Design

: Design
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Title
Sector
Description
Title
3D Printing & Additive Manufacturing
Sector
Design
Description
3D printing in industrial battery manufacturing produces complex internal components such as cell holders, thermal management housings, and prototype fixtures from CAD models layer by layer. As a hard skill it requires fluency in slicing software, material selection across polymers and metals, and post-processing techniques like sintering and surface finishing. Engineers use it to iterate fixture designs quickly during pack assembly line setup and to fabricate non-critical end-use parts where tooling cost would otherwise be prohibitive.
Title
Adobe Creative Suite/cloud
Sector
Design
Description
Adobe Creative Cloud is the industry-standard suite of design tools — Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, After Effects, and XD — covering raster, vector, layout, motion, and UX work. In an engineering design context, it is most often used for technical illustration, documentation graphics, marketing collateral, and UI/UX assets that complement CAD and product data. Fluency across the suite lets designers move ideas from sketch to polished deliverable without bouncing through external vendors.
Title
Ardupilot
Sector
Design
Description
ArduPilot is the leading open-source autopilot software platform supporting fixed-wing aircraft, multirotor drones, helicopters, rovers, and boats, providing flight control, mission planning, and telemetry capabilities. As a hard skill it requires configuring the flight controller hardware (Pixhawk, Cube), tuning PID gains for the specific airframe, using Mission Planner or QGroundControl for mission design and parameter management, and understanding failsafe behavior and safety interlocks. Design engineers apply ArduPilot when building custom UAVs for industrial inspection, aerial surveying, or payload delivery applications where commercial autopilot platforms lack the flexibility or openness required.
Title
Autocad
Sector
Design
Description
AutoCAD is the long-standing 2D and 3D CAD platform used across design, manufacturing, mining, and shipbuilding for drafting, detailing, and as-built documentation. Strong users command layers, blocks, dynamic blocks, xrefs, sheet sets, and AutoLISP or .NET customization to standardize and accelerate output. Despite the rise of MBD and 3D-first workflows, AutoCAD remains the lingua franca for 2D drawings exchanged across supply chains and regulatory submittals.
Title
Autocad Electrical
Sector
Design
Description
AutoCAD Electrical is the dedicated edition of AutoCAD for designing electrical control systems — wiring diagrams, panel layouts, terminal strips — used to document the electrical side of battery production lines and pack assembly equipment. As a hard skill it requires fluency in symbol libraries, wire numbering automation, and PLC I/O drawings, plus the discipline to keep the as-built drawing in sync with field changes. Electrical designers apply it to produce the panel schedules and wire-pull lists that field electricians use when commissioning a coater, formation rack, or pack-test station.
Title
Autodesk Fusion (formerly Fusion 360)
Sector
Computational
Description
Fusion 360 is the Autodesk integrated CAD/CAM/CAE platform — battery teams use it for pack-enclosure design, fixture design for cell-tab welding, and the small-volume mechanical work where SolidWorks would be overkill. As a hard skill it requires parametric modeling fluency, assembly constraints, drawing generation to ASME Y14.5, and the integrated CAM capability for prototype fixtures that need machining in-house. Engineers apply it when iterating a BMS PCB carrier design, when generating shop drawings for a custom test jig, and when running quick FEA on a busbar to confirm thermal headroom under fault current.
Title
Betaflight
Sector
Design
Description
Betaflight is the dominant open-source flight controller firmware for high-performance FPV and racing multirotor drones, known for its advanced PID tuning, blackbox logging, and extensive customization capabilities. As a hard skill it requires understanding the Betaflight Configurator interface, tuning rate and filter settings for the specific motor and propeller combination, and interpreting blackbox log data to diagnose oscillation and prop wash. Design engineers and hobbyists apply Betaflight when building FPV systems for sports racing, agile inspection platforms, and research drones where the low-latency control loop and tuning transparency outperform general-purpose autopilot firmware.
