An introduction to Computer Aided Design
Welcome to the world of high technology and acronyms: CAD, CAID, CAS and CAM to name but a few. The US-dominated Computer Aided Design software industry is not the easiest sector to get a handle on, however this section aims to untangle a few acronyms and focus on the benefits of CAD for the design and manufacturing industries.
The pressures of getting products to market faster, combined with advances in and lower costs of rapid prototyping technology have created this rapidly growing specialised sector. Almost every product you look at in your home or office will at some stage in the development process have been modelled or analysed on a computer system.
That process may have been driven by the necessity to describe the product's complex external form or 'A surfaces' as they are described in the automotive sector. Or it could be more engineering driven - with tight internal construction tolerances, mould flow and stresses requiring analysis through Computational Fluid Dynamics or Finite Element Analysis (CFD and FEA respectively).
Another factor is that CAD is often the only way an organisation can ensure design integrity and effective communication with moulding suppliers globally. This can be achieved by specifying every aspect of the product in CAD and emailing or secure FTP-ing (file transfer protocol) the file.
The CAD software business is also subdivided between these two paradigms. The debate over which is best - solid or surface modelling systems - is a longstanding one. However, as a general rule the following characteristics tend to be true.
Solid systems tend to have better engineering capabilities including parametric construction history - where a part has 'intelligence' about the effects of changes to it or an assembly of which it is part.
Surface systems tend to be able to describe more complex forms and are often used by automotive companies. They also can demonstrate more sophisticated rendering, animation and visualisation capabilities.
So how has CAD, in terms of both solid and surface modellers, affected the design process? The simple answer is in the same radical way IT has affected nearly every industrial process - perhaps even more so.
Often a sketch design idea is validated with underlying engineering and ergonomic package data, which helps steer the design and ensure that it can be converted from sketch idea into production reality.
The time and money invested in CAD systems, and specialised personnel, is really reaped at the visualisation and rapid prototyping stages. Photorealistic CAD visuals are used to gain customer feedback and client approval in projects giving companies confidence to commit financially to the next stage in the process.
The needs of Hollywood's special effects industry have driven computer visualisation and animation to incredibly high standards and this technology can now be harnessed by designers to communicate ideas without the expense of having to construct a physical prototype.
CAD technology when properly harnessed is an integral factor in creating new products at lower costs and in tighter timescales, which yield higher margins.