THE CAD DRAFTER

The term drafter commonly refers to a man or woman who is employed in the drafting profession. Other general-purpose titles include draftsperson, design drafter, drafting technician, engineering drafter, CADD operator, and CADD technician. A job title can also be discipline or task specific. For example, a cad drafter who works for a civil engineering firm is a civil drafter, civil engineering drafter, construction drafter, or civil CADD technician. Several industries and most engineering and architectural related fields require drafters.

According to the Australian Department of Labor, most drafters work in the following industries:

• Professional, scientific, and technical services.
• Manufacturing
• Construction
• Administrative and support services.

Drafters prepare technical drawings and plans used by production and construction workers to build everything from microchips to skyscrapers. Drafters’ drawings provide visual guidelines and show how to construct a product or structure. Drawings include technical details and specify dimensions, materials, and procedures. Drafters fill in technical details using drawings, rough sketches, specifications, and calculations made by engineers, surveyors, architects, or scientists. For example, many drafters use their knowledge of standardized building techniques to draw Notice edit the details of structures.

Most drafters use CADD systems to prepare drawings. Accordingly, some drafters may be referred to as CADD operators. With CADD systems, drafters can create and store drawings electronically so that they can be viewed, printed, or programmed directly into automated manufacturing systems. CADD systems also permit drafters to prepare variations of a design quickly. Although drafters use CADD extensively, they still need knowledge of traditional drafting techniques in order to fully understand and explain concepts. Some use their understanding of engineering and manufacturing theory and standards to draw the parts of a machine; they determine design elements, such as the numbers and kinds of fasteners needed to assemble the machine. Drafters use technical handbooks, tables, calculators, and computers to complete their work.

DRAFTING FIELDS

Drafting is a broad occupation. There are many drafting fields and several drafting or related occupations within each fi eld. The most common drafting fields include architecture, civil and electrical engineering, electronics, mechanical engineering, and industrial process-pipe drafting.

Drafting, in general, has one basic description, but specific drafting areas have unique conceptual and skill characteristics. Drafters perform general duties described under the title of drafter in all drafting disciplines. Most drafters rely on knowledge of engineering or architectural principles, mathematical formulas, physical laws, and manufacturing or construction processes and limitations. Drafters typically work from analyzes, standards, specifi cations, sketches, engineering drawings, models, prototypes, verbal instructions, ideas, and related design data. Drafters then perform discipline and project specific tasks that require certain knowledge and skill. For example, an automotive design drafter requires knowledge of automotive vehicle design and manufacturing.
Drafters often create a variety of drawings even though they may be employed in a certain fi eld or focus on a specific product. For example, an architectural drafter may be involved in preparing structural, electrical, plumbing, and civil drawings.

A mechanical drafter may participate in simulation and analysis studies and create electronic drawings and technical illustrations. Drafters often work with a team, individuals of the same discipline, and others related to a specific project. For example, architectural drafters typically work with architects, architectural designers, and related architecture, engineering, and construction professionals.

Aeronautical Cad Drafter

 Aeronautical drafting is a specialization of mechanical drafting. Aeronautical drafters may create CADD models and drawings of aeroplanes, missiles, spacecraft, and components and related equipment, such as launch mechanisms.

Architectural Cad Drafter

 Architectural drafters prepare CADD models and drawings of the architectural and structural features of a building. The figure is an example of an architectural elevation. The figure shows examples of architectural details. Architectural drafters rely on knowledge of building materials, codes, construction methods, and engineering practices. Architectural drafters work from specifications, sketches, and rough drafts. Architectural drafters may specialize in a type of building, such as residential or commercial, or construction material, such as reinforced concrete, masonry, steel, or timber.

Automotive Design Cad Drafter

Automotive design drafting is a specialization of mechanical drafting. Automotive design drafters develop working layouts and master drawings of automotive vehicle components, assemblies, and systems.

Casting, Forging, and Mold Cad Drafter

Casting, forging, and mould drafting is a specialization of mechanical drafting. Casting, forging, and mould drafters create CADD models and drawings for castings, forgings, and modelled parts. Castings, forgings, and moulded parts require special knowledge and attention to die and mould design, shrinkage allowances, and various other factors such as corner radii.

Civil Cad Drafter

Civil drafters prepare CADD models and drawings used in construction or civil engineering projects, such as highways, bridges, pipelines, flood-control projects, and water and sewage systems. The figure shows an example of a civil subdivision plan. Civil drafters create topographical and relief maps, and plot maps and charts showing profiles and cross-sections, indicating the relation of topographical contours and elevations to buildings, retaining walls, tunnels, overhead power lines, and other structures.

Civil drafters prepare detailed drawings of structures and installations, such as roads, culverts, fresh-water supplies, sewage-disposal systems, dikes, wharves, and breakwaters.

Civil drafters also compute the volume of the tonnage of excavations and fills and prepare graphs and hauling diagrams used in earthmoving operations. Civil drafters may accompany survey crew in field to locate grading markers or to collect data required for revision of construction drawings. A topographical drafter is a civil drafter who specializes in drafting and modifying topographical maps from surveying notes and aerial photographs.

Cartographic Cad Drafter

 A cartographic drafter, also known as a cartographer, draws maps of geographical areas to show natural and constructed features, political boundaries, and other features. Cartographers collect, analyze, and interpret geographic information provided by geodetic surveys, aerial photographs, and satellite data. Cartographers research, study and prepare maps and other spatial data in digital or graphic form for legal, social, political, educational, and design purposes. Cartographers may also work with and develop a geographic information system (GIS).

Commercial Cad Drafter

Commercial drafting is a specialization of architectural drafting. A commercial drafter, also known as a facilities drafter, is responsible for laying out the location of buildings, planning the arrangements of offices, large rooms, store buildings, and factories, and drawing charts, forms, and records. A commercial drafter may also create 3-D rendered models.

Directional Survey Cad Drafter

 Direction survey drafting is a specialization of civil drafting. Directional survey drafters plot oil- or gas-well boreholes from photographic subsurface survey recordings and other data. Directional survey drafters compute and represent diameter, depth, degree, and direction of inclination, location of equipment, and other dimensions and characteristics of boreholes.

Electrical Cad Drafter

Electrical drafters generate CADD models and drawings of electrical equipment, wiring diagrams, circuit board assembly diagrams, and layout drawings used by construction crews and repairers who erect, install, and repair electrical equipment and wiring in communications centres, power plants, industrial establishments, commercial and domestic buildings, and electrical distribution systems. An electric-cable diagrammer is an electrical drafter who specializes in preparing detail cable layout and diagrams for cable installation.

Electronic Cad Drafter

Electronic drafters produce CADD models and drawings, such as wiring diagrams, layout drawings, mechanical detail drawings, and drawings of intermediate and final assemblies that are used in manufacturing, assembling, installing, and repairing electronic devices and components, printed circuit boards, and equipment. Electronic drafters examine electronic schematics and supporting documents received from design engineering departments to develop, compute, and verify specifications in drafting data, such as configuration of parts, dimensions, and tolerances.

Geological Cad Drafter

Geological drafters draw maps, diagrams, profiles, cross-sections, directional surveys, and subsurface formations to represent geological or geophysical stratigraphy and locations of gas and oil deposits. Geological drafters correlate and interpret data obtained from topographical surveys, well logs, and geophysical prospecting reports and use special symbols to denote geological and geophysical formations or oil field installations.

Geophysical Cad Drafter

Geophysical drafters draw subsurface contours in rock formations from data obtained by geophysical prospecting. Geophysical drafters plot maps and diagrams from computations based on recordings of seismographs, gravity meters, magnetometers, and other petroleum-prospecting instruments and from prospecting and surveying field notes. Geophysical drafters some- times receive a title such as a seismograph drafter, according to a specific method of prospecting.

Heating, Ventilating, and Air-Conditioning Cad Drafter

 Heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning drafters generally work for an HVAC engineering firm developing contract documents from engineering schematics. HVAC drafting may involve light design work in sizing and routing systems to conform to the allotted space with the building structure, as well as calculating heat loss and heat gain for buildings for use in determining equipment specifications. HVAC drafting may also involve trade-to-trade coordination on an elemental level.

A refrigeration drafter specializes in drawing plans for the installation of refrigeration equipment. A detail drafter, or detailer, works for an HVAC contractor developing 3-D models, detailed shop and installation drawings, performing trade-to-trade coordination to a finished degree and developing fabrication cut sheets. Detailers can also be involved in download to or input into a sheet metal fabrication software program.

Industrial Process-Pipe Cad Drafter

 An industrial process-pipe drafter-also known as an industrial pipe drafter, a piping drafter, and a pipeline drafter– prepares CADD models and drawings used in the layout, construction, and operation of oil and gas fields, refineries, chemical plants, and process piping systems.

Industrial process-pipe drafters develop detail drawings for the construction of equipment and structures, such as drilling derricks, compressor stations, and gasoline plants; frame, steel, and masonry buildings; piping manifolds and pipeline systems; and for the manufacture, fabrication, and assembly of machines and machine parts.

Industrial process-pipe drafters prepare maps to represent geological stratigraphy, pipeline systems, and oil and gas locations, using field survey notes, geological and geophysical prospecting data, and aerial photographs.

An oil and gas drafter is an industrial process-pipe drafter who specializes in oil and gas industrial pipe drafting.

Landscape Cad Drafter

Landscape drafters prepare CADD models and drawings from rough sketches or other data provided by landscape architects. Landscape drafters may prepare separate detailed site plans, grading and drainage plans, lighting plans, paving plans, irrigation plans, planting plans, and drawings and details of garden structures. Landscape drafters may build models of proposed landscape construction and prepare coloured drawings for presentation to clients.

