CAD drawings form the core of a design engineer’s role. Items all around you, such as furniture, household appliances, your car, home, and even some jewellery, have all initially been laid out in CAD. These technical drawings provide a visualisation of the concept, a so-called blueprint of the design.
Computer-aided design (CAD) is a technical process by which an idea or invention is communicated and captured via computer software. Each part or component has its own drawing, which can be assembled to form a complete product, disassembled, and modified using CAD software. But that’s not all; the output drawing for each part, also includes information with respect to the material, dimensions, tolerances, processes, etc. Having gone to these lengths, it is no surprise to learn that in order to protect an idea, CAD drawings are an important part of the patent application.
Design engineers are usually approached to create a new drawing as part of the manufacturing process, or to modify something that has already been produced and which does not effectively serve the purpose for which it was designed. But sometimes we are asked by our clients to help reverse engineer a part or transfer CAD drawings from one piece of software to another. This sounds straightforward, I know, but the process, although certainly doable, can be a bit tricky.
There are a number of CAD packages available on the market. Engineers and certain industry sectors have their own preferences. To best serve the needs of our clients, we have found that maintaining licenses for PTC’s Creo, Dassault Systèmes Solidworks, and Autodesk’s Inventor software, is the way to go. As well as keeping the latest version of each application, we also ensure we can access a number of older versions of each one. This process has indeed suited many of our clients over the past twenty-five years or so that Sanstec Design has been operating.
CAD drawings are like blueprints - a plan for how something needs to be designed. But plans can be altered or cancelled! New designs may need to be produced and reproduced. Robert Burns once wrote about “best-laid plans,” so if you seek a respected and competent CAD design engineer that will help you find a solution to a problem, then look no further.
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