Hi Kruek,

This is the first year that anyone at my University has ever tried to enter a contest this big before, so we are strating to learn everything at once and I try not to think about having to design stuff.

But, we have to, and SOON. This is an engineering project and you can only benefit so little without going through the process of putting all your work into FEA/CAD/CFD...etc.

I haven't learned how to use it, but I was lucky to meet with the team leader from WWU, James Waltman. He showed what his team had on their program and explained how helpful it was. Its complicated to me, but so is everything that I have never learned anything about. As soon as you just start learning about it and practice with it, it won't be so bad.
Just talk to someone in a department that knows these systems and they can teach you.

Another good thing about it is that it can give you structural info on anything part that put into it. I don't know what you're studying, but if it is engineering then I know this will help you understand a lot.

good luck,

Erin Urvina
University of Alaska Anchorage
FSAE '06 Team Leader