Abstract
Machine element design is a very important course in the undergraduate program of mechanical engineering in that it presents traditional design concepts. While computer aided design(CAD) receives more attention, students tend to ignore the machine element design or traditional design concepts. However, design methodologies related to machine elements are utilized quite often in practical fields. Also, design methodologies provide good insight for the decision making process of modern design. Generally, CAD is used for simple drafting without the real design process in the undergraduate program. Design software has been developed for various machine elements. Through menu display, a user can select or furnish the design input such as design objects, dimensions, environmental forces and usages, and safety factors. Then the software carries out the design processes which are the same as those of textbooks. The result of the design is filtered to have the values in the standards. The designed machine element is drawn via commercial CAD software. The software has been developed with C language on a personal computer. The developed software is being utilized successfully in a design course, and the experiences are discussed in this paper. The software can be used in industries which require the repeated process of the machine element design.
