48610 Introduction to Mechanical Engineering
The Complete Study & Assessment Guide · Spring 202648610 Overview
- Six credit points at UTS
- Spring session, City campus
- Twelve teaching weeks
- Weekly tutorial, lab and workshop
- Five assessment tasks in total
- Group prototyping project and report
- Hand drawing and solid modelling
48610 Introduction to Mechanical Engineering is a University of Technology Sydney subject in the Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering discipline, worth 6 credit points and offered in both the Autumn and Spring sessions at the City campus.
- Assessed by A hand drawing assignment, a computer aided design assignment, a two part group prototyping project, and a mechanics quiz taken in the Week 11 tutorial class.
- Watch for Three of the five tasks are objects you hand over rather than things you write, so they reward starting early far more than they reward revision.
- Hardest step Turning a machine into a free body diagram. The subject publishes exactly what that diagram must contain, and most lost mechanics marks are lost before any arithmetic starts.
- How to prepare Work every tutorial problem by hand before class and check each answer a second way; the quiz rewards the same method the tutorial guide drills.
- Start early on The prototyping project. Its conceptual design is assessed live in Week 7, and the workshop induction, materials purchase and manufacturing all have lead times.
How 48610 is assessed
| Component | Weight | Format |
|---|---|---|
| Assessment task 1: Engineering Drawing Assignment | 15% | Hand drawings submitted as one PDF through Canvas: three orthogonal views at 1:1 on A4 grid paper in third angle, an isometric view, and a cavalier oblique view at 45 degrees with the depth scale stated. Drawing instruments or the taught freehand technique must be used and construction lines must be left on the sheet. Inside the task, the orthogonal views carry 10 marks and each pictorial view carries 2.5. |
| Assessment task 2: Computer Aided Design assignment | 20% | A simplified pulley assembly modelled in SolidWorks on a faculty lab computer or through the faculty workspace, submitted as a single zip of exactly five files: a bracket part, a roller part, an assembly and two drawings. The parameter configuration is assigned by the last digit of your student number. Marks go to completeness, fully defined sketches and design intent, and the drawings are marked against the same third angle and dimensioning standards as task 1. |
| Assessment task 3: conceptual design of the Engineering Prototyping Project | 10% | A group submission in one presentation file, assessed in a compulsory live feedback session with your lab tutors in the Week 7 class you are enrolled in. Deliverables are a project plan with team roles, a requirement list, a morphological table with at least five sub-functions and five partial solutions each, a pro and con selection of partial solutions, three hand drawn configurations, and a scoring matrix. |
| Assessment task 4: Engineering Prototyping Project, detailed design and report | 35% | The built prototype plus its documentation, submitted as one zip containing a report PDF and a multi page PDF of SolidWorks drawings. Inside the task, the practical performance test carries 10 marks, the report carries 20 and the technical drawings carry 5. The largest single block within the report is 9 marks for free body diagrams and calculations of the prototype's expected performance. |
| Assessment task 5: Engineering Mechanics Quiz | 20% | Taken during the tutorial class you are allocated to in Week 11. Tutors and Canvas announcements give the details. In class assessments are not eligible for short extensions and must be completed on the listed date. |
Four of the five weights are published directly in the subject materials: the drawing assignment at 15 per cent of the final grade, the computer aided design assignment at 20 per cent of your total assessment, the conceptual design at 10 marks and the detailed design and report at 35 marks. Those four add to 80, so the Week 11 quiz carries the remaining 20 of the 100; its own figure is not printed in the materials this guide was built from, so treat it as the balance and confirm it on Canvas. On pass conditions, no component is described as one you must pass separately, either in the subject materials or in the official 2026 handbook record, which publishes no assessment rows at all. Confirm any such condition on Canvas rather than inferring it from silence.
Current 48610 dates
| Date | Item | Control |
|---|---|---|
| 2026-08-21 | Engineering Drawing Assignment due | Due by 23:59. The task is available from 6 August at 9:00 and the submission window on the assignment page runs to 4 September at 23:59. |
| 2026-09-04 | Computer Aided Design assignment due | Due by 23:59, submitted as a single zip of the five named SolidWorks files. The submission window on the assignment page runs to 18 September at 23:59. |
Dates are as published in the Spring 2026 assignment pages for this subject on Canvas. Confirm exact deadlines and submission settings in the live LMS.
