder than quantitatively. This indicates that students can understand and apply procedures  but they don have concept understandings. Concept understanding requires students to be able to relate the specific concept of interest to other concepts. In this particular case, the understanding of the concept of structural behavior. They could not feel how structure behave under load which requires the ability to mentally visualize changes. 

Further teaching on how to visualize with the aid of sketchings seemed to help many students.

Is clear that all novelty, as process or strategy in the classroom, leads to them students is motivate and understand what should make, until many times capture them concepts, but in engineering, by have a perception of apply theories, them procedures them lead to the brain of way easy, them concepts in lower grade, since have in their mind it asks constant : This how it applies and where?

Not there is doubt that many concepts them take, perhaps of memory, but to the perform an interrelation, are present enough difficulties, much more if this is makes a time later, a week, a month, a semester.

In the design of software, as in the modeling of systems complex, despite determine is that the concepts are clear, them models or designs are deficient, not include all the variables and relations; However, the guide of teaching helps partly to gradually is complete, being that the model depends on of the vision that has the person, and to the help the teaching, is takes the model to what thinks the teaching and not to what perceives the student.

For the development of creativity, so that have out to the road where I walk, is necessary to motivate them, induce them to be observers, who are curious, but especially, to look beyond what they at first sight see, something quite difficult when you have a linear mind, following the reduction to the parties.