CAD system

[bart]

can any one descride the advantages for a manufacturing company of introducing CAD to replace traditional drawing board methods,,
it would be so good if any one can give me as many points as they can.

and one more thing can you specify the computer software and hardware for presenting CAD drawings to a commercial standardeds

thanksss

[CromCruithne]

The reasons to move from the drawing board to CAD are numerous.
1. Speed, speed, speed!
2. Much more reliable accuracy.
3. Paper Space (do a search of the forums for a full explanation)
4. Revisions involve a few mouse clicks rather than time spent with an eraser and shield.

The list could go on for pages, but I'll let others elaborate on specific points.

As for the software and hardware needed: It depends on your industry and what type of drawings you're wanting to produce. Just about anything can be done with CAD, but certain applications will be better served by more specialized software. The software will dictate the hardware.

-Crom

[Galingula]

Your drawings are available at a snap rather than "where the hell is that set?! I saw it three years ago on that stick witht hat other job".

Version retention. In the dsesign proces you can save ALL of your ideas rather than retracing different options to show clients.

Archival is fast and easy, as is restoring the archive.

Drawing sharing is much easier. Just email them. No need to blue print and send in the post. Ideas are exchange much faster, and decisions therefore are reached faster

Revisions are much faster.

The drawings can become a place for informations storage. Right there at your fingertips rather than looking at a drawing, and then going to the paper files.

Take offs

[jdkriek]

As far as AutoCAD or other CAD programs for 2D: Speed and accuracy. My boss has been drafting by hand for thirty plus years and will tell you first thing that speed efficiency increases significantly and accuracy is one hundred percent if you are methodical.

Inventor or other Modeling programs for 3D manufacturing and prototyping: Back in the day they had interesting methods of milling in three-dimensions, but it required rotating the part by hand and some of the complex or compound arcs and curves we do now would be impossible.

In certain industries the age of drafting as a profession is being phased out. In most of the mechanical engineering plants I know of they just download parts through Inventor, give them new dimensions and make them, hehe.

[ReMark]

Ask him to imagine making a set of drawings with 1,000 fittings on it all drawn by hand. Then tell him how, with the right software, he could insert premade "symbols" for all those same fittings in a fraction of the time if he was using a CAD system

Then remind him about the "joy of erasing" after the client changes his mind for the fourth or fifth time. Edits on a CAD system take a fraction of the time.

Also...the electronic sharing of drawings between disciplines is much easier than sending paper back and forth.