What 48610 covers
48610 runs across a twelve week Spring session and moves through four connected skills. Weeks 1 to 3 build hand drawing to the Australian Standard: orthogonal projection in third angle, dimensioning and tolerancing, and isometric and parallel oblique pictorial views. The computer labs run in parallel on parametric solid modelling, where the marks go to fully defined sketches and design intent rather than to appearance.
Weeks 4 and 5 introduce a simplified engineering design process with requirement lists, function structures, morphological tables and weighted concept scoring, which the group prototyping project then uses. Weeks 6 to 10 are engineering mechanics: force vectors and equilibrium, moments, supports and free body diagrams, centroids and second moment of area, bending stress, and mass moment of inertia with energy methods.
A design application on gears, belts and power transmission closes the technical content. Week 11 carries the Engineering Mechanics Quiz in the tutorial class, and Week 12 is given over to finishing the prototype and its report.
Orthogonal Projection and Third Angle Views
three aligned views · the AS 1100 line alphabet · third angle vs first angle · reading a view set · (Week 1)02Dimensioning and Tolerancing to AS 1100
size and location dimensions · over and under dimensioning · symmetric and limit tolerances · tolerance stacking · (Week 2)03Isometric and Parallel Oblique Pictorial Views
the 120 degree axis set · true length but not true shape · cavalier and cabinet depth scales · (Week 3)04Solid Modelling and Design Intent in CAD
parametric constraints · geometric vs dimensional relations · fully defined sketches · bottom-up assemblies · (computer labs)05The Engineering Design Process and Requirements
the four phase loop · requirement lists with sources and tests · main and sub-functions · project planning · (Week 4)06Concept Generation, Scoring and Selection
morphological tables · configurations · pro and con analysis · weighted scoring with sensitivity checks · (Week 5)07Marking Out, Measurement and Manufacturing
datum planes and scribing · steel rule, vernier and micrometer resolution · inspection against tolerance · (workshop)08Force Vectors and Static Equilibrium
components along and across a member · unit vector form · the two equilibrium equations · springs and cables · (Week 6)09Moments of a Force and Moment Equilibrium
perpendicular distance · Varignon component check · sense and sign · counterweights · (Week 7)10Supports, Reactions and Free Body Diagrams
what each support resists · the isolate and label procedure · two and three force members · tipping · (Week 8)11Centroids and Second Moment of Area
geometric decomposition · additive and subtractive routes · the parallel axis theorem · (Week 9)12Bending Stress in Beams
shear force and bending moment diagrams · the neutral axis · section modulus · unsymmetric sections · (Week 9)13Mass Moment of Inertia and Energy Methods
composite bodies about a pivot · parallel axis for mass · spring energy with initial tension · release speed · (Week 10)14Gears, Belts and Power Transmission
the meshing condition · simple and compound trains · torque ratio as the inverse · work, power and efficiencyThe official record puts its total workload at 150 hours and its weekly contact pattern at 2 hours of computer labs or workshops and 1.5 hours of tutorial classes, on top of online pre class material.
It is a first encounter with four skills that the rest of a mechanical degree assumes: communicating a component as a drawing, modelling it as a parametric solid, analysing it with engineering mechanics, and running a design project that ends in something you have actually built. The teaching order follows that list.
Weeks 1 to 3 are hand drawing to the Australian Standard AS 1100: orthogonal projection in third angle with aligned views, hidden detail and centrelines; dimensioning that states size and location once each without redundancy; tolerancing, including why chain dimensioning stacks tolerance and datum dimensioning does not; and isometric and parallel oblique pictorial views.
The computer labs run alongside from Week 1, moving through parts, assemblies and drawings to revolves, sweeps and patterns, with the marked skill being design intent: constraining a model so that changing one dimension does not require changing several others.
Weeks 4 and 5 introduce a deliberately simplified four phase design process with requirement lists, function structures, morphological tables and weighted concept scoring, which the group prototyping project then puts to work. From Week 6 the subject becomes engineering mechanics.
Force vectors and particle equilibrium come first, then moments and moment equilibrium, then supports and free body diagrams with reactions and tipping, then centroids and second moment of area, bending stress, and mass moment of inertia with energy methods. A design application on gears, belts and power transmission closes the technical content.
