CAD : The computer aided design miracle

In this world the musing of the humble designer is seldom talked about or even thought of. What happens between the desk and the drawing board of an engineer, stays there. Even among engineering circles, the skill as important as making drawings of a physical product won't have enough suitors to fill a small room with to talk about. And in all honesty, that is fair. Making engineering drawings, or engineering graphics, for those with taste, is frankly very boring. It's tedious work making detailed drawings of a something that doesn't exist in the world, but you have to make sure its correct to the inch, on paper. To some it is an art only given to the most honored engineers, to most, it is as boring a watching paint dry. 

The world has gone far away from the days of yore. No longer is the creation ground of all things engineered on paper, willed into the world by the mind of an engineer and his pencil. And with new blood, comes new innovations. The world has gone the way of the computer, and engineering graphics followed.

It is thus no surprise that engineering graphics, a skill that once required years of training and experience to get right, can now be accessed by a child on their home personal computer. And with the rise of internet-based tutorials, it is even more accessible for one to learn and put their skills to use. 

The most popular type of 3D CAD software's are Autodesk Fusion 360, Dassault's Solid Works, the cloud based Onshape , and much more. Even on Linux based operating systems, the humble but mighty FreeCAD is a great FOSS, providing free access to CAD software to billions in the world. 

Gone are the days where a hundred engineers would spend years drawing on massive sheets of paper, often stretching many kilometers long, especially on larger projects. And the era where one engineer could do what it would have taken ten engineers a week to do in a day, is here.

This blog isn't about all the technical aspects or a guide on how to use CAD. It is a reflection how engineering is also a study of change. If we truly don't appreciate where we have come to, from where we were in the past and without paying respect to it, we can never truly innovate for a future.

 

PPSR