Skip to main content

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


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Making rockets for science!

I joined this small group of model rocket enthusiasts from India on Discord. Having an interest in model rocketry and experimenting with model rocketry in my childhood, I really took an interest in their group. And thus, after 4 years of High School not doing much rocketry, I restarted my interest in designing rocket. I was in 1st year 2nd semester college by the time I joined Rocketery-IN. Suffice to say this was the very first time I had to balance a project this big for me and my 2nd semester . This taught me a great deal about time management.  Over the course of the next 6 months , the team and I were steadfast in developing our Jericho-1. And came December 25, 2023 -the time for Jericho to touch the sky with glory !   I will post more about the Jerico-1 in the upcoming posts.
Post a Comment
Read more

3D printing and how to use it to minimize BCT and per-unit-cost.

The word 3D printing in context of mass manufacturing of mechanical or electronic parts tends to get thrown around alot lately. All the flash and bang about 3D printing being hyped as the catch all savior to industry 5.0 seems more fantasy than fact. While 3D printing is a very useful modern technique for manufactuing parts, it still fails to beat the champion parameter of everything manufactuing  - Bottom Cycle Time (BTC).   To explain this topic a bit better, imagine a competition between a Production line with just FMD 3D printers. And another line with the good old Plastic Injection Moulding. The former line represents the modern frontier of manufacturing technology - 3D printing. And the latter line represents the ol' reliable. We shall be comparing the advantages and disadvantages of each gen of Manufactuing tech used and try to find that sweet spot between the two. Our test part will be a 450mm quadcopter frame. A commonly used UAV frame in FPV Kamikazed applicatio...
Post a Comment
Read more