Mechanical Cad Drafter

The manufacturing industry uses mechanical drafting, its name derived from mechanisms. The construction industry also uses mechanical drafting, but the term refers to drafting HVAC systems, which is the mechanical portion of an architectural project.

In general, mechanical drafting is the core of the engineering drafting industry. The terms engineering drawing and engineering drafting used throughout all drafting disciplines.

A mechanical drafter, also known as an engineering drafter, is a drafter associated with mechanical drafting for the manufacturing industry.

Mechanical drafters create CADD models and drawings of machinery and mechanical devices, indicating dimensions and tolerances, fastening and joining methods, and other engineering data and requirements. Mechanical drafters draw multiple-view part, assembly, subassembly, and layout drawings as required for manufacture and repair of machines and equipment. The figure shows an example of a part drawing.

Marine Cad Drafter

Marine drafting is a specialization of mechanical and structural drafting. Marine drafters develop CADD models and drawings of structural and mechanical features of ships, docks, and other marine structures and equipment.

Patent Cad Drafter

 Patent drafters prepare clear and accurate drawings of varied sorts of mechanical devices for use of a patent lawyer in obtaining patent rights. The “Patents” section toward the end of this chapter provides additional information on patents and patent drawings.

Photogrammetrist

Photogrammetrists analyze source data and prepare mosaic prints, contour-map profi le sheets, and related cartographic materials that require technical mastery of photogrammetric techniques and principles.

Photogrammetrists prepare original maps, charts, and drawings from aerial photographs and survey data and apply standard mathematical formulas and photogrammetric techniques to identify, scale, and orient geodetic points, estimations, and other planimetric or topographic features and cartographic detail.

Photogrammetrists graphically represent aerial photographic detail, such as contour points, hydrography, topography, and cultural features, using precision stereo plotting apparatus or drafting instruments.

Photogrammetrists revise existing maps and charts and correct maps in various states of compilation. Photogrammetrists also prepare rubber, plastic, or plaster 3-D relief models.

Plumbing Cad Drafter

 A plumbing drafter, also known as a pipe drafter, specializes in CADD models and drawings for installing plumbing and piping equipment in residential, commercial, and industrial settings. Commercial and industrial piping relate closely to industrial process-pipe drafting.

Structural Cad Drafter

Structural drafters create CADD models and drawings for structures that use reinforcing steel, concrete, masonry, wood, and other structural materials. Structural drafters produce plans and details of foundations, building frame, floor and roof framing, and other structural elements.

A detail drafter, or detailer, works for a structural contractor developing 3-D models, detailed shop drawings, and installation drawings, performing trade-to-trade coordination to a finished degree, and developing fabrication drawings. Detailers may also be involved in downloading to or inputting into a structural component fabrication software.

Technical Illustrator

Technical illustrators layout and draw illustrations for reproduction in reference works, brochures, and technical manuals dealing with assembly, installation, operation, maintenance, and repair of machines, tools, and equipment.

Technical illustrators prepare drawings from blueprints, design mockups, and photographs by methods and techniques suited to specified reproduction process or final use, photo-offset, and projection transparencies, using drafting and optical equipment.

Technical illustrators create schematic, perspective, axonometric, orthographic, and oblique-angle views to depict functions, relationships, and assembly sequences of parts and assemblies such as gears, engines, and instruments.

Technical illustrators also create rendered drawings and 3-D models, and they may draw cartoons and caricatures to illustrate operation, maintenance, and safety manuals and posters.

Tool-and-Die Design Cad Drafter

Tool-and-die design drafting is a specialization of mechanical drafting. Tool-and-die design drafters prepare CADD models and detailed drawing plans for manufacturing tools, usually following designs and specifications indicated by tool designers.

EDUCATION AND QUALIFICATIONS

The design and drafting profession can provide a rewarding career for people who enjoy detailed work and have a mechanical aptitude and ability to visualize. Math and communication skills are also important. The following information describes education and qualification requirements for an entry-level drafting position.

High school courses in mathematics, science, computer technology, design, computer graphics, and drafting are useful for people considering a drafting career. However, employers in the drafting industry prefer applicants who have at least two years of postsecondary training in a drafting program that provides strong technical skills and considerable experience with CADD systems.

Employers are most interested in applicants with a strong background in fundamental drafting principles;well-developed drafting skills; knowledge of drafting standards, mathematics, science, and engineering technology; a solid background in CADD techniques; and the ability to apply their knowledge to a broader range of responsibilities. Future students should contact prospective employers to ask which schools they prefer and contact schools to ask for information about the kinds of jobs their graduates have, the type and condition of instructional facilities and equipment available, and teacher qualifications.

Many technical institutes, community colleges, and some four-year colleges and universities offer drafting programs. Technical institutes offer intensive technical training, but they provide a less general education than do community colleges Technical institutes may award either certificates or diplomas and programs can vary considerably in length and in the types of courses offered. Many technical institutes offer two-year associate degree programs. Community colleges offer programs similar to those in technical institutes but include more classes in drafting theory and also often require general education classes. After completing a two-year associate degree program, graduates may obtain jobs as drafters or continue their education in a related field at a four-year college. Most four-year colleges do not offer training in drafting, but they do offer classes in engineering, architecture, and mathematics that are useful for obtaining a job as a drafter. Technical training obtained in the armed forces can also apply in civilian drafting jobs. Some additional training may be necessary, depending on the technical area or military specialty.
Mechanical drafting-the type of drafting done for the manufacturing industry-offers the fundamental standards involved in the design and drafting profession. However, there are a variety of design and drafting discipline categories. Training differs somewhat within the drafting specialties, although the basics, such as mathematics, are similar. In an electronics drafting program, for example, students learn how to show electronic components and circuits in drawings. In architectural drafting, students learn the technical specifi cations of buildings.

Some educational programs provide training in specifi c disciplines, whereas others provide diversifi ed training in several areas. The opportunity to experience more than one discipline allows you to find an industry that you prefer.

General Qualifications and Certification

Mechanical ability and visual aptitude are important for drafters. Prospective drafters should be able to perform detailed work accurately. Artistic ability is helpful in some specialized fields, as is knowledge of manufacturing and construction methods. In addition, future drafters should have good interpersonal skills because they work closely with engineers, surveyors, architects, and other professionals and sometimes with customers.

Advancement

Opportunities for advancement for drafters are excellent, although dependent on the advancement possibilities of a specific employer. Advancement also depends on your skill, initiative, ability, product knowledge, attitude, ability to communicate, continued education, and enthusiasm.

Entry-level or junior drafters usually do routine work under close supervision. After gaining experience, drafters may become intermediate drafters and progress to more difficult work with less supervision. At the intermediate level, drafters may need to exercise more judgment and perform calculations when preparing and modifying drawings. Drafters may eventually advance to senior drafter, designer, or supervisor.

An entry-level drafting position may not be in your chosen field, but you should be able to find employment in your desired area with experience and an open job market. Opportunities are available that allow people to expand career potential into related areas such as tool design and cartography. Many people who enter the drafting industry begin to move up quickly into the design, checking, purchasing, estimating, and management.

Many employers pay for continuing education. Additional education for advancement usually includes increased levels of mathematics, pre-engineering, engineering, software, and advanced drafting. Appropriate college degrees may allow drafters to go on to become engineering technicians, engineers, or architects. Drafting has traditionally been an excellent way of designing, engineering, and management.

DRAFTING JOB OPPORTUNITIES

Drafting job opportunities, which include all possible drafting employers, fluctuate with national and local economies. Employment as a drafter remains tied to industries that are sensitive to cyclical changes in the economy, primarily construction and manufacturing.

A slowdown or speedup in construction and manufacturing nationally affects the number of drafting jobs available. The economic effect on drafting job opportunities also occurs at the local level or with specific industries. For example, construction may be strong in one part of the country and slow in another, so the demand for drafters in those localities is strong or slow accordingly.

Fewer drafters are required when large manufacturers, such as automobiles, experience poor sales. More drafters are required when industries such as high-tech expand. In addition, a growing number of drafters should continue to find employment on a temporary or contract basis as more companies turn to the employment services industry to meet their changing needs.

Local demands also generally control the types of drafting jobs available. Each local area usually has a need for more of one type of drafting skill than another. In general, metropolitan areas where manufacturing is strong offer more mechanical drafting jobs than rural areas, which typically offer more civil or structural drafting jobs than other disciplines. Drafting curriculums in different geographical areas usually specialize in the fields of drafting that help fill local employment needs.

A broader range of opportunities exists in many local areas because of the flexibility of electronic data transfer, making it possible to complete tasks worldwide. Some drafting programs offer a broad-based education so graduates can have versatile employment opportunities. When selecting a school, research curriculum, placement potential, and local demand. Talk to representatives of local industries for an evaluation of the drafting curriculum.

SEARCHING FOR A DRAFTING POSITION

Entry-level drafting positions require you to be prepared to meet the needs and demands of the industry. Entry into the drafting career marketplace depends on your training and ability and on the market demand. Your training, skills, and personal presentation are especially important in a poor economic environment, and these can make the difference in finding an employment opportunity.

A two-year, postsecondary degree in drafting can also provide a big advantage when seeking a position in the drafting industry. Programs of this type normally have a quality cross-section of training in design and drafting, math, and communication skills. Two-year, postsecondary drafting programs often have a job- preparation and placement services to aid their graduates.

Many of these schools have direct industry contacts that help promote hiring opportunities. Training programs also often have cooperative work experience (CWE) or internships in which their students work in the industry for a designated period while completing degree requirements.

These positions allow a company to determine if the student is a possible candidate for full-time employment and provide the student with valuable on-the-job experience to include on a résumé. Even if you do not go to work for the company where you do CWE or an internship, you can get a letter of recommendation for your portfolio.