Title
Blender 3D
Sector
Design
Description
Blender is the leading open-source 3D creation suite covering modeling, sculpting, rigging, animation, rendering, video editing, and visual effects, used in engineering for product visualization, technical animation, and design communication. As a hard skill it requires fluency in Blender's non-destructive modeling workflow, materials and lighting for photorealistic rendering (Cycles, EEVEE), and the Python scripting interface for programmatic geometry generation. Design engineers apply Blender to produce high-quality product renders for proposals and marketing, create animated exploded-view assembly sequences, and communicate complex spatial relationships in ways that static CAD drawings cannot.
Title
Blueprints & Technical Drawings
Sector
Design
Description
Blueprints and technical drawings communicate the geometry, tolerances, materials, and assembly relationships that define every manufactured component in a battery cell, module, or pack. As a hard skill it requires fluency in 2D drafting conventions, reading GD&T call-outs, navigating bill-of-materials hierarchies, and tracing revision history across drawing sets. Engineers apply this knowledge when releasing production prints for cell cans and pack enclosures, reviewing supplier drawings at design freeze, and resolving dimensional discrepancies discovered during first-article inspection.
Title
CATIA/3DEXPERIENCE
Sector
Design
Description
CATIA on the 3DEXPERIENCE platform is Dassault Systèmes' high-end mechanical, surfacing, and systems design environment, dominant in aerospace, automotive, and complex defense programs. Beyond part and assembly modeling it covers Class-A surfacing, generative shape design, electrical and tubing routing, kinematics, and tight integration with simulation and PLM through ENOVIA. Mastery enables engineers to manage massive assemblies and digital-thread workflows that pure file-based CAD tools cannot.
Title
Creo
Sector
Design
Description
Creo is PTC's parametric 3D CAD platform, known for its powerful surface-modeling capabilities, robust assembly management, and strong integration with Windchill PLM for configuration control. As a hard skill it requires fluency in Creo Parametric part and assembly modeling, drawing and GD&T annotation, sheet-metal and framework environments, and the behavior-modeling extensions for simulation-driven design. Design engineers apply Creo in aerospace, defense, and industrial equipment programs where its heritage in complex mechanical systems and long product lifecycles makes it the incumbent platform.
Title
Design Basics
Sector
Design
Description
Design basics cover the foundational vocabulary and skills that every engineering designer needs: orthographic projection, GD&T, dimensioning standards, datums, tolerances, and the conventions of drawing interpretation. The topic also frames the design process itself — requirements, concept generation, trade studies, design reviews, and design for manufacturing and assembly. A solid grounding here is what distinguishes a competent CAD operator from an effective designer.
Title
Drones
Sector
Design
Description
Drones (UAVs) in a design context encompass the mechanical, electrical, and software engineering disciplines required to specify, design, build, and certify unmanned aerial systems for commercial, industrial, and defense applications. As a hard skill it requires integrating airframe structures, propulsion systems, avionics, power distribution, and payload interfaces within regulatory constraints (FAA Part 107, DO-178C for certified systems), and validating performance through simulation and flight test. Design engineers apply drone engineering to develop custom inspection platforms, autonomous survey UAVs, and payload-delivery systems where commercial off-the-shelf drones lack the required performance, endurance, or payload capacity.
Title
EPLAN Electric P8
Sector
Design
Description
EPLAN Electric P8 is the leading European electrical CAE platform for designing control panels, wiring diagrams, and PLC documentation — heavily used by European battery-production-equipment suppliers (Manz, Dürr, Schuler). As a hard skill it requires fluency in EPLAN's macro library, page-type system, and bill-of-material generation, plus the discipline to maintain master data so cross-references and reports stay consistent. Electrical designers apply it when authoring panel drawings for cell-finishing equipment, integrating supplier panel documentation into a plant standard, and generating wire labels and terminal diagrams that match the panel build.
