2009 - 2010
About CAD Program

The CAD program here at New River Community College offers a high quality and diversified curriculum and has been completely re-worked from the ground up.  The program is now recognized not only as one of the top CAD programs in the state but has been recognized on a national stage as one of the first community college CAD programs in the country to offer a game technology program. The program was a part of a grant awarded by the NSF (National Science Foundation) to showcase students' work in 3D Animation and Game Level Design.

 

The advanced students have also produced advanced concept design projects such as UGV (Unmanned Ground Vehicles) & UAV (Unmanned Air Vehicles).  These projects have brought the spotlight to the CAD program by companies such as:

  • Lockheed Martin’s SkunkWorks in California (the top secret, black ops project team)
  • Northrop Grumman’s Naval Design Group in Newport News where the U.S. Navy’s nuclear submarines and aircraft carriers are built.
  • SAIC, one of the largest reverse engineering defense contractors in the world
  • Phoenix Integration, a D.O.D. contractor/software & product developer which has brought on the CAD program as an “Academic Partner.” NRCC joins with schools such as MIT, Stanford, Purdue University, Penn State, Virginia Tech Aerospace & Ocean Engineering & a host of others: http://www.phoenix-int.com/partners/academic_partners.php

 

The class of 2009 has two UAV concept designs that are currently being reviewed by SkunkWorks as well as many other companies/organizations including NASA.

 

There are three different degree programs:

  • Computer Aided Design
  • Architectural Design Specialization
  • Game Technology & Animation

 

The CAD lab has been updated to:
Be the only CAD/Architecture and Game Technology Program housed in a mall.  It is a new state of the art facility at New River Valley Mall located in Christiansburg, Virginia just down the road from Virginia Tech.

 

CAD lab highlights

  • New 1450 Square Foot CAD Lab
  • Tiltable CAD Works Stations
  • 24" flat panel LCD monitors mounted on articulating arms
  • L.E.D. work lights
  • Dual Core Dual Processor work stations with: 4Gigs of RAM & NVIDIA Video Cards w/512mb RAM
  • New chairs, New HP 1050c (36") plotter, 2 New HP color laser printers (11x17), B&W Laser (11x17), Dimension BST Rapid Prototyping 3D Printer(ABS plastic extrusion tool CNC)
  • New Z3200 Thermal Photo Plotter
  • KIP 3000, Large format Laser Printer and Color Scanner and B&W Copier
  • New 3D Scanner
  • Multi Head Xpert Milling Machine
  • New 3D Systems ProJet HD3000 3D Plotter
  • New 6 Station Render Farm
  • X-pert Mill multi-head milling machine

 

Software Includes:
2010 Autodesk design suite to include:

  • Auto CAD
  • AutoCAD Architecture
  • Revit Architecture
  • Revit Structure
  • Inventor Professional
  • 3D Studio Max
  • Impression
  • Showcase (Alias Studio +)
  • Raster Design

 

Other software on all CAD stations

  • Adobe Illustrator CS3
  • Adobe Photoshop CS3
  • Adobe Premier CS3
  • Corel Draw X3
  • Feature CAM
  • Pro-E Wildfire
  • Unreal Runtime2 Engine/Editor