Day One — must-have walking in the door
- Autodesk Inventor
- Create and constrain sketches; build parts and assemblies
- Generate a 2D drawing from a model, place views, and dimension them
- Read an existing drawing and understand what it is communicating
- Open, save, and navigate a file structure without breaking references
- RISA
- Understand what a structural model represents—nodes, members, supports, and loads
- Apply point and distributed loads and interpret basic output, including:
- Moment
- Shear
- Deflection
- Reactions
- Recognize when a result does not make sense, such as:
- Deflection measured in feet
- A member in tension that should be in compression
- Python
- Run a script from the command line or an IDE
- Read code and follow the logic; change input values and rerun it
- Debug a traceback well enough to identify the source of the issue
- Perform basic data handling, including:
- Lists
- Dictionaries
- Reading a CSV file
- Engineering Fundamentals
- Statics: free-body diagrams, equilibrium, and reactions
- Strength of materials: bending stress, shear, axial loading, and deflection
- Unit conversions and dimensional consistency—a small detail that is easy to
overlook but matters a lot
- General
- Write a clear paragraph explaining what was done and what the result means
- Use Excel formulas, tables, and basic charts
- Know when to ask for help rather than working through something alone for too long
We’ll Train On
- Company drawing standards, including title blocks, layers, line weights,
sheet templates, and naming conventions
- Vault/PDM check-in and check-out workflow
- Product-specific geometry, configurations, and part-numbering logic
- How our installation manuals are structured and the level of detail they require
- RISA-specific workflows, including our load combinations, code-check settings,
and modeling conventions
- Which design code applies to each product and how to interpret gray areas
- The estimation script—what it does, its assumptions, and its limitations
- Report format—what is included, what is omitted, and who reviews it
- Review and approval chain and how revisions are tracked
The bottom line: Fundamentals and tool literacy are what we
need on day one; conventions and product-specific knowledge are things we can
teach. An intern who knows statics cold but has not seen our templates yet
will be up to speed within a week. An intern who is comfortable in Inventor
but shaky on the fundamentals will need much closer review of their work
throughout the internship.