When the local economy is doing well and drafting job opportunities are plentiful, it may be possible to find a job with less than a two-year college degree. If you want to find entry-level employment in a job market of this type, you can take intensive training in CADD practices. The actual amount of training required depends on how well you do and whether you can match an employer who is willing to hire with your level of training. Many people have entered the industry in this manner, although you would be well advised to continue schooling toward a degree while you are working.

Job-Seeking Strategy

 The following are some points to consider when you are ready to seek employment:

• Get your résumé in Take a résumé-preparation course or get some help from your instructors or a career counsellor. Your résumé must be quality and professional representation of you. When an employer has many résumés, the best stands out.
• Write an application or cover letter. You can receive help with an application or cover letter from the same people who help with your résumé. Write a professional and clear application letter that is short, to the point, and lists the reasons why you would be an asset to the company.
• Prepare a portfolio. Your portfolio should contain examples of school and industry drawings that you have Neatly organize the drawings and select examples that help you target the specific industry discipline that you are seek- ing. For example, include mechanical models and drawings if you are interviewing with a company in the manufacturing industry. Display architectural models and drawings if you are interviewing with an architect or building designer. Include letters of recommendation from employers and instructors with your portfolio.
• Register with the department, school, and state employment service. Watch the employment ads in local newspapers and check out Internet employment sites.
• Make a realistic decision about the type of place where you want to work and the salary and benefits you really think you should Base these decisions on sound judgment. Your instructors should have this information for the local job market. Do not make salary your first issue when seeking a career position. The starting salary is often just the beginning of many companies. Consider advancement potential. A drafting technology position often is a stepping- stone to many opportunities, such as design, engineering, and management.
• Research prospective companies to learn about their business or The Internet is a good place to seek information because most companies have a Web site. This type of research can help you during an interview.
• Be prepared when you get First impressions are critical. You must look your best and present yourself well. Always be on time or early. Relax as much as you can. Answer questions clearly and to the point, but with enough detail to demonstrate that you know what you are talking about. It is often unwise to talk too much. Show off your portfolio. Be prepared to take a CADD test or demonstrate your skills.
• Ask intelligent questions about the company during an interview because you need to decide if you want to work, For example, you may not want to work for a company that has no standards, poor working conditions, and pirated software. You might prefer to work for a company that has professional standards and CADD systems, a pleasant work environment, and advancement possibilities.
• Respond quickly to job The employment marketplace is often very competitive. You need to be prepared and move quickly. Follow whatever instructions an employer gives for you to apply. Sometimes employers want you to go in person to fill out an application, and sometimes they want you to e-mail, fax, or mail a résumé. Either way, you can include your application letter and résumé. Sometimes employers want you to call for a preinterview screening.
• In an active economy, it is common to get more than one If you get an offer from a company, take it if you have no doubts. However, if you are uncertain, ask for 24 or 48 hours to make a decision. If you get more than one offer, weigh the options carefully. There are advantages and disadvantages to every possibility. Make a list of the advantages and disadvantages of each company for careful consideration.

Employment Opportunities on the Internet

 The Internet is a valuable place to seek employment. There are hundreds of Web sites available to help you prepare for and find a job. Many Web sites allow you to apply for jobs and post your resume for possible employers.

Some employers screen applicants over the Internet. The only caution is that any Internet-displayed personal information is available for anyone to read. However, some Web sites such as www.seek.com.au provide a safe place to post your résumé for only employers to review. You should always confirm that the terms of the agreement provide you with a safe place to search for employment.

DRAFTING SALARIES AND WORKING CONDITIONS

Salaries in drafting professions are comparable to salaries of other professions with equal educational requirements. Employment benefits vary according to each employer. However, most employers offer vacation and health insurance coverage, and some include dental, life, and disability insurance.

Australian Design & Drafting Services provide excellent service for CAD Design and  Drafting. Contact Us for more info.

The reusability offers essential CADD benefits. By using CADD, it’s necessary to draw anything more than once. Developing a CADD symbols library enhances the ability to reuse all the content. It built a part of the library for reusability with increased productivity. It decreases the development costs and sets the highest standards for Measurement Documentation.

The parts of the library can reuse 3D isometric parts to create the CADD illustrator. It is saved as symbols in a parts library directory. By pathing the named symbols back into the library directory, the symbol can be accessible to any directory along with drawing file. It allows the CADD illustrator to insert library symbols into the drawing by choosing named symbols from the directory.

The example adds new parts to the library as a disassembled and illustrated product. The part available in the number is later used as its symbol name in the library. Originally, the CADD drawings were merged with the text on the desktop by publishing software and creating technical publications.

The CADD drawings added to the document files are primarily specialised in the technical-publishing software. Also, the entire parts of the library can be used by both CADD and technical-publication software users. We understand the viewpoint of cost management, the parts library that can save hundreds of working hours. From the illustrator’s view, the parts library supports improves productivity and frees time for complex projects.

Design Reusability In Solidworks

For example, “I know that part is here somewhere, also, I think I have saved it in the XXX project folder, oh last year, we designed a similar project. If you’ve come across the same situation and have spent time hunting for previous designs or recreating the same content several times, you’re not alone here. Fortunately, we help you offer powerful capabilities that can minimise the pain and support getting the job done quickly.

Design Library

It includes the box standard using mechanical design content. It uses a windows folder structure to organise and share with co-workers easily. It can easily add content using drawing notes, purchased parts, feature sets, company logos, welding symbols, assemblies, etc.

SOLIDWORKS Toolbox

We have a professional and premium design team. We use thousands of standard hardware components, including washers, gears, o-rings, nuts, bolts, bearings, pins etc. Get fully configured components with all standard sizes and lengths. It can auto-size corresponding features that add BOM details and custom components by using the “Configure Toolbox” wizard.

Integrated SOLIDWORKS Search

Setup all index locations.

Tools > Options > System Options > File Locations placed> Search Paths

Now use, set up options to index and show 3DCC results

Tools > Options > System Options > Search

Use the keyboard shortcut to activate the search

Get free online resources. Use thousands of vendors with configurable and downloadable 3D files. It uses tons of user-uploaded content previews 3D files right in the browser. It uses an integrated SOLIDWORKS search that can drop right into SOLIDWORKS. It comes with mate references that add any part or assembly that can reuse and snap into the position. It adds a circular edge between a cylindrical and planar face to add concentric and coincident mates.

We add references that add name the mate reference and get it to find mating components easily. Use the same name for the mate preference in the mating part. Put into an assembly, and they will snap together like magic.

Smart Components

It allows inserting parts, features, or both. Think about mounting holes and hardware. It uses features that include entire tolerances with simply set-up assembly. It creates an intelligent component by editing the part in the context of the setup assembly. It uses Tools to Make Smart components.

Use helps to insert and position the part in your assembly. Later it can click the smart component icon in the graphics by Inserting Smart Features. Choose what to include in it as we are an excellent Australian Design & Drafting Services company to offer CAD Design and Drafting. Contact Us for more information.

WHAT ARE DRAFTING STANDARDS

There are a lot of industries, schools, and companies that establish standards using guidelines and specifying drawing requirements, appearance, techniques, operating procedures, and record-keeping methods.

We, as the best Australian Standards provider company, defines the standard as a set of technical definitions and guidelines. It also includes how-to instructions for designers, manufacturers, and users. Additionally, the standards promote safety, reliability, efficiency and productivity in almost every industry that relies on engineered components or equipment. The standards can be as short as a few paragraphs or hundreds of pages long. Additionally, the experts write them with knowledge and expertise in a particular field that sits on many committees. The Australian Drafting Standards is one or more governmental bodies that adapt and have the force of law.

DRAFTING STANDARDS

The Drafting Standard is considered voluntary because they serve as guidelines. The standards become mandatory when a business contract or regulations incorporate them. It’s crucial for engineering communication as they use a common language, defining quality and establishing safety criteria.

The costs are lower, and the training is simplified, whereas the procedures are standardized. Interchangeability is a critical reason for standardization. It’s a part manufactured in one location that fits with a mating part manufactured in another location.

The Drawing standards apply primarily used in settings and procedures, including:

CADD file storage, file templates, and other files contain standard file settings and objects for use in new files. Additionally, it covers Units of layout, borders and title, symbols, layers, text, table, dimension, and other drafting styles and plotting.

The company or school drawing standards follow appropriate national industry standards. It varies in content, where the most crucial aspect is used in standards and used by all design and drafting personnel. They follow drawing standards, where drawings are consistent and become more productive.

Australian Drafting Standards

We are an excellent professional engineering organization for mechanical engineering that use standards Australia publishes. The documents sponsor technical conferences and educational programs, including professional development courses. We are an accredited standard developing organization that meets the requirements of various codes. Along with this, our standard publishes numerous disciplines. Our drafting standards mainly focus on specific areas of engineering drawing related to practices received through designation.

ISO Drafting Standards

CADD Skill Standards

The CADD (Computer-Aided Drafting and Design )skill standards help develop and cooperate with the National occupational skill standards. It summarizes CADD occupation skills generic with all CADD disciplines, software, and entry-level.

AS 1100

Taking about AS 1100, It’s an Australian Standard for technical drawing that includes mechanical and architectural designs. AS 1100 standard drawings support attributes that are universal around Australia. The drafting standard publishes them and helps till the last stage.

The standard consists of six parts,

• Part 101: General principles (1992)
• Part 201: Mechanical engineering drawing (1992)
• Part 301: Architectural drawing (2008)
• Part 401: Engineering survey and engineering survey design drawing (1984)
• Part 501: Structural engineering drawing (2002)

You cannot view these without purchasing a licence first.

