The technology known as computer-aided design (CAD) has revolutionized manufacturing.

The software has gone from expensive and clumsy early products used only by huge companies to an inexpensive and valuable tool in any engineer’s skill set.

CAD is a method of creating engineering drawings using computer software, which allows modern engineers to create their own diagrams in a fraction of the time it did decades ago.

CAD software creates complex diagrams of two and three dimensional objects.

While typically used in manufacturing, the objects created have uses in other applications such as movie animations.

CAD creations go beyond static drawings. Engineers can move the camera around, viewing objects from any angle or distance.

It wasn’t long ago that engineered drawings were produced with ink and paper. The process had to be absolutely precise – if a line needed to be 6.75” long, then a 6.80” line would throw off the entire design.

The earliest CAD-like software is SKETCHPAD, produced at MIT in 1960. In those days, computers were huge and difficult to use. In 1982, Autodesk, the first PC CAD software, marked a change in the future of engineering drawings.

As computers became more powerful, people could design objects as simple as shampoo bottles with technology beyond what aircraft engineers had used a decade before.

CAD systems had both positive and negative effects on businesses.

A single CAD operator could produce drawings that would take a drafter three to five times as long.

Since engineers could make their own drafts, many companies did away with their drafting departments.

Some engineers disliked this trend since the time spent doing CAD work meant they weren’t engineering.

Early CAD software was too expensive for small firms who then couldn’t compete with large firms.

Today’s CAD systems are reasonably priced and within the reach of all engineering firms.

Off the shelf computer systems are capable of running CAD. Even a one-person consulting firm can afford the capability.

Suppliers of industrial products release CAD documents of their products that customers can download to examine.

Microsoft Windows has helped the popularity of CAD. Although there are alternatives like Mac OS and Linux, developers need to support fewer platforms to reach a large customer base, and CAD experts find their skills easily transfer should they move to a different company.

CAD led to the development of Product Lifecycle Management (PLM), which allows manufacturers to plan and manage a product from conception to design and distribution.

Advances in information technology allow companies to organize and access all the data on a product.

PLM has given manufacturers more control over product development as they design and produce more cheaply.

CAD can severely reduce the need for prototyping.

Manufacturers in the defense and aerospace industries use CAD designs at almost every stage of the design process for complex and technologically advanced products – from original design concepts to laying out cockpit instrument panels.

Much of the computer animation technology of major movie studios has its roots in CAD. Advertisers create digital mockups of products for use in commercials.

Online technical manuals include interactive animations that allow reading in a virtual space.

Fields such as computational geometry use CAD as scientists explore complex mathematical problems.

Online tutorials offer information for new CAD users to learn the software.

Online CAD resources introduce users to the latest news in CAD development, reviews of CAD software, and online magazines for in depth information. Links to CAD user groups forge lasting professional partnerships.

Sites like CAD-Portal take users beyond basic CAD information to find detailed industry reports, information on university programs, and job listings.

CAD forums allow users to connect to discuss the technology and better educate each other. Small companies may have only one CAD person with no mentor. While the software manufacturer may help with a technical problem, sometimes even they are of no assistance.

Other users can answer questions more frankly and honestly than manufacturer’s technical support can. Workaround software problems may save a user’s project.

Fellow operators are valuable resources for tips and tricks on using the software better and developing new capabilities.

Some industrial supply manufacturers provide CAD drawings of their products.

Armed with these CAD drawings, buyers can be sure they are getting exactly the parts they need.

CAD technology genuinely deserves the description ‘revolutionary’.

CAD has changed engineering and design and allows a new generation of technology that would have been impossible a few years ago.