CAD (computer aided drafting and design) as the name itself suggests,is much more than just drawing lines for design purposes by electronic means.there are various reasons for using CAD.
- The most potent driving force is competition.To make their name in business,companies use CAD to draft better designs quicker and much more cheaper than their competitors.
- Productivity is boosted by a CAD program enabling you to easily draw polygons,ellipses,multiple parallel lines and multiple parallel curves that comprise a design.
- Various automatic features like fillets and chambers helps increase the speed of designing.
- The ability of the software to “snap” automatically to create particular geometric points and features will spread the accurate positioning of line work.
- Copy,Rotate and Mirror facilities also come in very handy while drawing symmetrical parts.
- Several hatch patterns are supplied with every CAD programs.Filling the areas in various colors is a requirement in artwork and presentations.
- Different style fonts for text are always supplied with every CAD programs.
- Provisions like importing different graphic file formats and scanning of material (photographs) into a CAD program are also assets especially as the image can be manipulated,retouched and animated.
- The feature of zooming in and out is asset, as well while drawing to scale.CAD information is stored in digital form and hence, irrespective of the size of the final printed drawings,it is possible to accurately dimension components automatically.
- Another advantage of a CAD system is its ability to store entries,which are frequently applied on drawings.
- Using CAD products, assembly drawings can be constructed by incorporating the existing component drawings onto the assembly drawings and positioning them accordingly.
- The biggest contribution of computers to the design process is soft prototyping-the process of creating a 3D-computer model of a design that can be subjected to computer-based testing.
- Presentation programs with rendering models and animation in 3D form a large part of selling and advertising in today’s competitive market.