Acronyms and Abbreviations in Engineering

A A – Ampere A/C – Air Conditioning A/H – After Hours AB – As-Built ABBR – Abbreviation ABS – Absolute ADD – Addendum AEC – Architecture, Engineering, and Construction AF – Across Flats AFL – Above Floor Level AFL – Above Finished Level AG – Agricultural pipe drain AGL – Above Ground Level AHD – Australian Height Datum AHU – Air Handler Unit APPROX – Approximately or Approximate ARRGT – Arrangement AS – Australian Standard ASCII – American Standard Code for Information Interchange ASSD – Assumed Datum ASSY – Assembly ATF – Along Top Flange AUTO – Automatic AUX – Auxillary AVG – Average B B – Basin or Bottom BLDG – Building BNS – Business Network Services BOT – Bottom BQ – Bendable Quality BRG – Bearing BRS – Brass BSP – British Standard Pipe BT – Bath Tub BT – Boundary Trap BTM – Bottom BW – Both Ways C C – C shaped steel purlin C/C – Cross Centres CAD – Computer-Aided Design. Less commonly use is Computer Assisted Drafting. CAM – Computer Aided Manufacture CAP – Capacity CBORE – Counterbore CCTV – Closed Circuit Television CFW – Continuous Fillet Weld CHAM – Chamfer CHCL – Channel CH HD – Cheese Head CHS – Circular Hollow Section CI – Cast Iron CIRC – Circumference or Circle C.J. OR CJ – Control Joint (or Construction Joint) CL – Center Line CLG – Control Joint CLR – Clearance CMU – Cement Masonry Unit CNC – Computer Numerical Control CNR – Corner CNJ – Construction Joint COEF – Coefficient COL – Column COMMS – Communications CONC – Concentric CONN – Connection CONT – Continuous CP – Chrome Plated C REC HD – Cross-Recess Head CRS – Colled Rolled Steel CTRS – Centres CS – Cleaners Sink CS – Cast Steel CKS – Countersink CSK HD – Countersunk Head CT – Controller CTR – Contour CTR(S) – Centre/S CTRL – Control CTRS – Centers CU – Dental Cuspidor CUP HD – Cup Head CVR – Cover CYL – Cylinder °C – Degrees Celsius D DAR – Dressed All Round DD – Design Drawing DED – Dedendum DET – Detail DIA – Diameter DIAG – Diagram DIAG – Diagonal DICL – Ductile Iron Cement Lined (pipe) DIST – Distance DIM – Dimension DN – Diameter Nominal DP – Down Pipe DP – Diametral Pitch DR – Dryer DRG – Drawing DW – Dishwasher DWG – Drawing DWG(S) – Drawing/S E E – Modulus of Elasticity EA – Equal Angle (steel) EF – Each Face E.J. or EJ – Expansion Joint EL – Elevated Level EL – Elevation ELEC – Electrical ELEV – Elevation EQ – Equal EQUIP – Equipment EQUIV – Equivalent EW – Each Way EWB – Electric Water Boiler EWC – Electric Water Cooler EXT – External F FB – Footing Beam F’c – Characteristic Concrete Strength FCU – Fan Coil Unit FFL – Finished Floor Level FHR – Fire Hose Reel FIQ – Figure FILL HD – Fillister Head FL – Floor Level FL – Flat or Flat Plate FLG – Flange FOC – Fibre Optic Cable FS – Far Side FSBL – Full Strength Butt Weld FTG – Footing FTP – Fibre Termination Panel (fibre optical cable) FW – Fillet Weld FWF – From Web Face (steel) G GA – General Arrangement GALV – Galvanized GCI – Galvanized corrugated iron. GD – Grid GI – Galvanized Iron GIP – Galvanized Iron Pipe GIS – Graphic Information System GPO – General Purpose Outlet GR – Grade GRF – Geometric Reference Frame GSM – Global System of Moblie or “Groupe Speciale Mobile” in French H H – Prewash Hose Reel HD – Head HEX HD – Hexagon Head HEX SOC HD – Hexagon Socket Head HOR – Horizontal HORIZ – Horizontal HP – High Pressure HRA – Rockwell Hardness A HRB – Rockwell Hardness B HRC – Rockwell Hardness C HS – High Strength HT – Height HTS – High-Tensile Steel HV – Diamond Pyramid Hardness Number (Vickers) HWB – Hair Wash Basin I I – Moment of Inertia ID – Inside Diameter IE – Invert Elevation I.J. or IJ – Isolation Joint IL – Invert Level INT – Internal IO – Inspection Opening IP – Intersection Point ISO – International Standard Organisation J JIS – Japanese Industry Standard JT – Joint JUNC – Junction K kHz – Kilohertz K.J. or KJ – Key Joint KS – Kitchen Sink KWh – Kilo Watt Hour (metre)

L L – Steel Angle LAN – Local Area Network LG – Length LGX – Line Group Cross (Connector, fibre optical cable) LH – Left Hand LMC – Least Material Condition LONG – Longitudinal LPG – Liquid Petroleum Gas LT – Laundry Trough M m – Metres (English) or Meters MATL – Material MAX – Maximum M/C – Machine MDF – Main Distribution Frame (Telecommunications) MFR – Manufacturer MHz – Megahertz Mickey Mouse – A toy project, of very low quality. MI – Malleable Iron MIN – Minimum MISC – Miscellaneous M.J. or MJ – Movement Joint mm – Millimetres MMC – Maximum Material Condition MOD – Modification MS – Mild Steel MTG – Mounting MUSH HD – Mushroom Head N NC – Normally Closed NEG – Negative NET – Network No. – Number NOM – Nominal NS – Near Side NS – Nominal Size N.S.O.P. – Not Shown On Plan NTS – Not To Scale NZS – New Zealand Standard O OA or O/A – Overall OCT – Octagon OD – Outside Diameter OPT – Optional P P – Pipe PA – Pressure Angle PAR – Parallel PATT – Pattern PCD – Pitch Circle Diameter PFC – Parallel Flange Channel PL – Plate PL – Pipeline POS – Positive POSN – Position PREFAB – Prefabricated PT – Pressure Tapping PT – Part PVC – Poly Vinyl Chloride uPVC – UV Stabilized Poly Vinyl Chloride Q QTY – Quantity R R – Radius Ra – Roughness Value RAD – Radius or radial RD – Round REF – Reference RECT – Rectangular REINF – Reinforcement REQ’D or REQD – Required REV – Revision RH – Right Hand RHS – Rectangular Hollow Section (rarely Rolled Holled Section) RL – Reduced Level or Relative Level RO – Reverse Osmosis (water treatment) RSA – Rolled Steel Angle RSC – Rolled Steel Channel RSD CSK HD – Raised Countersunk Head RSJ – Rolled Steel Joist S S – Snug fit or tightened (bolts) S – Sink SAN – Sanitary SDU – Sanitary Disposal Unit SECT – Section SF – Strip Footing SF – Spot Face SFL – Structural Finished Level SH – Sheet SHR – Shower SHS – Square Hollow Section SIM – Similar SK – Sketch SL – Structural Level SPT – Spigot SQ – Square SS or S/S – Stainless Steel SSL – Structural Slab Level ST – Steel STD – Standard SW – Switch T T – Top TB – Tie Beam TB – Fully tensioned, bearing type (bolts) TEMP – Temperature TF – Fully tensioned, friction type (bolts) TFC – Taper Flange Channel THD – Thread THK – Thick TO or T.O. or T.OFF – Top Off TOL – Tolerance TP – Tangent Point TP – True Position TP – True Profile TR – Laundry Trough TUN – Tundish TYP – Typical U U/S – Under Side UA – Unequal Angle (steel) UB – Universal Beam (steel) UC – Universal Column (steel) UCUT – Undercut UNO – Unless Noted Otherwise (UON is prefered) UON – Unless Otherwise Noted uPVC – Unplasticized Polyvinyl Chloride UR – Urinal V VER – Vertical VERT – Vertical VOL – Volume W WAN – Wide Area Network WB – Welded Beam (steel) WC – Welded Column (steel) WC – Water Closet (toilet). Where the poo and wee goes. WC(P) – Water Closet With ‘P’ Trap WC(S) – Water Closet With ‘S’ Trap WD – Working Drawing WM – Washing Machine WP – Water Proof or Work Point WI – Wrought Iron X X – By. Example, “N12 x 1200 long” also means “N12 by 1200 long”. Y YP – Yield Point Z Z – Zulu (Greenwich Mean Time) Z – Z shaped steel purlin Z – Modulus of Section Other Characters °C – Degrees Celsius Ø – Diameter # – Number /tb – Fully tensioned, bearing type (bolts) /tf – Fully tensioned, friction type (bolts) /s – Snug fit or tightened (b

Welding Symbols Chart

Australian Design & Drafting Services provide excellent service for CAD Design and  Drafting. Contact Us for more info.

Intellectual Property Rights

The success of a company often relies on the integrity of its employees. Products are normally the result of years of research, engineering, and development. This is referred to as the intellectual property of the company. Protection of intellectual property can be critical to the success of the company in a competitive industrial economy. This is why it is very important for employees to help protect design ideas and trade secrets. Many companies manufacture their products in strict, secure, and secret environments. You will often find proprietary notes on drawings that inform employees and communicate to the outside world that the information contained in the drawing is the property of the company and is not for use by others.

Software Piracy

 Software piracy is the unauthorized copying of software. Most software licenses support use at one computer site or by one user at any time. When you buy software, you become a licensed user. You do not own the software. You are allowed to make copies of the program for backup purposes, but it is against the law to give copies to colleagues and friends. Software companies spend a lot of money creating software programs for your professional and personal applications. Each new release usually provides you with improved features and more efficient use. When you use software illegally, you hurt everyone by forcing software companies to charge more for their products. Ethically and professionally, use software legally and report illegal use when observed.

