Introduction to autocad

What is AutoCAD?

AutoCAD is a Computer Aided Design (CAD) Software. This software is used for designing right from small things like nut and bolts till megastructures like buildings, airports etc.

In short, we can say that it is used to shape the world around us there are various versions available of AutoCAD which is dedicated to the respective field of architecture, electrical, mechanical, MEP, Maps, Raster design, Plant 3D, etc.

History of AutoCAD

Every software is designed by a person or a team. The father of AutoCAD is Mike Riddle. He released this software together with Autodesk in 1992. In 1992 he joined Autodesk and became the co-founder at Autodesk.

Now if he is the cofounder then who is the founder

That is “John Walker” is the founder. In 1982 he established his company called Autodesk. He himself is a software engineer. He, along with Mike Riddle launched AutoCAD in 1992 and after 4 years he received an award in Las Vegas for a flagship product. It was the best software for 2D. Now that we know who created this.

A total of 35 versions has been released till date including AutoCAD 2021. Since 2010, AutoCAD was releases as a mobile and web app as well, marketing as AutoCAD360

Its name was not “AutoCAD” in 1992.This name was given by Mike Riddle. In fact, in 1977, he started working on a software that was further released in 1979 by the name InteractCAD. When he joined Autodesk in 1992, then he changed the name from InteractCAD to AutoCAD. In some old documents, you might see that this is also referred to as MicroCAD.

Advantages of AutoCAD

·       AutoCAD comes with a complete set of powerful drafting and detailing tools for drafting the professionals.

·       AutoCAD is a simple enough software with the real user friendly interfaces, it is easy to learn.

·        AutoCAD can provide you the basic exposure, it is very beneficial in designing 3D, it reduces the time for the new design, and the product can be created more quickly.

·       AutoCAD offers the powerful and quick dimensions, you can use the simplified tools, you can generate the dimensions to control and expand only the important variable for manufacturing easily.

·       AutoCAD software comes with the specific drafting tools for generating the standards industry based geometric dimensions, the surface texture symbol, the mechanical symbol and the weld symbols, And AutoCAD firm can increases there productivity manifold.

·       AutoCAD software is incorporation for international Drafting standards, Compliance with the industry standards improves the internal communication and the results in reliable production output, it presents easy data swapping, It comes with in-built industry, standard STEP and IGES formats for the exchanging data between different CAD systems.

·       AutoCAD software offers the professional look, it has flexibility in design changes, it has auto specification check feature, it has reduced design time cape, it offers easy reuse of the designs, the costly mistakes in the design or the production can avoided, and you can modify the existing idea that saves the time.

·       AutoCAD software reduced the manufacturing time, the documentation can be printed in various forms for multiple users, it presents ease of the document reproduction and cloning, And it offer visualisation of the complex technical elements.

·       AutoCAD software offers the quality of the designs, It presents the clarity of the documentation, it is easier to apply the new ideas, it can be more accurate than hand-drawn designs, it reduces the human error, you can save and edit the ideas, And it makes it easier and cheaper to modify your design.

·       AutoCAD software reduced the deign timescales, Reuse of the designs, The drawing errors can be corrected easily, The drawings can be sent/received via email in seconds, And AutoCAD software offers rapid prototyping.

·       AutoCAD software helps the designer to automatically check if the design is within the specification, it enables the clients to view the design at an earlier stage in the design process, and it helps the clients to check the progress of functional and semi-functional prototypes.

·       AutoCAD permits you to attract with fractional dimensions and also outline precision to any variety of decimal places, which is not feasible to attain in hand-drafted manual drawings, for this reason providing accuracy in all dimensions.

 

Application of AutoCAD

·       AutoCAD as an architectural planning tool: It come with a user-interface with built-in design lay-outs. The lay-outs contain numerous templates specially designed for architectural planning and building construction. The latest version of AutoCAD come with analytical tools. The tools can analyse the components of the building to troubleshoot stress and load levels of building supports. AutoCAD enables architects to design, plan, execute and analyse the strength of a building supports. AutoCAD enables enables architects to design, execute and analyse the strength of a building at design stage level.

·       AutoCAD as an engineering drafting tool: you can use AutoCAD to draw 2D drawings for any engineering domain and also use AutoCAD to render to 3D models to help in visualization of the end product. It is useful for Mechanical, Piping and Electrical systems. It helps engineers to design, analyse and solve design issues resulting in accurate designs.

·       AutoCAD as a graphic design tool: AutoCAD has innate features that enable user to plan and map out spaces and take advantage of the space available. It can be used simultaneously with 3D max and various other application software’s including animation tools.

·       AutoCAD in the fashion industry: Every pattern and design of jewellery does not come by chance; it is the result of careful planning and designing. AutoCAD has the tools necessary for planning intricate design for manufacture of jewellery, toys and other delicate objects.

·       AutoCAD as industrial design tool: AutoCAD helps to reduce manufacturing costs as it saves time and efforts required for manual designing.

 

Disadvantages of using AutoCAD

 

·       AutoCad software is not so much suited for 3D as it has fewer options, It can not be used in the complex designs, If you are into the heavy assembly work don’t rely on this software, It can not be used in Complex Programming, A large amount of memory and speed is required, Training and equipment are very costly.

 

·       AutoCad software has expansive start-up costs (the hardware, the software, and training), It can be very expensive, so, the initial costs are high, There are free software packages though, The people need to be trained on how to use the software that also adds to the costs, and it requires a PC.

 

·       AutoCad software needs the time & the cost of implementing the system, It needs time & cost of training the people to use it, so, It is very expensive in training, It needs the time & the cost of migrating legacy drawings into AutoCAD format.

 

·       AutoCad software consumes large amounts of the computer processing power, It requires high-quality computer hardware that can be costly, It requires the advanced manufacturing devices which are very expensive, It is not easy for first-time users to learn the software, In addition to the cost of training personnel.