Brief History of CAD (Computer Aided Design)

60 years ago, the “Father of CAD,” Dr. Patrick Hanratty created the first numerical
control system, which would later become Computer Aided Design or CAD. The
precision, versatility, and edit-ability of CAD designs revolutionized the engineering,
architecture and manufacturing landscape. The importance of CAD cannot be
understated.

While the History of CAD closely parallels the “History of the Computer,” there have
been many innovations and iterations along the way. With its introduction in 1957, it was
still decades ahead of small and affordable computers which could run the software.
Pencil and paper would remain the primary way “draftsman” would create designs for
another 30 years. But the groundwork was laid for things to come, CAD software would
a fundamental tool for nearly every industry.

The idea of CAD has grown from simple 2D designs into complex, multi-layered 3D
structures with kinematic-movement and detailed meta-data. Similarly, the CADENAS
digital catalog has paralleled innovations in the CAD industry. The eCATALOG solutions
platform is continually evolving to provide native formats as soon as they are available,
often times before they are publicly available. Whether you launch your CADENAS
eCATALOG in 2001, 2017 or 2027 all of the CAD models you provide your clients will
remain backward compatible and “future-proof.”

History of CAD Highlights:

Built by Patrick Hanratty, this was the first commercial

numerical-control programming system, sparked everything
PRONTO 1957 that is CAD.

 
Built by Ivan Sutherland, this was the first to ever use a total
graphic user interface, users wrote with a light pen on an x-y
pointer display, let users constrain properties in a drawing,
Sketchpad 1960
created the use of “objects” and “instances”.

 
Built by Patrick Hanratty, this interactive graphic design,
drafting and manufacturing system was written in Fortran and
designed to work on virtually every machine, a huge hit that
went on to be updated to work on 16 and 32-bit computers,
ADAM 1971
today 80% of CAD programs can be traced back to the roots of
ADAM.

 
 Lets users transfer their 3D designs between CAD software
programs, once STEP was released IGES did not get updated
IGES 1980 anymore, on its way out but still accepted in many places.

 
by Dassault Systemes – Multi platform CAD software, still in
use today.
CATIA 1981
 
by Autodesk, this was the first 2D design CAD software made
for PCs instead of mainframe computers or minicomputers.
AutoCAD 1982
 
Now PTC Creo, this was the first mainstream CAD program
that took the ideas of Sketchpad (Interactive, easy to use, fast)
and made it come to life, based on solid models, history-based
features, and the use of constraints, this was a huge turn in 
CAD history because it completely knocked out any
Pro/Engineer 1987
competition, others were written in Fortran and assembler this
was written in UNIX’s X-Windows which made it faster and
user friendly.

 
Autodesk Made the Autodesk program 3D compatible.
AutoCAD 1994
R13  
Took over from IGES as the new format to use when
transferring 3D models from one to another, 1994 was the
initial release of STEP that made it an international standard for
STEP 1994
models, still the most used format.

 
by Dassault Systemes – Another software that succeeded in
ease of use, allowed more engineers than ever to take
SolidWorks
1995 advantage of 3D CAD technology.
95
 
by Siemens Made as a PLM software (Product Lifecycle
Management), functions on Windows, provides solid modeling,
assembly modeling, and 2D orthographic view, response to the
Solid Edge 1995
success of SolidWorks.

 
Autodesk 1999 Autodesk’s new direction, tried to be more intuitive and simple,
Inventor also allowed the creation of complex assemblies in record time,
 still in use, really upped the game in the CAD world.

 
Autodesk
2012 Moved CAD to the cloud.
360

Introduction to CAD

CAD (Computer Aided Design) is the use of computer software to design and document
a product’s design process.

Engineering drawing entails the use of graphical symbols such as points, lines, curves,
planes and shapes.  Essentially, it gives detailed description about any component in a
graphical form.

Background

Engineering drawings have been in use for more than 2000 years. However, the use of
orthographic projections was formally introduced by the French mathematician Gaspard
Monge in the eighteenth century.

Since visual objects transcend languages, engineering drawings have evolved and
become popular over the years. While earlier engineering drawings were handmade,
studies have shown that engineering designs are quite complicated. A solution to many
engineering problems requires a combination of organization, analysis, problem solving
principles and a graphical representation of the problem. Objects in engineering are
represented by a technical drawing (also called as drafting) that represents designs and
specifications of the physical object and data relationships. Since a technical drawing is
precise and communicates all information of the object clearly, it has to be precise. This
is where CAD comes to the fore.

CAD stands for Computer Aided Design. CAD is used to design, develop and optimize
products. While it is very versatile, CAD is extensively used in the design of tools and
equipment required in the manufacturing process as well as in the construction domain.
CAD enables design engineers to layout and to develop their work on a computer
screen, print and save it for future editing.

When it was introduced first, CAD was not exactly an economic proposition because the
machines at those times were very costly. The increasing computer power in the later
part of the twentieth century, with the arrival of minicomputer and subsequently the
microprocessor, has allowed engineers to use CAD files that are an accurate
representation of the dimensions / properties of the object.

Use of CAD

CAD is used to accomplish preliminary design and layouts, design details and
calculations, creating 3-D models, creating and releasing drawings, as well as
interfacing with analysis, marketing, manufacturing, and end-user personnel. 

CAD facilitates the manufacturing process by transferring detailed information about a

product in an automated form that can be universally interpreted by trained personnel. It
can be used to produce either two-dimensional or three-dimensional diagrams. The use
of CAD software tools allow the object to be viewed from any angle, even from the
inside looking out. One of the main advantages of a CAD drawing is that the editing is a
fast process as compared to manual method. Apart from detailed engineering of 2D or
3D models, CAD is widely used from conceptual design and layout of products to
definition of manufacturing of components. CAD reduces design time by allowing
precise simulation rather than build and test physical prototypes. Integrating CAD with
CAM (Computer Aided Manufacturing) streamlines the product development even more.

CAD is currently widely used for industrial products, animated movies and other
applications. A special printer or plotter is usually required for printing professional
design renderings. CAD programs use either vector-based graphics or raster graphics
that show how an object will look. 

CAD software enables

 Efficiency in the quality of design

 Increase in the Engineer’s productivity
 Improve record keeping through better documentation and communication

Today, the use of CAD has permeated almost all industries. From aerospace,
electronics to manufacturing, CAD is used in all industry verticals. Since CAD
encourages creativity and speeds up productivity, it is becoming more and more useful
as an important tool for visualization before actually implementing a manufacturing
process. That is also one of the reasons CAD training is gaining more and more
importance. 
Types of CAD Software

Since its introduction in late 1960’s, CAD software has improved by leaps and bounds.  
A broad classification of CAD is:

 2D CAD
 3D CAD
 3D Wireframe and Surface Modelling
 Solid Modelling

With more and more companies (if not all) turning to CAD / CAE / CAM to achieve
efficiency, accuracy and reduced time-to-market of products, there is a growing demand
for CAD software. The industry leaders in this space include AutoCAD, Dassault
Systems and Altair.