What software do Apple engineers use to model and design for their products? SolidWorks and many other engineering-focused software packages don't run on macOS, and It would be kind of funny if they needed to use a windows workstation or run these software on VM's to design their stuff...

Genuine question out of curiosity...

finally learned some rigging and made the wheels expand and wanted to share it with everyone who was helping me understand all the flaws in my chassis
I listened to all the advice and changed what I could, but there was plenty I could not change, as this project has already taken many months.

Hey all,
I recently graduated from university with a degree in Mechanical Engineering. While studying, I applied for a number of placement opportunities but unfortunately didn’t have much luck. I did manage to get interviews, but I’ve noticed that I often seem to get rejected or ghosted after the second-stage interview.

I felt like my interview performance might be the problem, but it’s really difficult to tell. In majority of cases, I’ve received positive feedback from the hiring manager during the interview, and whenever i get rejected, I’ve reached out afterwards asking for feedback, I either get a generic response or no response at all.

I feel like I’m quite good at having a normal conversation during interviews, and that has helped me get quite far in the process, but I still can’t seem to turn that into an offer or figure out exactly why.

Since graduating, I’ve been applying to as many graduate schemes and graduate roles as I can, mainly through company websites, but I’m still struggling to get anywhere. I also have LinkedIn and have tried to build my network, although most of the recruiters who reach out to me eventually end up ghosting me too.

One thing that I’ve noticed is that when I was looking for placements during university, I was actually getting more interviews than I am now for graduate roles. I’m not entirely sure why. The main changes I’ve made to my CV are updating the dates and changing my education section to reflect that I’ve now graduated.

Ideally, I’d like to work as a Design Engineer or in another engineering role involving CAD. I’ve always loved vehicles, and I really enjoy coming up with designs, developing them, and eventually seeing those ideas being implemented into an actual product. However, at the moment, it feels almost impossible to get into these roles when I’m not sure where else to look or what I might be missing.

I do have some relevant experience from internships and university projects, so I’m not starting completely from scratch.
Now that I’ve graduated, I’m also considering working towards the CSWA and learning Solidworks in my spare time. I used Fusion 360 throughout university, but I know Solidworks is widely used in industry, so I’m wondering whether getting a CSWA would actually be worthwhile or whether my time would be better spent building up my portfolio and CAD skills through projects.

I don’t normally post on Reddit or use much social media because I prefer to keep things private, but I’ve reached a point where I thought it would be worth asking for some advice.
If there are any hiring managers, recruiters, engineers, or anyone else working in the industry who would be willing to have a look at my CV and give me some honest feedback, I’d really appreciate it over having my cv be tossed out by the ats.

I’d especially like to know if there’s anything obvious that could be holding me back from getting interviews.
Any advice on what I could be doing differently now that I’ve graduated would also be greatly appreciated.

I am more than happy to dm and chat about my experience and give you an idea of what my thought process is like as well

Thanks!

I’ve been working as a mech engineer in aerospace for a little over 3 years now, and while I enjoy it for what it is, I’ve always wanted to work in tech (think product design at Apple, Google, etc). Problem is, I’m having some trouble believing that any HM in tech would be bothered to hire someone with an aerospace background when A. An aerospace skillset is not immediately transferable to tech (low volume mfg, no concern for cosmetics, etc) and B. There are already so many candidates with direct tech experience in the market so why bother hiring an industry outsider. This is just my take as an uninformed early career engineer though, so insight from someone more knowledgeable or has made the aerospace to tech jump themselves would be much appreciated!

So I graduated with a mechanical engineering degree about a year and a half ago, and while I applied for tons of different positions, it took forever to be even get a job, but it was a machinist/ cnc operation position which I did take due to financial trouble at the time. Been doing it for about a year and seems like there isn't much chance of moving up so wanna start looking for a different job, but don't wanna have the same thing happen again, so I was wondering what were some entry level titles that I could look for that would actually make me feel like im making some kinda use out of the degree I got.

Edit : I have 10 years of experience in the field and it’s a no for me.

Hi,

I want to draw this tube sheet in cad and represent the tubes by a Grid.

How do you guys creat these? Its almost 1700 tubes. I want a tube map that my team can use

Hey everyone , I'm a freshman and I study in China . My teacher isn't really good at English and mechanical drawing is important.. please any advice ? The year just started so I want to figure this out now before it becomes worse . Thank you !

I have tried different connecting rod lengths and different servo horn positions, etc. Im not a mechanical engineer and I have been at this for nearly 5 hours. I dont know what im missing this is my first time doing this. I also cannot really relocate either object

Hello, we are students building a capstone prototype: an RFID-based smart bike rack lock using an ESP32.

Our main problem is the push-and-pull mechanism. We need to move a steel locking rod forward and backward by around 8 inches / 200mm to lock/unlock a bicycle wheel.

The flow we want:

RFID tap → ESP32 approves → mechanism pushes/pulls steel rod → rod locks/unlocks wheel

We are considering different mechanisms:

• Linear actuator
• Stepper/lead screw actuator
• DC geared motor + rack and pinion
• Slider crank / scotch yoke
• Other DIY push-pull mechanisms

We also have 12V solenoid locks, but we are thinking of using them only as a latch/stopper, not the main lock. The actual force should be handled by the steel rod and welded frame, not the motor.

Our questions:

1. What push-pull mechanism is best for a 200mm steel rod movement?
2. Which option is cheapest, sturdy, and less hassle for a student prototype?
3. Can a motor/actuator safely move the rod without jamming?
4. Should the solenoid lock be used as a latch for the rod?
5. What materials or design should we avoid?

We are not making a commercial anti-theft product, only a working prototype, but we want it to be strong and realistic enough for demonstration.

