Unit 17: Computer Aided Drafting in Engineering

P1: Describe the advantages, compared to other methods, of producing drawings electronically using a CAD package.

One advantage of producing drawings electronically using CAD rather than other methods such as drawing, is that the quality of the drawing itself will be a higher standard and more accurate, it will be clearer and cleaner than a hand drawing, lines can be set to different line types accurately and they can also be accurately spread out. Different layers and line types can also be set on CAD, meaning centre and outline lines can be seen more easier, without the need to draw them on.

Another advantage is that its time saving, you can produce an electronic drawing on CAD a lot faster than you can by hand, so more drawings can be done in the space of time you complete one hand drawing compared to electronically. If you make a mistake on CAD, this can be easily deleted by a click of a button, this is more beneficial than drawing as if you make a mistake when free hand drawing, it would take time starting again or erasing parts of the drawing, CAD saves a considerable amount of time when producing drawings.

The cost of this software is £3,900. There is obvious add-ons such as computers and having the correct type of computer for the system, when the figure has been paid it can go on numerous computers within the company so there is no need to buy it over and over again. The advantage of this is that you can do as many drawings on CAD which will be clear and easy to do and can send them via email to customers.

Electronic CAD drawings can also be transferred via email, this means that the drawing can be sent across once completed to customers etc, meaning that they can be examined instantly and improved if needed, this is an advantage compared to a hard copy as this would be needed to be sent in the post, which may take up to 3 working days.

When producing electronic CAD drawings, you can save each drawing as a singular file which will bring up that drawing when required, these can be then saved onto the computer desktop or memory stick when you have finished. By being able to save each drawing individually, and being able to transfer them between desktops and memory sticks, enables you to be able to access the drawing anywhere when you have the memory stick. This is more of an advantage than emailing as the person being shown will not have them permanently like they will if you send an email if you don’t want them to.

P2: Describe the software and hardware required to produce CAD drawings.

The hardware needed for CAD would be:

Keyboard – a keyboard is needed for this to type demands into auto cad to type either distance angle or another command that may be