Computer-aided design (CAD) is a computer technology that both designs a product and documents the design's process. CAD may facilitate the manufacturing process by transferring detailed diagrams of a product’s materials, processes, tolerances and dimensions with specific conventions for the product in question. It can be used to produce either two-dimensional or three-dimensional diagrams, which can then when rotated to be viewed from any angle, even from the inside looking out. A special printer or plotter is usually required for printing professional design renderings. The concept of designing geometric shapes for objects is very similar to CAD; it is called computer-aided geometric design (CAGD). Computer-aided design may also be known as computer-aided design and drafting (CADD)
CAD is used for the following:
CAD systems exist today for all of the major computer platforms, including Windows, Linux, Unix and Mac OS X. The user interface generally centers around a computer mouse, but a pen and digitizing graphic tablet can also be used. View manipulation can be accomplished with a spacemouse (or spaceball). Some systems allow stereoscopic glasses for viewing 3-D models. Most United States universities no longer require classes for producing hand drawings using protractors and compasses. Instead, there are many classes on different types of CAD software. Because hardware and software costs are decreasing, universities and manufacturers now train students on how to use these high-level tools. These tools have also modified design work flows to make them more efficient, lowering these training costs even further.
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