COPYRIGHTS

A copyright is the legal rights given to authors of original works of authorship. The Australian Constitution establishes copyright and patent law and empowers the federal government to promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries. Copyrights control exclusively the reproduction and distribution of the work by others. In Australia, published or unpublished works that are typically copyrightable include:

• Literary works, including computer programs and
• Musical works, including any accompanying
• Dramatic works, including any accompanying
• Pantomimes and choreographic
• Pictorial, graphic, and sculptural
• Motion pictures and other audiovisual
• Sound
• Architectural works and certain other intellectual

Intellectual Property Rights and Patent Application

Copyright protection exists from the time the work is created in fixed form. The fixed form may not be directly observable; it can be communicated with the aid of a machine or device. The copyright in the work of authorship immediately becomes the property of the author who created the work. Copyright is secured automatically when the work is created, and the work is created when it is fixed in a copy or phono- recorded for the first time. Copies are material objects from which the work can be read or visually perceived directly or with the aid of a machine or device. A copyright notice can be placed on visually perceptible copies. The copyright notice should have the word Copyright, the abbreviation Copr., or the symbol © (or ® for phonorecords of sound recordings); the year of first publication; and the name of the owner of the copyright.

Patents

A patent for an invention is the grant of a property right to the inventor, issued by the IP AUSTRALIA. The term of a new patent is 20 years from the date on which the application for the patent was filed in Australia or, in special cases, from the date an earlier related application was filed, subject to the payment of maintenance fees. The IP AUSTRALIA patent grants are effective only within Australia. The patent law states, in part, that any person who “invents or discovers any new and useful process, the machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent,” subject to the conditions and requirements of the law.

The patent law specifies that the subject matter must be “useful.” The term useful refers to the condition that the subject matter has a useful purpose and must operate. You cannot patent laws of nature, physical phenomena, and abstract ideas. A complete description of the actual machine or other subject-matter is required to obtain a patent.

Application for a Patent

 The IP AUSTRALIA offers standard and innovation patent applications. A standard patent application is for the full patent, which lasts 20 years. The innovation patent application is for a temporary patent that lasts for one year.

Standard Application for a Patent

According to the IP AUSTRALIA, a standard application for a patent is made to the assistant commissioner for patents and includes:

1. a written document that has a specification and an oath or declaration,
2. a drawing in those cases in which a drawing is necessary, and
3. the filing fee.

All application papers must be in the English language, or a translation into the English language is required. All application papers must be legibly written on only one side by either a typewriter or mechanical printer in a permanent dark ink or its equivalent in portrait orientation on flexible, strong, smooth, nonshiny, durable, white paper. Present the papers in a form having sufficient clarity and contrast between the paper and the writing to permit electronic reproduction. The application papers must all be the same size, either 21.0 cm by 29.7 cm (DIN size A4) or 21.6 cm by 27.9 cm (81¤2 3 11 in.). Application documents must have a top margin of at least 2.0 cm (3⁄4 in.), a left-side margin of at least 2.5 cm (1 in.), a right- side margin of at least 2.0 cm (3⁄4 in.), and a bottom margin of at least 2.0 cm (3⁄4 in.), with no holes made in the submit- ted papers. It is also required that the spacing on all papers be 11¤2 or double spaced, and the application papers must be numbered consecutively, centrally located above or below the text, starting with page 1. All required parts of the application must be complete before sending the application, and it is best to send all of the elements together. The IP AUSTRALIA numbers all applications received in serial order and the applicant will be informed of the application serial number and filing date by a filing receipt.

Innovation Application for a Patent

If you want protection for an invention with a short market life that might be superseded by newer innovations, such as computer-based inventions, an innovation patent is worth considering.

An innovation patent lasts up to eight years and is designed to protect inventions that do not meet the inventive threshold required for standard patents. It is a relatively quick and inexpensive way to obtain protection for your new device, substance, method or process.

The innovation patent requires an innovative step rather than an inventive step. An innovative step exists when the invention is different from what is known before, and the difference makes a substantial contribution to the working of the invention. The innovation patent protects an incremental advance on existing technology rather than being a groundbreaking invention.

An innovation patent is usually granted within a month of filing the complete application. This is because there is no examination before it is granted.

An innovation patent is only legally enforceable if it has been examined by us and found to meet the requirements of the Patents Act 1990, and has been certified. Examination of an innovation patent will only occur if requested by the patentee, a third party or if the Commissioner of Patents decides to examine the patent. The patentee will not be required to pay for examination until it is requested.

Phase-out of the innovation patent

The Australian Government has begun the process of phasing out the innovation patent with the passing of legislative amendments. This means:

• The last day you can file a new innovation patent will be 25 August 2021.
• Existing innovation patents that were filed on or before 25 August 2021 will continue in force until their expiry. This will ensure current rights holders are not disadvantaged.

The Government remains committed to dedicated support services to help small and medium enterprises (SMEs) navigate the intellectual property (IP) system. Australian SMEs will receive further dedicated support, with an SME case management service, the SME fast track service, a dedicated outreach program and online portal, to be launched as the innovation patent is phased out over the next 18 months.

The quick guide to innovation versus standard patents

	Innovation patent	Standard patent
Your invention must:	Be new, useful and involve an innovative step.	Be new, useful and involve an inventive step.
The application should include:	A title, description, up to five claims, drawings (if applicable), an abstract and forms.	A title, description, any number of claims, drawings (if applicable), an abstract and forms.
A patent is granted if:	The application satisfies formality requirements (note: a ‘granted’ innovation patent cannot be enforced unless examined).	The application is examined and found to satisfy the relevant requirements of the Patents Act 1990.
Examination:	Optional. The examination can be requested by you or anyone else.	Mandatory. The relevant requirements of the Patents Act 1990 must be met before a patent is granted. Can only be requested by the applicant.
Certification:	Is given if the innovation patent complies with the relevant requirements of the Patents Act 1990 in the examination. Only after certification can the patent be enforced.	N/A
Publication in the Australian Official Journal of Patents:	At grant and again at certification.	Eighteen months from earliest priority date and again at acceptance.
Protection period:	Up to eight years if annual fees are paid.	Up to 20 years if annual fees are paid (or up to 25 years for pharmaceuticals).
How long does the process take?	Approximately one month for the grant. Six months for examination if you make a request.	Six months to several years depending on circumstances.

Patent Drawings

There is no requirement for a specific number of views. However, you must provide sufficient views to fully display your design, which usually requires a number of views.
We prefer traditional views (front, side and top) but will also accept perspective or isometric views. (See image).

All views must show exactly the same design. This particularly applies to colour, as colour is usually a visual feature of the design.

Key points for drawings

Drawings should:

• be accurately drawn, not sketches, with well-defined line-work
• only show the design in question and no descriptive wording or dimensions. However, labelling of views such as ‘perspective view’ or ‘rear views’ is acceptable
• on A4 size paper if lodged by post
• use broken or dashed lines when highlighting:
  • elements of the product other than those bearing the visual features of the design
  • parts of the design that are referred to in the statement of newness and distinctiveness
  • boundaries, such as a pattern applied to part of a surface, stitching and perforations
  • features that establish an environmental context.

Shading and cross-hatching can be used to show a visual feature of the design.

Key points for photographs or digital images

Photographs or digital images should:

• be clear originals
• show the product against a plain contrasting background and avoid matter not relevant to the design
• be A4 or mounted on A4 white paper if lodged by post.

Other details

If it’s a multiple design application, then each design should be clearly indicated, with each design shown on a separate sheet.

Complex products

Sometimes a design is applied to a part of a complex product, and that part can be readily assembled and disassembled from that product. If the component part qualifies as a product, then broader protection may be gained by defining this as a stand-alone part.

TRADEMARKS

According to the IP AUSTRALIA publication Basic Facts About Registering a Trademark, a trademark is a word, phrase, symbol or design, or combination of words, phrases, symbols, or designs that identifies and distinguishes the source of the goods or services of one party from those of others. A service mark is the same as a trademark except that it identifies and distinguishes the source of a service rather than a product. Normally, a mark for goods appears on the product or on its packaging, whereas a service mark appears in advertising for services. A trademark is different from a copyright or a patent. As previously explained, a copyright protects an original artistic or literary work, and a patent protects an invention.

Trademark rights start from the actual use of the mark or the filing of a proper application to register a mark in the AUSTRALIA stating that the applicant has a genuine intention to use the mark in commerce regulated by the AUSTRALIA. Federal registration is not required to establish rights in a mark, nor is it required to begin use of a mark. However, federal registration can secure benefits beyond the rights acquired by just using a mark. For example, the owner of a federal registration is presumed to be the owner of the mark for the goods and services specified in the registration and to be entitled to use the mark nationwide. Generally, the first party who either uses a mark in commerce or files an application in the AUSTRALIA has the ultimate right to register that mark. The authority of the AUSTRALIA is limited to determining the right to register. The right to use a mark can be more complicated to determine, particularly when two parties have begun use of the same or similar marks without knowledge of one another and neither has a federal registration. Only a court can make a decision about the right to use. Federal registration can provide significant advantages to a party involved in a court proceeding. The AUSTRALIA cannot provide advice concerning rights in a mark. Only a private attorney can provide such advice.

Intellectual Property Rights and Patent

Trademark rights can last indefinitely if the owner continues to use the mark to identify its goods or services. The term of federal trademark registration is ten years, with ten-year renewal terms. However, between the fifth and sixth year after the date of initial registration, the registrant must file an official paper giving certain information to keep the registration alive. The registration is cancelled if this is not done. Please confirm specific trademark details and requirements with the AUSTRALIA.

Individuals with talent, wisdom, vision, and innovative ideas have influenced the history of engineering drawing. Major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, and transport also greatly influenced the evolution of engineering drawing and had an overpowering effect on socioeconomic and cultural conditions between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Recently and more rapidly, computers have become a driving force in the way people create engineering drawings.

Early Drawing Practices

prehistoric humans created images on cave walls and rocks as a form of communication for hunting and gathering societies, to provide ritual or spiritual meaning, and for decoration.

