Basic Facts
- School: Vallauri Technical Upper Secondary School,
- Location: Fossano (CN) Italy
- MagiCAD Licenses acquired: 100 MagiCAD Educational Suite, Network and Stand Alone licenses
About G. Vallauri Technical School
The G. Vallauri Technical School has been present in the province of Cuneo, Italy since 1962, offering various courses of study in the technical-scientific field to 2000 students. The school offers training courses in Mechanics, Mechatronics and Energy, Electronics and Electrotechnics, Computer Sciences and Telecommunications, Finance and Tourism marketing, as well as, a high school for Science and Technology. The school collaborates with over 400 companies in the region as well as with the Polytechnic University of Turin fostering cooperation in the field of robotics and sustainable mobility.
The Mechanics, Mechatronics and Energy course implements scientific and technological skills in the mechanical, automation and energy fields and has two main focus areas:
- Mechanics and Mechatronics, which explores the general issues related to the design, realisation and management of automatic devices and systems.
- Energy, offering an in-depth study of plant engineering issues, specific issues related to the conversion and use of energy, its control systems and regulations for safety and environmental protection.
MagiCAD as part of the school’s curriculum
The 100 new MagiCAD licenses will be used in the laboratories of Energy Systems’ Design and Planning for teaching in the mechanical, electrical and plumbing (MEP) discipline. “Each student will be given an individual license to install on their desktop. They can work on civil and industrial projects independently to further deepen and consolidate the use of the software,” says Gianpaolo Maiolo, a lecturer at G. Vallauri who teaches MagiCAD.
At the end of the course, the students will enter a state examination and will obtain a diploma as qualified mechanical experts with specific expertise in the field of energy. “We teach Autodesk Revit in the course of study dedicated to Systems,” says Gianpaolo. “MagiCAD is taught over the last two years of the training program, as to gain practical and professional knowledge that can be used when they embark on a career,” he adds.
The reasons for teaching MagiCAD
“We aim to offer MEP design tools as well as integrated engineering calculations for Revit and AutoCAD from a Building Information Modeling (BIM) perspective,” explains Gianpaopo. “Integrated MEP design has now become essential and MagiCAD enables us to be the forerunners in the use of these working methods by training the new generations of technicians in this field.”
“From a legislative point of view, the entry into force of Ministerial Decree 560 of December 1st, 2017 requires the use of BIM for public construction projects. We expect that by 2025 all the projects will be commissioned using this methodology, thus we feel it’s our duty to offer this training to our region.”
In addition to curriculum teaching, the school is also organising additional vocational training courses aimed at professionals as well as companies in the industry.
The experience with MagiCAD this far
“The experience has been very constructive, despite the effort of learning how to use a program so rich in features. It takes a long time for the students to learn how to use MagiCAD properly,” says Gianpaolo.
“For this purpose, during the previous school year, we organised a teacher training course on Revit, which was attended by 20 teachers, both internal and external to our institution. Currently, 10 of our teachers have completed a 30-hour MagiCAD refresher course and are now up to date with the latest features,” he adds.
Advantages of learning to use MagiCAD
In Italy today, Revit and MagiCAD for Revit are not yet as widely used as AutoCAD. However, over the recent years, both due to regulatory obligations and technological and methodological progress in plant design, the use of BIM and in particular of Revit and its MEP Plugin, MagiCAD for Revit, are taking a stronghold.
Gianpaoplo explains: “As a school, we have chosen to train our students the skills that will be needed in their work-life. We strongly trust that BIM is the future in construction and this is why we are introducing them to Revit MEP and to MagiCAD. We intend to train future designers who are capable to apply new skills to the work environment, dispelling the myth that schools offer the students knowledge, abilities and competencies that are not in line with the current technologies.”
About MagiCAD, in particular, he adds: “MagiCAD brings to the Revit platform a new, faster, more powerful and usable working method. It makes easy and more precise design work just a click away.”