ABSTRACT
Computer-aided design is the blending of human and machine, working together to achieve the optimal design and manufacture of a product. It has simplified many design processes. The computer’s graphics capability and computing power allow designers to fashion and test their ideas interactively in real time without having to create real prototypes as in conventional approaches to design. A typical CAD system involves both design and manufacturing operations. Complex products are designed and analyzed, and their manufacturing plans are produced. Although sometimes students think of CAD as an electronic drafting board, its functions stretch beyond drawing pictures. An analysis of objects drawn with CAD can be made interactively on the screen, where physical information can be extracted. In engineering, finite element analysis, heat transfer analysis, stress analysis, dynamic simulation of mechanisms, and fluid dynamic analysis are common operations performed with CAD.
