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Computer-aided design

Computer-aided design (CAD) is the use of computers (or workstations) to aid in the creation, modification, analysis, or optimization of a design.[1]: 3  This software is used to increase the productivity of the designer, improve the quality of design, improve communications through documentation, and to create a database for manufacturing.[1]: 4  Designs made through CAD software help protect products and inventions when used in patent applications. CAD output is often in the form of electronic files for print, machining, or other manufacturing operations. The terms computer-aided drafting (CAD) and computer-aided design and drafting (CADD) are also used.[2]

"CAD" and "CADD" redirect here. For the currency, see Canadian dollar. For other uses, see Cad (disambiguation) and CADD (disambiguation).

Its use in designing electronic systems is known as electronic design automation (EDA). In mechanical design it is known as mechanical design automation (MDA), which includes the process of creating a technical drawing with the use of computer software.[3]


CAD software for mechanical design uses either vector-based graphics to depict the objects of traditional drafting, or may also produce raster graphics showing the overall appearance of designed objects. However, it involves more than just shapes. As in the manual drafting of technical and engineering drawings, the output of CAD must convey information, such as materials, processes, dimensions, and tolerances, according to application-specific conventions.


CAD may be used to design curves and figures in two-dimensional (2D) space; or curves, surfaces, and solids in three-dimensional (3D) space.[4][5]: 71, 106 


CAD is an important industrial art extensively used in many applications, including automotive, shipbuilding, and aerospace industries, industrial and architectural design (building information modeling), prosthetics, and many more. CAD is also widely used to produce computer animation for special effects in movies, advertising and technical manuals, often called DCC digital content creation. The modern ubiquity and power of computers means that even perfume bottles and shampoo dispensers are designed using techniques unheard of by engineers of the 1960s. Because of its enormous economic importance, CAD has been a major driving force for research in computational geometry, computer graphics (both hardware and software), and discrete differential geometry.[6]


The design of geometric models for object shapes, in particular, is occasionally called computer-aided geometric design (CAGD).[7]

(CAE) and finite element analysis (FEA, FEM)

Computer-aided engineering

(CAM) including instructions to computer numerical control (CNC) machines

Computer-aided manufacturing

and motion simulation

Photorealistic rendering

Document management and using product data management (PDM)

revision control

Computer-aided design is one of the many tools used by engineers and designers and is used in many ways depending on the profession of the user and the type of software in question.


CAD is one part of the whole digital product development (DPD) activity within the product lifecycle management (PLM) processes, and as such is used together with other tools, which are either integrated modules or stand-alone products, such as:


CAD is also used for the accurate creation of photo simulations that are often required in the preparation of environmental impact reports, in which computer-aided designs of intended buildings are superimposed into photographs of existing environments to represent what that locale will be like, where the proposed facilities are allowed to be built. Potential blockage of view corridors and shadow studies are also frequently analyzed through the use of CAD.[8]

allows the operator to use what is referred to as "design intent". The objects and features are created modifiable. Any future modifications can be made by changing on how the original part was created. If a feature was intended to be located from the center of the part, the operator should locate it from the center of the model. The feature could be located using any geometric object already available in the part, but this random placement would defeat the design intent. If the operator designs the part as it functions, the parametric modeler is able to make changes to the part while maintaining geometric and functional relationships.

Parametric modeling

provide the ability to edit geometry without a history tree. With direct modeling, once a sketch is used to create geometry it is incorporated into the new geometry, and the designer only has to modify the geometry afterward without needing the original sketch. As with parametric modeling, direct modeling has the ability to include the relationships between selected geometry (e.g., tangency, concentricity).

Direct or explicit modeling

is a process which incorporates results of the previous single-part modelling into a final product containing several parts. Assemblies can be hierarchical, depending on the specific CAD software vendor, and highly complex models can be achieved (e.g. in building engineering by using computer-aided architectural design software)[10]: 539 

Assembly modelling

AC3D

Alibre Design

(Graphisoft)

ArchiCAD

(Autodesk)

AutoCAD

AxSTREAM

BricsCAD

Cobalt

CorelCAD

(Autodesk)

Fusion 360

IntelliCAD

(Autodesk)

Inventor

IRONCAD

(Kubotek)

KeyCreator

Landscape Express

MEDUSA

(Bentley Systems)

MicroStation

(AgiliCity)

Modelur

(PTC)

Onshape

(successor to Pro/ENGINEER) (PTC)

PTC Creo

PunchCAD

Remo 3D

(Autodesk)

Revit

Rhinoceros 3D

SketchUp

(Dassault Systèmes)

SOLIDWORKS

SpaceClaim

T-FLEX CAD

TranslateCAD

TurboCAD

(Nemetschek)

Vectorworks

MIT 1982 CAD lab

Learning materials related to Computer-aided design at Wikiversity

Learning materials related to Computer-aided Geometric Design at Wikiversity