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Computer-aided design

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This article is about computer-aided design. For other meanings, see CAD (disambiguation).

Computer-aided design (CAD) is the use of a wide range of computer-based tools that assist engineers, architects and other design professionals in their design activities. It involves both software and sometime special-purpose hardware.

CAD is sometimes translated as "computer-assisted", "computer-aided drafting", or a similar phrase. Related acronyms are CADD, which stands for "computer-aided design and drafting", CAID for Computer-aided Industrial Design and CAAD, for "computer-aided architectural design". All these terms are essentially synonymous, but there are some subtle differences in meaning and application.

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Fields of use

  • AEC Architecture Engineering and Construction
  • MCAD Mechanical
    • Automotive
    • Aerospace
    • Consumer Goods
  • ECAD Electrionic and Electrical

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Mechanical

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History

Designers have long used computers for their calculations. It is argued that a turning point was the development of SKETCHPAD system in MIT in 1963 by Ivan Sutherland. The distinctive feature of SKETCHPAD was that it allowed the designer to interact with computer graphically: the design can be fed into the computer by drawing on a CRT monitor with a light pen. Effectively, it was a prototype of graphical user interface, an indispensable feature of modern CAD.

First commercial applications of CAD were in large companies in the automotive and aerospace industries, as well as in electronics. Only large corporations could afford the computers capable of perfoming the calculations. As computers became more affordable, the application areas have gradually expanded. The development of CAD software for personal desk-top computers was the impetus for almost universal application in all areas of construction.

CAD implementations have evolved dramatically since then. Initially it was typically limited to producing drawings similar to hand-drafted drawings. Advances in programming and computer hardware have allowed more versatile applications of computers to design activities. Today CAD is not limited to drafting and rendering, and it ventures into many more "intellectual" areas of a designer's expertise.

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Methods

Development in CAD resulted in the following tools and methods:

Many CAD drawings are created from scratch using the application software using design sketches and other inputs. Other CAD drawings are created from pre-existing electronic CAD files by copying all or part of another CAD file, making changes, then saving it as a new file. Drawings that only exist in physical form (blueprints, plots of lost files, etc.) can be converted into CAD files using a procedure called "Paper-to-CAD conversion" or drawing conversion, involving scanning and vectorization, or digitization.

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See also

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