The subject publishes an unusually explicit list of what mechanics working must contain, down to arrowheads on every force, labels that match the equation terms, units on intermediate as well as final answers and three significant figures unless more are justified, and it applies that list to both the quiz and the project report. Assessment is five tasks and there is no final examination.
Two are individual production tasks early in the session, a hand drawing assignment at 15 per cent and a computer aided design assignment at 20 per cent. Two are the group Engineering Prototyping Project, a conceptual design assessed live in Week 7 at 10 per cent and a detailed design, performance test and report at 35 per cent. The fifth is the Engineering Mechanics Quiz, taken in the Week 11 tutorial class.
The project asks each group to design, document and build a small mechanical prototype that throws a standard squash ball a flexibly adjustable distance of three to four metres at a 10 centimetre target, using only mechanical components and a single source of mechanical energy, and the official record notes that groups usually spend about fifty dollars on materials and components between them.
The subject also contributes to three Engineers Australia Stage 1 competencies, including the application of established engineering methods to complex problem solving.
Sizing a counterweight, the way this subject wants it written
- +1Declare the sense and the origin. Take moments about the tower axis A, with moments that turn the crane toward the load side positive. Every weight acts vertically downward, so the lever arm of each is simply its horizontal distance from A.
- +1Write the moment sum with each weight as m g: 2.00 g (14.0) + 1.50 g (12.0) minus 0.50 g (4.00) minus m g (5.00) = 0.
- +1Divide the whole equation by g. Gravity multiplies every term, so it cancels and the equation becomes one in megagrams and metres: 28.0 + 18.0 minus 2.00 minus 5.00 m = 0. Taking this step deliberately halves the arithmetic and removes a place to drop a factor of 9.81.
- +1Evaluate: 28.0 + 18.0 minus 2.00 = 44.0, so m = 44.0 / 5.00 = 8.80 Mg.
Key terms
- Third angle projection
- The view arrangement required by the Australian Standard and used throughout this subject, in which each view is placed on the side of the object nearest to it in the adjacent view. The right side view therefore sits to the right of the front view and the top view sits above it.
- Tolerance stacking
- The accumulation of tolerance that occurs when features are dimensioned in a chain from one another, so that the last feature's position is uncertain by the sum of all the intermediate tolerances. Dimensioning every feature from one common datum avoids it.
- Design intent
- The set of relationships a solid model must preserve when a dimension changes, such as symmetry, concentricity or equal fillets. A model carries design intent when altering one dimension does not require several others to be altered to restore what the designer meant.
- Free body diagram
- A sketch of one body isolated from everything it touches, with every support removed and replaced by the force or moment it exerts, plus all applied loads and the body's own weight, each labelled and carrying an arrowhead.
- Second moment of area
- A property of a cross-section, also called the area moment of inertia, that measures how far the material sits from a chosen axis and therefore how strongly the section resists bending. It has units of millimetres to the fourth power.
- Parallel axis theorem
- The rule that moves a moment of inertia from a body's own centroidal axis to any parallel axis by adding the area or mass multiplied by the square of the distance between the axes. It applies in the same form to areas and to masses.
- Velocity ratio
- The ratio of output speed to input speed in a drive, equal to the driving tooth count divided by the driven tooth count. The torque ratio is its inverse, so a drive that halves the speed doubles the torque.
- Morphological table
- A grid with sub-functions down the side and alternative partial solutions across each row, from which a whole design is built by selecting one solution from every row. The unused cells remain as documented fallback options.
48610 FAQ
What does 48610 actually cover, week by week?
The subject moves through four connected skills across a twelve week session. Weeks 1 to 3 are hand drawing: orthogonal projection in third angle, dimensioning and tolerancing, then isometric and parallel oblique pictorial views. The computer labs run in parallel on parametric solid modelling, from parts and assemblies to revolves, sweeps and patterns.
Weeks 4 and 5 introduce the engineering design process, requirement analysis, function structures and concept scoring. Weeks 6 to 10 are engineering mechanics: force vectors and equilibrium, moments, supports and free body diagrams, centroids and second moment of area, bending stress, and mass moment of inertia with energy methods.
Week 11 carries the mechanics quiz in the tutorial class, and Week 12 has no tutorials so that groups can finish the prototype and its report.