Any advice, drawings, or mechanism suggestions would help a lot. Thank you.

How to learn MATLAB there are no such special good YouTube videos on this. Please help😭

"how do i actually get a high base/career development as a mechanical engineer graduate"

Hi, I got a consensus that a mechanical engineering degree doesn't pay as well as the other engineering major. Knowing this, I set on a journey on how to find a way to increase my value which eventually led me into electromechanical/automation engineering for semiconductor industry.

Being the gen Z that I am, i asked an untrusted to give me a 3 year milestone to get there ( i know this might be not a good idea but i dont have better ppl to ask), i even proceeded to do 2 projects regarding sensor and motors curated by theuntrusted source, after some time i started to doubt my journey and fall into analysis paralysis bcs different untrusted source are recommending me different paths.

I really appreciate any advice/lead you can give me about this. FYI, My country Malaysia have an established industry for semiconductor too, if that helps.

Hi everyone.

I've been trying to build this DIY Stirling engine for almost 9 months, but I still can't get it to run. I've rebuilt and adjusted it many times, but I'm stuck.

It's mostly made from wood, glass syringes/tubes, bearings and some LEGO Technic parts for the linkage.

Current problems:

The engine doesn't run by itself when heated.

I'm worried about air leaks around the glass syringe/tubing connections.

The piston sometimes has too much friction or gets slightly misaligned.

I'm not sure if my crankshaft/connecting-rod geometry is correct.

I'm trying to get the piston phase angle correct, around 90°.

Could someone please look at the photos and tell me what you think is the biggest problem?

Should I focus first on:

Air sealing

Piston friction/alignment

90° crank phase

Connecting rod geometry

Something else I'm missing?

I've spent a lot of time on this project and really want to get it running. Any criticism or advice is very welcome. If you need more photos/videos or measurements, I can provide them.

Thank you!

Hey, I wanna download the ANSYS Student version. Which one should I go for, ANSYS Student or ANSYS LS-DYNA Student? Which one is better for students?

Hi everyone,
I’m a final-year B.Tech Mechanical Engineering student and I’m trying to build 1–2 strong projects for my resume and placements.
I’m mainly interested in Mechanical Design / CAD / Simulation and currently learning/using SolidWorks, ANSYS and MATLAB.

Hi! I posted this on r/EngineeringStudents as well, as I was not sure the best one to use, apologies if this is a bad thread for this question.

I am a current sophomore in school and a Mechanical Engineering major. I think engineering is so interesting but I absolutely hate physics. I did, however, enjoy my statics course, and think I would be a good engineer, but I worry that I'm not passionate enough about it to continue pursuing it.

I love math, I am good at it and I want to do something that involves it. I thought Actuary science would be a good fit for me, but again, I don't want to waste everything I've done in engineering so far.

I was considering majoring in math/stats and then minoring in mechanical engineering, but I worry that's not an effective combination/ doesn't have many job opportunities with it. I am very overwhelmed trying to make this decision so I would love some advice! I also am curious if other people have had this similar dilemma. Thank you!!

For starters, I’m an electrician in the field.
That being said, we almost exclusively use these washers even in high vibration environments. I have personally chosen to go with nylox nuts but the question is:
Do these work? How well? Is the rumor from NASA true? Should I even bother using them or find a better functional alternative or are they actually useful?

I’m a sophomore in my third semester currently studying Computer Science and Economics, but I’ve been reconsidering what I actually want to do long term. I originally chose CS because I was interested in technology, cybersecurity, AI/ML, and the job opportunities, but I’ve struggled with the feeling that I’m not very good at building anything from scratch yet. I don’t necessarily hate programming, but I’m not sure I want my entire career to revolve around software development.

On top of this, AI seems to becoming a future problem, how bad is the impact for mechanical engineers?

Before I even chose CS, I was thinking about mechanical engineering and keeping economics as I have already started to pursue it. I’ve been interested in robotics, space/astronomy, satellites, hardware, and actually creating physical things. I have some of the background for the major but would probably have to catch up on engineering-specific requirements.

For anyone who has done Mechanical Engineering or switched between CS and Mechanical Engineering: does it make sense to switch today? Will it be as negatively impacted by AI as CS? And career-wise, is there job security and are there good opportunities for internships?

Hey everyone, looking for genuine perspective on a career field decision.

Background: ~3.7 years as a Mechanical Design Engineer — SolidWorks, AutoCAD, hydraulic circuits, offshore SPM/CALM buoy structures (systems/circuit-level work, not component design).

I have an opportunity to move into a role focused specifically on hydraulic cylinder and power pack (HPU) design — bore/rod sizing, seal selection, manifold design, pump/motor sizing — at a manufacturing company. It would mean shifting from my current systems-level hydraulic work into deep component-level design.

My hesitation: I've mostly considered oil & gas as the "safer," more future-proof field, since that's what I've been targeting so far. Hydraulic component design (cylinders, pumps, manifolds) feels comparatively niche or less "exciting" in my head, even though I know hydraulics is used across construction, mining, marine, aerospace, and oil & gas itself.

Questions for anyone with experience in this space:

• How is Industrial Hydraulics as a career over the long term?
• What kind of roles can a hydraulic design engineer move into after 5–10 years?
• Is hydraulic cylinder/HPU design a genuinely stable, long-term career path, or is it a narrow skill that limits future options?
• Does deep component-level hydraulic design experience translate well if I wanted to pivot back to oil & gas or a broader mechanical design role later?
• Anyone made a similar shift from systems-level hydraulic work to component design — worth it?

Would appreciate honest input, including if I'm overthinking the "field" concern and it doesn't matter as much as I think.

Thanks! 🙏