| Computer-aided design (CAD) is used for designing real and virtual objects. CAD is not only shapes. The output of CAD frequently must also consist of symbols, such as processes, dimensions and tolerances according to application-specific conventions.
CAD may be used to design curves and figures in 2-dimensional (2D) space, and curves, surfaces and solids in three-dimensional (3D) space.
CAD is extensively deployed in many applications, inclusive of automobile, ship-building and aerospace industries, industrial and architectural design, prosthetics and others. CAD is also widely deployed to produce computer animation for special effects in movies, commercials and technical instruction books. CAD is deployed for designing tools and machines as well as for drafting and designing all kinds of architectural structures, from small residential buildings to large commercial and industrial buildings, for example hospitals and factories. Computer-aided design is primarily deployed for detailed engineering of 3D models or 2D drawings of physical components, but it is also deployed throughout the engineering process.
CAD has grown into an exceptionally important technology within the scope of computer-aided technologies, as it saves time and money.
In the late 1980s when the Computer-Aided Design programmes became widely available, there began massive redundancies in drafting departments of small and mid-size businesses. A CAD operator could substitute 3-5 drafters deploying traditional technologies. Moreover, a number of engineers began to do their own drafting projects, hence the demand for traditional drawing departments vanished. As a result of, a lot of drafters were laid off.
Since the advances were high-priced, only large businesses could afford them. Thus, small companies were unable to contend against giant companies that extensively used CAD. Nowadays, prices are reasonable. Even high-end software packages require cheaper platforms and some even support multiple platforms.
Additionally, there have been designed diverse software packages to convert CAD files to other formats. |
