Spatial Demonstration Tools for Teaching Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing (GD&T) to First-Year Undergraduate Engineering Students

Oct 29, 2026

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Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing (GD&T) is presented as a design tool and symbolic language for communicating design intent and functional relationships to manufacturing stakeholders. The paper motivates GD&T instruction by linking it to cost reduction through fewer scrap parts and better interchangeability, while noting common teaching challenges: complexity, breadth of knowledge, required spatial reasoning, and limited prior exposure among first-year students. To build spatial understanding, the work introduces inexpensive hands-on demonstration tools and interactive activities for a CAD/sketching/visualization course, shown feasible in a course with nine sections of 50 students.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages14

Reading Time35 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Introduction

Paper ID \#17885 Spatial Demonstration Tools for Teaching Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing (GD&T) to First-Year Undergraduate Engineering Students Miss Myela A. Paige, Georgia Institute of Technology Myela Paige is a ﬁrst-year graduate research assistant in the Engineering Design Research Lab at Georgia Institute of Technology. She is pursuing her Master of Science and PhD in Mechanical Engineering under the advisement of Dr. Katherine Fu. She received her B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from University of Maryland Baltimore County in 2015 . Myela is passionate about helping students from all walks of life receive the same opportunities. Her research interests include engineering education, education policy, and educational solutions for low-resource communities. Myela enjoys volunteering with local Atlantaarea schools to engage students in STEM and talking to them about college and the opportunities she has been given. Dr. Katherine Fu, Georgia Institute of Technology Dr. Kate Fu is an Assistant Professor at Georgia Institute of Technology with a joint appointment in Mechanical Engineering and Industrial Design. Prior to this appointment, she has been a Postdoctoral Fellow at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) . In May 2012, she completed her Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University. She received her M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon in 2009, and her B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Brown University in 2007 . Her work has focused on studying the engineering design process through cognitive studies, and extending those ﬁndings to the development of methods and tools to facilitate more effective and inspired design and innovation. 􀀍c American Society for Engineering Education, 2017 Spatial Demonstration Tools for Teaching Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing (GD&T) to First Year Undergraduate Engineering Students Abstract Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing (GD&T) is a design tool and symbolic language that allows design engineers to communicate design intent and requirements, with particular attention to function and relationship of the part features, to individuals who will manufacture the parts. GD&T can lower costs by reducing waste parts, and increasing uniformity, completeness and interchangeability of parts in manufacturing. GD&T is a topic that employers consistently request that undergraduate students know and understand, both at graduation and during undergraduate summer internships and coops, as early as the summer after their first year. GD&T can be a particularly tricky topic to teach due to its complexity, breadth of information, required spatial reasoning, and, commonly, lack of prior exposure to the topic. To assist students in developing spatial understanding, GD&T at a basic level has been developed for a first year undergraduate engineering CAD, sketching, and visualization course, including a set of hands-on demonstration tools and an interactive activity. This paper describes those tools and how to make your own set, along with some suggested activities to help students engage with and retain the concepts. The tools can be made with inexpensive materials, requiring only clear plastic sheets (PVC, acrylic, etc.), clear tape, permanent marker, and colored paper. These activities and materials have been used in a course with 9 sections of 50 students each, which indicates appropriateness and feasibility for classes of a similar scale. I. Introduction Although engineering students specialize in a variety of specialized areas, one essential part of the curriculum is learning and understanding measuring and modeling techniques that express the relationship between objects and space. Being able to visualize and conceptualize objects in 3-dimensional space is a skill that is critical to success in STEM coursework and retention in engineering programs over time [1] . Spatial concept

FAQs

Why is GD&T considered important for first-year undergraduate engineering students?

GD&T helps students understand and communicate design intent using a symbolic language that supports function, relationships, and manufacturing requirements. Employers consistently expect graduates to know GD&T early, including during internships and co-ops.

What makes GD&T difficult to teach?

GD&T is challenging due to its complexity and broad information content, the need for spatial reasoning, and students’ commonly limited prior exposure to the topic.

What tools and activities does the paper propose to support learning?

The paper describes basic GD&T demonstration tools and interactive activities designed for a first-year CAD/sketching/visualization course. The tools can be built from inexpensive materials such as clear plastic sheets, tape, permanent markers, and colored paper.

Oct 29, 2026

Upload by Franzy