Prehistoric drawings and paintings, known as pictograms, and carvings, known as petroglyphs, show a variety of animals and human shapes. Pictograms and petroglyphs are not engineering drawings, but they do represent early graphic forms of communication. For thousands of years, designers of ancient structures and machines used sketches, drawings, and documents to represent inventions and architecture and help design and distribute information to workers. However, activities such as farming, craft making, and toolmaking, and construction generally followed established standards of the time without the use of formal drawings as a guide. Production was more like a form of art than engineering, and each item was unique.

Early engineering drawings representing machines and buildings appear in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. These drawings were generally in the form of pictorial sketches with written descriptions that helped workers understand the intent of the drawings for fabrication or building. Early engineering drawings served as a reference for craft workers to construct a building or manufacture a product. Craft workers viewed the drawings and written descriptions and made interpretations based on their own experience and knowledge of current standard practices. Specific dimensions were not necessary, because each building or machine was different. Early engineering drawings were also an art form used during presentations to the persons who requested the designs.

Engineering Drawing Pioneers

Most early creators of engineering drawings were artists and inventors. Some of the best-known early engineering drawings are the work of Italian Leonardo da Vinci. Leonardo is well known for his art, such as The Last Supper in 1498 and the Mona Lisa in 1507. He was also an inventor who designed machines such as the glider shown in Figure and military equipment such as the giant crossbow. Leonardo’s drawings were those of an artist and were not in the form of engineering drawings. Leonardo’s drawings were pictorial and generally without dimensions. No multiview drawings of Leonardo’s designs are known to exist. Multiview drawings are 2-D drawings of objects organized in views.
Skilled tradespeople worked from the pictorial sketches and representations to construct models of many of Leonardo’s designs. Each machine or device was unique, and parts were not interchangeable. Leonardo was also an early mapmaker. In 1502, Leonardo created a map containing the town plan of Imola, Italy. Authorities commissioned Leonardo as the chief military engineer and architect because of this mapmaking. Arguably, this early work was more artistic than the beginning of engineering drawing, but this work holds a special place in history.

Approximately the same time as Leonardo da Vinci created his drawings, awareness developed that drawings require greater accuracy and dimensions. An early author of architecture and engineering was an Italian man, Leon Battista Alberti. Leon’s writing covered a wide range of subjects, from architecture to town planning and from engineering to the philosophy of beauty. In 1435 and 1436, Leon also wrote two works that explored the need to incorporate more geometry in drawings. Leon also proposed drawings with multiple views rather than the commonly used pictorial drawings. The importance of using multiview two-dimension drawings was also influenced by the development of descriptive geometry in the work of French philosopher and mathematician René Descartes (1596-1650) and the work of Frenchman Gaspard Monge (1746-1818). René was the inventor of the Cartesian coordinate system, and he founded analytic geometry, the link between algebra and geometry. The Cartesian coordinate system uses numerical coordinates to locate points in space according to distances measured in the same unit of length from three intersecting axes. The Cartesian coordinate system is the basis for establishing points when using CADD today.

Gaspard Monge created a large-scale plan of a town using his own methods of observation and instruments that he designed. As a result, authorities commissioned Gaspard as a drafter and pupil in the practical school of the military institution. Given a project to design a proposed fortress, Gaspard used his geometrical method to create the design quickly. Continuing his research, Gaspard arrived at a graphic method of the application of geometry to construction, now called descriptive geometry. Descriptive geometry is the system of graphic geometry that uses plane projections to describe and analyze their properties for engineering drafting applications.

Many early drafters had degrees in engineering and began to realize the importance of creating accurate and detailed engineering drawings. However, much of the drafting was in the form of line drawings, with watercolour paints used to high-light the drawings as shown in the architectural elevation of a home. Drawing continued to be basic line drawings with little dimensioning practice. An example is the early architectural floor plans shown in Figure used to construct a home. Craft workers also followed architectural details such as the gable design shown in Figure. There were few if any dimensions and standards, so each building was similar but different. This practice lasted until the early part of the twentieth century.

Into the late 1800s and early 1900s, inventors, engineers, and builders worked on each product on a one-of-a-kind basis. Manufactures produced parts from hand sketches or hand drawings on blackboards. American engineer and inventor Coleman Sellers, in the manufacture of fire engines, had blackboards with full-size drawings of parts. Blacksmiths formed parts and compared them to the shapes on the blackboards. Coleman Sellers son, George Sellers, recalls lying on his belly using his arms as a radius for curves as his father stood over him direct-ing changes in the sketches until the drawings were satisfactory. Most designs used through the 1800s began as a hand sketches of the objects to be built. Workers then converted the sketches into wooden models from which patterns were constructed. Some companies followed this practice well into the twentieth century. An example is Henry Ford and his famous blackboards. What was new, though, was that the blackboards were also the Henry Ford drafting tables. Henry would sketch cars and parts three-dimensionally and have pattern makers construct full-size wooden models.

The Influence of Interchangeability

The Industrial Revolution was a period from the eighteenth to nineteenth centuries when major changes took place in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, and transport. The need for interchangeability in manufactured products became important during the Industrial Revolution. Interchangeability refers to parts manufactured identically within given tolerances. interchangeable parts are produced to specifications that make sure they are so nearly identical that they fit into any product for which they are designed. One part can replace another of the same part without custom fitting. Interchangeability allows easy assembly of new products and easier repair of exist- ing products while minimizing the time and skill required for assembly and repair.

HISTORY OF ENGINEERING DRAWING

The application of interchangeability started with the firearms industry. Before the eighteenth century, gunsmiths made guns one at a time, and each gun was unique. If one component of a firearm needed to be replaced, the entire weapon was sent back to the gunsmith for custom repairs or the firearm was discarded. The idea of replacing these methods with a system of interchangeable manufacture gradually developed during the eighteenth century. Interchangeability was not realized except in special examples until the development of the micrometre in the late 1800s; even then, interchangeability was not easy to achieve. Without the concept of interchangeability, accurate drawings were not necessary. After these advances, engineering drawing began to evolve more rapidly in the nineteenth century.

Drafting Practices and Equipment

Early engineering drawings were often works of art and commonly made with ink. Drafters initially drew using a pencil, T-square, triangles, scales, irregular (French) curves, and drawing instruments such as compasses and dividers. Drafting textbooks as late as the fourth edition of this textbook spent pages describing how to sharpen, hold, and properly use pencils to draw quality uniform lines. Drafters often traced original pencil drawings onto cloth using pen and ink. Drafters always paid skilled attention to lettering quality on drawings. Engineering drafters would use a specific lettering style referred to as vertical uppercase Gothic. Architectural drafters used a more artistic style of lettering that defined their drawings as uniquely related to their discipline. Over the years, various templates and other devices were introduced that allowed drafters to produce consistent quality lettering, although most professional drafters preferred to make quality freehand lettering.

Drafters initially created drawings by hand on a drafting table referred to as aboard. An advance in drafting occurred with the introduction of the drafting machine, which replaced the T-square, triangles, scales and protractor for creating drawings. The drafting machine mounts to the table or board and has scales attached to an adjustable head that rotates for drawing angles. When locked in a zero position, the scales allow drawing horizontal and vertical lines and perpendicular lines at any angle orientation. There are arm and track drafting machines. The arm machine has arms attached to a mounting bracket at the top of the table. The arms control the movement of the head. The track machine has a traversing track that mounts to the table and a vertical track that moves along the horizontal track. The machine head traverses vertically on the track as shown in Figure.

Many architectural drafters used a device called a parallel bar, is a long horizontal drafting edge attached to each side of the table that moves up and down on the table. The parallel bar allows the drafter to draw horizontal lines, and triangles are used on the bar to draw angled lines. During the decades after World War II, drafting equipment suppliers introduced a variety of materials to improve the productivity of the drafting process.

Drawing Reproduction

About the same time as interchangeability became important and engineering drawings were evolving, preserving, and duplicating original drawings became important. There was a need to reproduce drawings easily for distribution to manufacturers or builders, so the blueprint process developed. A blueprint is a contact chemical-printing process of a drawing or other image copied on paper with white lines on a blue background. As drawing reproduction evolved, a diazo process that created blue line copies with a white background replaced the blueprint process. Until recently, all drawing reproductions were commonly referred to as blueprints. Today, offices use printers, plotters, and engineering copiers that use xerography to reproduce CADD drawings. The generic term print has replaced the term blueprint.

Computer-Aided Design and Drafting

During the 1980s and 1990s, CADD rapidly became a technology to take seriously. Companies began considering the power of CADD as computer systems and CADD software developed capabilities and features that made them useful in producing professional drawings. Drafters who had used manual drafting for their entire careers had to face the challenge of converting their artistic skill into drawings created using a computer. This was a difficult challenge for many drafters. Soon schools began teaching drafting technology using CADD. This gave the traditional manual drafters an opportunity to learn the new technology and for new trainees to develop CADD knowledge and skills at the entry-level.

In the 1980s, schools started teaching CADD in their curricula by adding a few computers into the traditional manual drafting program. Eventually, half of the typical classroom was equipped with traditional drafting tables and the other half was CADD workstations, or the school would open a separate CADD lab to teach courses. This plan closely paralleled what was happening in the industry for those companies that were taking CADD seriously. By the 1990s, many schools and companies were starting to make the complete transition to CADD by replacing manual drafting tables with CADD workstations. Today, CADD accounts for almost all design and drafting. The figure shows a 3-D model of an aeroplane engine, which demonstrates the power of CADD for designing products.

Australian Design & Drafting Services provide excellent service for CAD Design and  Drafting. Contact Us for more info.

Engineering design and drawing offer a broad subject that includes many theories and practices. It has different forms of drawing at the lunch table as a basic sketch of a new product idea drawn on a napkin.