How is the subject assessed, and what is each task worth?
By five tasks, with no final examination. The Engineering Drawing Assignment is 15 per cent of the final grade and the Computer Aided Design assignment is 20 per cent of your total assessment, both stated in the task documents. The Engineering Prototyping Project is split into a conceptual design worth 10 marks, assessed in a compulsory live session in Week 7, and a detailed design, performance test and report worth 35 marks.
Those four add to 80, so the Engineering Mechanics Quiz carries the remaining 20; its weight is not printed in the subject materials, so confirm it on Canvas along with your due dates.
When is the mechanics quiz and what does it cover?
It is taken during the tutorial class you are allocated to in Week 11, with tutors and Canvas announcements providing the details. Its content is the engineering mechanics taught from Week 6 onward: resolving forces, equilibrium of a particle, moments and moment equilibrium, free body diagrams and support reactions, centroids and second moment of area, bending stress, and mass moment of inertia with energy methods.
Because it is an in class assessment it is not eligible for short extensions and must be completed on the listed date.
How much mathematics is involved?
Enough that you should be comfortable with trigonometry and algebra, but nothing beyond it. Almost every mechanics question in the subject is resolved with sine, cosine and the tangent, a pair of simultaneous linear equations, and arithmetic with squares and cubes for section properties.
There is no calculus in the assessed material: centroids and second moments are computed by decomposing shapes into parts whose values come from a reference table, and the parallel axis theorem does the rest. The energy method used for the prototype is a single algebraic balance rather than an integration.
What software do I need, and where do I run it?
The computer aided design work is done in SolidWorks, and the assessment task requires that the work be done either on a faculty lab computer while logged in with your student login, or through the faculty workspace with the same login. Work completed any other way will not be marked, and the same version should be used throughout to avoid file problems.
The subject also points students at the software's own built in tutorials and at an online essential training course for self paced practice.
What does the drawing assignment want that students keep missing?
Four things, all of them named in the criteria. Views must be aligned, and the drawing material states that unaligned views score zero for that part. The arrangement must be third angle. Hidden detail and centrelines must be present, which is the single most common omission in otherwise neat sheets.
And construction lines must be left on the page, because they are the evidence that you used the taught technique rather than estimating the result. The task also warns that the dimensioned pictorial view it gives you may itself contain redundant dimensions, so the dimensions on your orthogonal views have to be decided independently rather than copied across.
What does design intent mean in the CAD assignment?
It means the model keeps what you meant when a dimension changes. The assessment lists the specific intentions to capture: symmetry of parts, axial alignment of cylindrical parts, an axle hole concentric with the bracket top round, and holes equidistant from adjacent edges. The test applied is direct, that if a dimension is altered, no other dimension should need altering to restore those properties.
The way to achieve it is to express shape with geometric relations before adding any dimension, and to use a circular pattern rather than individually placed copies for a ring of holes.
How much does the prototyping project cost, and what is supplied?
The official record notes that extra costs may be incurred because groups may need to buy materials and components to build their prototype, usually about fifty dollars per group, which works out at roughly one to two dollars a week each in a group of four.
The project brief lists what is supplied, including storage tubs, frame parts and materials, springs, heavy duty rubber bands and a selection of miscellaneous connection parts, and it recommends using the supplied materials and perpendicular connection angles for the frame to keep manufacturing straightforward.
Plan the purchases into the project schedule early, and keep the receipts, because a bill of materials with costs is itself a marked item in the report.
How to prepare for the assessments
Treat this as four subjects that converge, and schedule accordingly. The drawing and CAD tasks land early and are production work: they reward hours at a desk with instruments or a mouse, not reading, so start them the week they are released. The design process material in Weeks 4 and 5 is only useful if your group applies it immediately, because the Week 7 conceptual design session marks the reasoning rather than the idea.
The mechanics from Week 6 onward is the part that rewards daily practice: work every tutorial problem by hand before the class, keep the subject's published working standard in front of you, and check every answer a second way. Before the Week 11 quiz, write the formula list out cold from a blank page and work a fresh problem of each type.
Throughout, keep a running calculations file for the project, because the single largest block of marks in the subject is the theory and calculations section of the report, and it is far easier to write while you are building than afterwards.
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