Dedicated to Professor Barna Szabó on the occasion of his eightieth birthday and to Professor Imre Kozák on the occasion of his eighty-fifth birthday Abstract. Model creation is the most important challenge for an engineer. Consciously or intuitively, the engineer always creates models in the course of the creative process. However this subject is not discussed -or only marginally -, in the classroom or in the literature. The aim of this article is to contribute to the more conscious

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... ing work. For the sake of this, this paper formulates some underlying principles. These principles must be observed during the model-creating work, and by presenting them during the university studies we can help the students to learn this important engineering task. Three of these principles are universal statements, relating to the recognition of the world, and two of them must be considered during the creation of a correct model. Three conclusions from the underlying principles are also conducted; these are important for the technical practice. The methods of mechanical model creation are shortly discussed at the end.