Computer Aided Design is changing our world. From an industry veteran who knows CAD inside out, or someone reading about CAD software for the first time, everyone’s lives have been impacted by the great advances that computers have brought. Computer Aided Design gives creative individuals and industries the ability to produce incredible things that before, they could only have dreamt of. Here are 5 sensational ways to use CAD software.
1. Go 3D
The key to Computer Aided Design software is creativity. Wowing your friends, colleagues and customers is most likely to come about through CAD’s 3-Dimensional capabilities. Photo-realistic virtual products aren’t just for industry experts, either. Even the home user can invest a few hours and create virtual masterpieces. A range of different software is available, depending on what you would like to make, and each arms you to the teeth with the right tools for the job.
Why not design a new car, a toaster, a building, or an alien space-ship? The only limit will be your own imagination!
2. Make a Movie
Who said design was just pen and paper? After experimenting in 3-Dimensions, there is no better way to showcase your creations than with animation and video. CAD software can allow you to take your virtual product out of the programme and into an environment. Car designs can thunder through tunnels, and along open roads. Animation and presentation software allows you to show off your product at a professional level, the way it deserves to be seen!
3. Do the Robot
CAD software is fantastic for the virtual, but what about when it comes to the physical? Designers at the peak of their career and students alike are all experimenting with CAD software to programme robotics. Home users around the world are using CAD to design and make their own electronics, and make them do some incredible things. Some European students studying in Germany made their own remote control helicopter, with CAD software making it possible at every step! On a larger scale, CAD software is used to make thousands of products around the world move, light up, and make some noise with their electronic designs. Another sensational way to use CAD software!
4. Fire up the Laser!
While we’re on the subject of electronics, let’s talk lasers. A fascinating way to use CAD software is 3D scanning. 3D scanning is a way to get a physical object into your computer in virtual form by using lasers on a range of different scales. Having placed the object in a marked position, the laser sends signals of where the beam is broken throughout the different points of the scan. It will remember a reference point, and then place the laser points into the CAD software package to build a huge collection of individual dots that form the shell of the object that has been scanned – amazing! Designers and home-users have been able to scan toy cars, and on a larger scale, real cars. The information can be put into other CAD packages, and then you can add your own 3D elements, changes and creations onto whatever you want to scan.
5. D.I.Y
One of the most amazing things about CAD software is that it is packed with Tutorials. This means that the industry giants are not the only ones who can now take advantage of its amazing benefits. Have you ever considered Do It Yourself with CAD? Self-assembly furniture is one thing, but how about self-created? CAD software can allow you to take your designs through into manufacture. Why not make what you have imagined?
CAD software works hand in hand with manufacturing software, you might want to have your on-screen designs automatically etched and cut by machine. Start off by making a wooden stool, perfect for your personal living space, and who knows where you could stop? A married couple from England are designing their own house to build! CAD software has allowed them to design the blueprints, build the virtual house to see how it would look, and also calculate precise sizes, heat loss, colours, costing, and many other areas.
Conclusion
There are no limits to what you can do with CAD software; these are just 5 of the thousands of different possibilities that it offers. Computer Aided Design gives you the opportunity to do some truly sensational things, and could help your dream creation into a reality. Equip yourself with the right tools, and who knows what you and CAD software could do together?
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An article By Matthew Scott a keen CAD user and particular fan of ArtiCad Design Software.