Additionally, the drawing comes in the form of a complex series of models for a new automotive design. It uses hundreds of formal drawings that require the construction of a skyscraper. One could learn the purpose and requirements and create meaningful engineering drawings by using this textbook to study engineering drawing and design. The engineering design applications offer an early explanation along with systematic problem-solving techniques.

WHAT IS THE ENGINEERING DESIGN APPLICATION

We use specific engineering projects or general design along with drafting concepts. The engineering design application mainly uses post guides through a basic example of an engineering design process. It begins with an idea and a basic sketch that ends with manufacturing an actual product.

From an Idea to a Product

The engineering projects and design ideas establish or occur along with an informal setting. For instance, a hand-tool manufacturing company engineer uses a typically adjustable wrench to complete a common home-repair task.

They used the wrench, where the engineers discovered that it was difficult to access a confined location and remove a nut on a piece of equipment. The engineer additionally imagined how the company could manufacture, design, and market a new wrench. We use features that help in making the tool usable in cramped locations. The other day, the engineer and a colleague used the drafting department. The engineer mainly sketches the idea for the new wrench on a napkin by communicating the design to the drafter.

The sketch mostly shows the idea of taking the existing tool design that creates a whole new handle adding an ogee or S-shaped curve design. Additionally, the sketch communicates the concept that takes a current tool with creating a fresh hold of an S-shaped curve design.

Later the same day, the drafter would offer the three-dimensional (3-D) solid model files using existing wrench design based on the computer-aided design and drafting (CADD) system.

The user mainly uses drafter copies that revise the existing design based on the engineer’s sketch. The drafter represents the engineer’s new model, who is pleased with the results and requests of a rapid prototype. Rapid prototyping (RP) is a process that creates a physical and functional model from a computer-generated 3-D model. It uses an RP machine, known as a 3-D printer. The RP machines are available that build prototypes from various materials like paper and liquid polymer. The hand-tool company do not have an RP machine. Therefore, the drafter sends files of the design to a company specialising in RP. The engineer and drafter receive a prototype two days later.

The figure shows the prototype of the new wrench design. The design team tests the prototype in an application similar to what the engineer experienced at home. The prototype worked as expected.

By the next afternoon, the drafter completes the set of working drawings shown in Figure and sends the drawings to the manufacturing department to manufacture and assemble the new product. The manufacturing department needs lead time to design and make the forging dies required to reproduce the parts. Lead time is the time interval between the initiation and the completion of a production process. Forging is the process of shaping malleable metals by hammering or pressing between dies that duplicate the desired shape. The hand-tool company is small, so the drafter is also responsible for creating catalogue art and copy for marketing the product.

Assembly Drawings and Parts List & Detail drawing of the new wrench body part

Detail drawing of the new wrench JAW part.

Detail drawing of the new wrench GEAR part.

Detail drawing of the new wrench PIN part.

Less than two months after the engineer had the initial idea, the first production run of new wrenches is ready to sell. The figure shows the finished product.

WHAT IS THE ENGINEERING DESIGN APPLICATION

We have the best design team that tests the prototype in an application. It works similar to what the engineer experienced at home. The prototype worked as expected. The drafter supports along with completing the set of working drawings by the next day and sends the drawings to the manufacturing department. It helps to manufacture and assemble the new product. The manufacturing department needs lead time to design and make the forging dies required to reproduce the parts. The Lead time is the time interval between the initiation and the completion of a production process. It helps in the process of shaping malleable metals that presses between dies and duplicate the desired shape. Additionally, the hand-tool company is relatively small. It helps to draft for creating catalogue art and add copy for the product marketing.

Engineering design applications offer numerous benefits that significantly contribute to the efficiency, accuracy, and innovation in the engineering field. Some of the key benefits include:

1. Efficiency and Productivity: Engineering design applications streamline the design process, reducing the time and effort required to create complex models. They enable engineers to work faster and more efficiently, leading to increased productivity and shorter project timelines.
2. Cost Savings: By using design applications, engineers can identify potential issues early in the design phase, minimizing costly errors and rework. This proactive approach helps save money throughout the entire project lifecycle.
3. Improved Design Quality: Engineering design applications allow for more precise and detailed modeling, leading to higher-quality designs. They offer advanced simulation and analysis tools that help engineers optimize their designs and ensure they meet performance requirements and safety standards.
4. Collaboration and Communication: Design applications often facilitate collaboration among multidisciplinary teams, as multiple engineers can work simultaneously on the same project. It improves communication between team members and stakeholders, enhancing project coordination and reducing misunderstandings.
5. Innovation and Creativity: These applications foster creativity and innovation by providing engineers with tools to explore various design options and alternatives quickly. They can experiment with different concepts and assess their feasibility before selecting the best approach.
6. Visualization and Virtual Prototyping: Design applications offer 3D modeling and visualization capabilities, allowing engineers to create realistic virtual prototypes. This enables stakeholders to visualize the final product before physical manufacturing, making it easier to make informed decisions.
7. Sustainability and Environmental Impact: With the ability to simulate and analyze designs, engineers can evaluate the environmental impact of their projects. They can optimize designs to be more sustainable and eco-friendly, aligning with the growing emphasis on environmental responsibility.
8. Rapid Prototyping and Manufacturing: Many design applications integrate with 3D printing and computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) technologies. This integration facilitates the seamless transition from design to physical prototype or production, accelerating the manufacturing process.
9. Regulatory Compliance: Design applications often include features that help engineers adhere to industry regulations and standards. They assist in documenting and validating designs to meet legal and safety requirements.
10. Continuous Improvement: Engineering design applications often receive updates and improvements, incorporating user feedback and advancements in technology. This ensures that engineers have access to the latest tools and features to continuously enhance their design processes.

Australian Design & Drafting Services provide excellent service for CAD Design and  Drafting. Contact Us for more info

There has been a new trend in CAD designing world for a 3D modelling for complex design and CAD design platform has evolved so much that 2D drawings become the by-product of 3D modelling.

2D drawings are easy to generate but engineers prefer 3D models for complex applications and design generation. When both are easily achievable, they also are a choice of avoiding catastrophe in the longer run. It basically demands foresight to decide and avail a smooth function of fabrication part of the engineering project and business applications on later stages. Engineering documentation is at the heart of the long, storied history of technical draftsmanship. The objective back then is no different from today’s challenge: represent an engineering design in the most accurate and concise way possible. Distilling the 3D reality we live in onto sheets of paper involved a carefully considered system of dimensioning and orthographic projections. These days, they might be referred to as 2D Drawings (which is a redundant term if you think about it). The system worked then and it works now. Those who are well-trained in these classical methodologies have difficulty understanding why there should be anything else. Why fix what ain’t broke?

To think that 2D drawing has been trashed out with the advent of 3D CAD modelling is far from reality. 2D drafting still has a very prominent place amongst the industrial product designers, and they have their own reasons for it.

2D is the best option when you are facing tight deadlines and the designs are to be developed for a single component or a single part. Basic geometries are easy to generate in 2D CAD sketching tools and are quick. They are intriguing when the drawings do not need any functionalities of 3D and require less space. A designer of any skill sets can easily work with 2D CAD and nearly any desktop will support 2D drafting.

For a crystal clear usage, engineers still use 2D drafts for fabrication drawings, plans, elevation, sectional drawings and shop floor drawings for fabrication. In fact, it is quite surprising that approximately 30% of engineering design firms and design engineers still use paper to design the initial concept sketched and then resort to 2D CAD for digitization.

Despite these benefits, there are a few drawbacks of using 2D. When sectional views are generated in 2D, updating them is time-consuming and also prone to errors. Also, 2D CAD software does not have rendering capabilities. This means, it involves an additional step to export and convert designs into 3D models before rendering.

So for a fact, just to save time, you are doing two more steps, exporting and converting before any other action is being taken- literally two for one. It reduces productivity and lengthens the designing cycle. For these reasons, industry-wide shift to 3D modelling is witnessed among mechanical and industrial product design engineers.

In contrast, the classic engineering drawing is fraught with limitations:

• Interpretation Issues: A properly executed drawing shouldn’t be subject to misinterpretation, but that skill is starting to become something of a lost art. Unclear depictions can be problematic (i.e. which surface did that leader line touch?). More disturbingly, errors can easily escape detection. Sure, most of that can be mitigated with carefully defined GD&T, but that too seems to be a fading skill. PMI improves upon these limitations by clearly associating surfaces and endpoints and providing validation that such dimensions do indeed make logical sense.
• Manual Inspection: Drawings necessitate reinterpretation by humans on the other side of the manufacturing lifecycle. It’s another way to introduce error: the botched inspection. PMI sets the stage for automated inspection, accelerating manufacturing processes while simultaneously improving quality.
• Time is Money: This is where drawings go for the BRAINS… Simply put, in today’s constantly accelerating demand to crank out the engineering in less time, drawings just take too long. Increased market pace demands more efficient processes. An engineer who’s spent considerable time defining a model, shouldn’t have to spend much longer documenting it. The days of modelling something then throwing it over a fence to lay it out are over. These two aspects of the design must occur simultaneously, and this ultimately is only possible with the model-based definition.

3D Models: Make a three-way profit

As business needs became bigger, design cycles were required to get shorter and engineering lead time needed to get easier and without errors; this is when more and more engineers started resorting to 3D CAD software. The advantage of using 3D CAD over 2D CAD is that it reduces the design cycle time to almost half and gives a competitive advantage to designers as well as fabricators by accommodating alterations, much fasters.

Another takeaway with 3D CAD is that it offers excellent workaround while generating rapid prototypes. And with additive manufacturing gaining momentum over traditional manufacturing practices, 3D CAD is the way to adapt to easily transform designs into tangible products.