Title
ETAP
Sector
Design
Description
ETAP is the dominant electrical power system analysis and simulation platform — used to model the plant-wide power distribution feeding battery production lines, including load flow, short-circuit, arc-flash, and transient stability studies. As a hard skill it requires building accurate one-line diagrams, parameterizing transformers, cables, motors, and drives, running coordination studies, and interpreting fault calculations against breaker and fuse ratings. Plant electrical engineers apply it during plant build-out, when adding a new formation rack or coating line to a substation, and when issuing arc-flash labels for every panel in the production area.
Title
INAV (or Inav) Intelligent Navigation System for Aerial Vehicles
Sector
Design
Description
INAV is an open-source flight controller firmware optimized for fixed-wing and multirotor GPS-navigation missions, providing autonomous waypoint following, return-to-home, and position-hold capabilities for long-range FPV and survey applications. As a hard skill it requires configuring INAV through the INAV Configurator, tuning navigation PID gains and GPS receiver integration, setting up autonomous mission profiles, and diagnosing GPS and compass interference issues. Design engineers apply INAV when building long-range fixed-wing FPV aircraft and autonomous survey platforms where the navigation feature set better fits the mission profile than racing-oriented firmware such as Betaflight.
Title
Mechanical Design
Sector
Design
Description
Mechanical design in battery manufacturing defines the physical architecture of cells, modules, and packs — the housings, brackets, thermal interfaces, and fastening systems that hold active electrochemical components together and protect them in service. As a hard skill it requires mastery of CAD tools such as SolidWorks, CATIA, or Creo, along with finite-element analysis, tolerance stack-up calculations, and material selection for structural and thermal functions. Engineers apply these skills to develop pack enclosures that meet IP-rating and crash-safety requirements while satisfying tight weight and volume constraints imposed by vehicle integration.
Title
NX
Sector
Design
Description
NX is Siemens' flagship CAD/CAM/CAE platform for high-complexity mechanical design, used in aerospace, automotive, and industrial machinery programs requiring advanced surface modeling, multi-body part design, and tight PLM integration with Teamcenter. As a hard skill it requires fluency in NX's feature-based and synchronous modeling approaches, NX Nastran for FEA, and the CAM module for generating toolpaths for complex machined components. Design engineers apply NX when program requirements demand the full digital-twin capability of the Siemens product development suite, particularly where the same geometry must feed design, simulation, and manufacturing directly.
Title
Navisworks
Sector
Design
Description
Autodesk Navisworks is the multi-discipline model aggregation and clash-detection platform that integrates CAD, BIM, and plant-design models into a single federated model for coordination, review, and construction planning. As a hard skill it requires importing and federating models from diverse authoring tools, running interference detection, animating construction sequences with TimeLiner, and generating quantification take-offs. Design and construction engineers apply Navisworks on complex industrial projects — battery gigafactories, refineries, shipyards — where coordinating structural, mechanical, electrical, and piping disciplines in a single 3D environment prevents costly field clashes.
Title
Rhino
Sector
Design
Description
Rhinoceros 3D (Rhino) is a NURBS-based surface modeling tool favored for its flexibility with complex freeform geometry in industrial design, architecture, marine, and jewelry industries. As a hard skill it requires fluency in NURBS curves and surfaces, the Grasshopper visual programming environment for parametric and computational design, and interoperability with downstream rendering and CAM tools. Design engineers and industrial designers apply Rhino when designing freeform product enclosures, ergonomic components, and architectural surfaces where the geometric flexibility of NURBS outperforms the history-tree approach of parametric CAD suites.
Title
SOLIDWORKS
Sector
Computational
Description
SolidWorks is the Dassault Systèmes 3D mechanical CAD platform dominant in US battery manufacturing — used for pack enclosure design, fixture design for cell-tab welding, BMS PCB carriers, and the broad mechanical work of factory tooling. As a hard skill it requires fluency in parametric part and assembly modeling, drawing generation to ASME Y14.5, sheet-metal and weldment environments, and the PDM disciplines (PDM Standard or Professional) that keep revisions clean across engineering teams. Mechanical designers apply this when iterating a battery pack enclosure for a new vehicle program, when generating shop drawings for a stamped current collector, and when running interference and tolerance studies on a multi-cell module assembly.
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