COMPUTER AIDED DESIGN
INTRODUCTION TO CAD
Computers have a prominent, often controlling role throughout the life cycle of engineering products and manufacturing processes. Their role is becoming increasingly important as global competitive pressures call for improvements in product performance and quality coupled with significant reductions in product design, development, and manufacturing timetables.
Design engineers vastly improve their work productivity using computers. Performance of a product or process can be evaluated prior to fabricating a prototype using appropriate simulation software.
Computer-aided design (CAD) uses the mathematical and graphic processing power of the computer to assist the engineer in the creation, modification, analysis, and display of designs. Many factors have contributed to CAD technology becoming a necessary tool in the engineering world, such as the computer’s speed at processing complex equations and managing technical databases. CAD combines the characteristics of designer and computer that are best applicable to the design process.
The combination of human creativity with computer technology provides the design efficiency that has made CAD such a popular design tool. CAD is often thought of simply as computer-aided drafting, and its use as an electronic drawing board is a powerful tool in itself. But the functions of a CAD system extend far beyond its ability to represent and manipulate graphics. However, geometric modeling, engineering analysis, simulation, and the communication of the design information can also be performed using CAD.
Emory W. Zimmers, Jr. and Technical Staff
Enterprise Systems Center
Lehigh University
Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
Mechanical Engineers’ Handbook: Materials and Mechanical Design, Volume 1, Third Edition.
Edited by Myer Kutz
Copyright 2006 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