Since additive manufacturing is a process that eliminates material cutting, it has a dramatic control over scrap produced. This is one among many reasons why this phenomenon has gained traction for every fabricator in any industry – be it industrial sheet metal tools, automotive, building products, furniture or any other that one can think of.

Such a paradigm shift makes it even more important than ever to adopt 3D CAD and drop 2D drafting process for saving material, directly targeting to increase their profits and connects the digital thread opportunity directly with the designs.

2D Drawing or 3D Model platform for CAD Designing

Other than these three major benefits, 3D CAD usually offers more functionality to the user. These functionalities encompass 3D arrays, special views, referencing and much more. But at times these are too many for generating basic part models like line-types, line-weights, and other form features are good to go. In such times, it feels that 2D drawings should be preferred instead of 3D.

Also because since 3D CAD is advanced, licensing is much expensive and renewing it each time the software company rolls-out new version, [not to mention it happens almost every year] it costs heavily to designers. Thus, it is much needed to weigh your needs of design requirements and analyze the cost you are paying for it.

By now, you must have realized that, on the contrary to popular belief, there will be times when you’ll find 2D CAD to be the need of the hour and not 3D models. While during the other times, you’ll find your designing world revolving in the three dimensions of 3D CAD models, whatever be your need – fabrication, design intent clarity or profits – to avoid catastrophe and binge working at the last moment. The hitch is that you select the one that addresses most of your needs since there isn’t any single CAD system that will address all your design and fabrication needs.

When you make the decision to build a new home, there are a lot of things to consider:

• 
  

  Neighbourhood

  
  
• 
  

  Accessibility

  
  
• 
  

  Land or Area

  
  
• 
  

  Budget / Capital

  
  

No matter where you end up, perhaps the most important decision you make is that who will be the architect. If you haven’t worked with one before, you may wonder whether your project really requires an architect, most especially if it will be your personal residence.

How to Hire the Right Architect

Hiring an architect is critical for any building project to be successful. The architect is the source of the outcome, and he or she will handle a number of duties. Among them, helping clients explore what appeals to them aesthetically and what they require functionally, coordinating teams of design, engineering and construction professionals and sorting through the maze of building codes and zoning requirements to ensure projects are built the way they were planned.

Some people thought they could design their dream home on their own. And in the end they will just find that it’s a big mistake..

The professional architect is the one who has the proper education, training, experience, and vision to guide us through the entire design and construction process;

• 
  

  help us define what we want to build,

  
  
• 
  

  help us get the most for our construction.

  
  

Should be a “Problem Solver”
That is what architects are trained to do, solving problems in creative ways. With their broad knowledge of design and construction, architects can show alternative options we might never think of on our own.

• 
  

  Professional interpreters of client’s dreams, visions, and objectives

  
  
• 
  

  Explorers of all possibilities

  
  
• 
  

  Studying and responding to the site and its environment

  
  
• 
  

  Home Design Translators that will exceed expectations
  
  

  
  

Should be a “Finance Specialist” (building construction)

An architect pays for his own way through the

• 
  

  lot selection,

  
  
• 
  

  design,

  
  
• 
  

  construction documents,

  
  
• 
  

  bidding and negotiation,

  
  
• 
  

  the construction phase of a custom residence project.

  
  

An architect’s input can save the owner’s money and/or add value to the project.

Because a well-conceived project can be built more efficiently and economically. Architects plan projects with us. As your ideas evolve, changes can be made on paper, much less expensively than when construction is going on. Though 3D Architectural Renderings also make it easier for the contractor to accurately price and build the project.

How to Hire the Right Architect

Energy-efficient buildings can save money on fuel bills down the road. An architect can design a building to maximize heating from the sun and let in natural light, thus reducing heating, cooling, and electric bills over time.

Can work with the budget and help us select the appropriate materials and workmanship at a fair price. Architects develop the drawings and specifications to help us get bids for construction that are based on our requirements.

Can help us choose materials and finishes that are durable as well as saving on frequent maintenance and replacement costs. Architects work to stay abreast of advances in roofing, brickwork, floor tiling, paint finishes, etc. Their familiarity with the full range of materials enables them to suggest the appropriate materials for the project.

Good design sells. A well-designed house has a higher resale value. A well-designed store draws customers. A well-designed work environment attracts employees and increases productivity.

Architects are like Machines = Easy Life

The building is a long process that is often messy and disruptive, particularly if you are living or working in the space under construction. They have an all the ideas that will make us contented on the design they offered. The architect looks out on our interests and they try to find ways to make that process go smoothly.

Australian Design & Drafting Services provide excellent service for CAD Design and  Drafting. Contact Us for more info.

The new release of AutoCAD 2016 features certain significant improvements. These improvements include a more comprehensive canvas, richer design context, and intelligent tools such as Smart Dimensioning, Coordination Model, Enhanced PDFs, and Stunning Visual Experience.

Autocad New feature Visual Accuracy

AutoCAD software tools are known worldwide for providing 2D and 3D design features, documentation and collaboration processes for any design task. Furthermore, the software tools enable designers to share their work with one another by using TrustedDWG® technology.

The purpose of this article is to:

• Look briefly at the new features present in the newest AutoCAD release,
• Identify significant changes between the newest and previous software releases,
• Determine the impact of Visual Accuracy and other major benefits which the newest release of AutoCAD provides.

What New Features are Present in the Autocad 2016 Newest Release?

• With Smart Dimensioning, appropriate measurements are created automatically, based on the drawing context. Bypassing the cursor over a selected object, the designer gets a preview of the dimension before creating it. For example, by selecting and holding a cursor over the cross-section of a duct, modified inner and outer diameters can be previewed before they are created.
• The Coordination Model makes it possible to attach and view Navisworks® and BIM 360 Glue models directly inside AutoCAD. This makes it possible to import architectural design data created by Navisworks or to import a building design project into AutoCAD. The ability to merge design data between AutoCAD and BIM models provides the framework for KBE (Knowledge-Based Engineering), and for maintaining concurrency and synergy between product design teams.
• The Enhanced PDFs feature makes it possible to quickly create smarter, smaller and powerful PDF files which are text searchable.
• The Visual Experience feature enables the engineer to see design details with certain visual enhancements such as Line Fading. True curves are used instead of line segments for image rendering. For example, a circle is created as a continuous curve rather than several straight line segments. Instead of performing several Undo operations, a Command preview enables the designer to see the results of a command before committing to it. Large selection sets are easier to copy or move.
• The designer is able to customize his/her design environment and systems settings and to prevent unwanted changes from being made.

In What Areas Are There Significant Software Changes?

The following list highlights significant software changes between AutoCAD 2016 (newest release) and previous versions of AutoCAD.

In terms of User Interaction, AutoCAD 2016 provides:

• The Help Find tool, Improved graphics, Command preview, and resizable viewports are improved in AutoCAD 2016 and AutoCAD 2015.
• The Move/Copy feature has been boosted in AutoCAD 2016 over previous versions.

In terms of the Design Interface, AutoCAD 2016 provides:

• Center of polygon object snap
• High-fidelity lines and curves
• Coordination model
• Point cloud dynamic UCS (Unified Computing System) and geometry extraction

In terms of Documentation, AutoCAD 2016 provides:

• Revision Cloud enhancements
• Smart dimensioning
• PDF enhancements and optimized file output
• The searchable text and hyperlink support in exported PDFs
• Simplified, powerful rendering
• Overriding of Xref (External Reference File in a cloud system) layer properties

What Major Benefits does the Newest Release of Autocad Provide?

The previous section of this article mentioned significant software improvements between AutoCAD 2016 and previous versions. It may be informative to look more closely at what some of these software improvements mean.

Coordination Models enable design data from Navisworks and BIM360 models (NWC, NWD) to be attached directly into AutoCAD. This feature supports the collaborative and synergistic product development model available in BIM. This feature also supports KBE (Knowledge-Based Engineering) and Expert Systems, which is important for retaining in-house design expertise and knowledge.

Smart dimensioning speeds up design work, because many “Undo” commands can be avoided by using the Preview feature in the new software release. Instead of establishing a dimension for an object and undoing it in order to create a new dimension, the object can be selected with the cursor, previewed or “hovered over”, before establishing the dimension.

The “Snap to geometric centre” feature enables the designer to snap to the centre of closed regular or irregular polylines.

Improvements to the drawing canvas dramatically improve the visual accuracy seen on screen. Although the human visual system can interpret a series of jagged line segments as an integrated smooth curve, it is much better to represent smooth curves and arcs with true curves. Doing so creates graphic objects with true fidelity and visual acuity, and creates a much better viewing experience.

A number of preset rendering options have been introduced, such as “Coffee-Break Quality”. Image-based lighting has been introduced to improve visual rendering.

The “UI finder” utility makes it easy to find just about anything in AutoCAD’s UI, including entries on the application menu and the status bar.

PDF enhancements create smaller files (about half the size of previous PDFs). The PDFs are generated quicker, and they permit text search and selection, even with multibyte and Unicode characters. Furthermore, SHX fonts (which have the source text added as a comment) are supported. Hyperlinks are maintained, whether they are embedded URLs or links between drawing content.

The System Variable Monitor (Sysvar) protects the design engineer from having his established or preset environment from being altered. In a multi-tasking environment, it is likely that an impolite application may alter sysvar settings, but fail to reset them to their previous settings after the application has completed its tasks.

Conclusion

Although this article sounds as if it is focused on sales or marketing, its purpose is to keep the CAD engineer aware of improved software features (such as improved visual accuracy in AutoCAD 2016) which become available in new CAD software releases.

The CAD engineer works in a fast-paced environment in which technological progress should be expected. In order to stay current and not to become obsolete, it is necessary for the CAD engineer to be aware of improved capabilities in new software releases.

Australian Design & Drafting Services provide excellent Autocad service for CAD Design and Drafting. Contact Us for more info