CAD/CAM — In engineering, CAD stands for computer-aided design, which uses computer graphics systems to develop mechanical, electrical/electronic, and architectural designs. The term CADD (computer-aided drafting and design) is sometimes used to emphasize drafting and drawing functions.
CAD technology forms the foundation for a wide range of engineering activities, including design, drafting, analysis, and manufacturing. Drawings developed during the design phase are often reused for analysis and optimization, creation of part and assembly drawings, and generation of NC/CNC programs for machining.
Historically, once a component was designed using CAD, the design was passed to a part programmer who manually created machining programs. This process often required re-defining and re-entering geometry, leading to inefficiencies.
This stage was commonly referred to as CAM (computer-aided manufacturing). Today, CAM encompasses a much broader scope, including factory simulation, process planning, and manufacturing system integration.
Advances in computing power, operating systems, and software have greatly simplified integration across design, analysis, simulation, and manufacturing. Modern CAD/CAM/CAE workflows allow data to flow seamlessly through these stages.
A CAD drawing is a graphical representation of part geometry stored in a drawing database file. This file contains entity definitions (lines, arcs, surfaces), coordinate data, and additional information needed to define solid models and features.
Drawing formats depend on the CAD software used. While drawings are not always directly interchangeable, they can often be translated using intermediate formats such as DXF. Translation may result in some loss of detail due to differences in feature support between systems.
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