The Benefits of CAD in Technical Graphic Communication
There are many benefits to using CAD, or computer-aided design in the architectural drafting field. Some of the major benefits include, but are not limited to; time savings, drawing correction and modification, and drawing sharing. “AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT are the most popular CAD systems in the world, and most CAD managers support at least some AutoCAD seats.”(1)
Whether it is a large company or a small firm, when doing architectural drafting time is of the essence, time is money, and time is EVERYTHING. In the past drafters/designers would take hours upon hours during every stage in the design process. From early sketches, to models, to finished product with many revisions and editing hours for each step and more. With the introduction of CAD, drafters are able to speed this process up. “Convert Time into Money in industry. There is no place for the slow technician or engineer” (2). With advances in technology there is the opportunity to customize CAD program specifically for any firm which also makes for a decrease in time on projects. As the timeliness of projects increase there is an opportunity for an increase in work, which ultimately increases the company’s profit and reputation
Drawing corrections and modification is not nearly as difficult with CAD as it was in the past when everything was done by hand. Not that some things still aren’t done by hand but more times than not even hand drawn sketches are transferred to CAD. From the first stage of the design process when you identify the customer and the problem all the way thru to the final project drawings and ideas will change and mold as necessary.”Revisions generate a new drawing by default. Changes to the design can be accommodated by adjusting the existing drawings, which are printed and issued as clean, fresh drawings.” (3) This is much easier to do when using CAD, hours of drawing can be modified or adjusted much, much easier. Now they can multitask between stages of the design process and still be able to make revisions and edit more easily. This in return makes for satisfied clients and management.
There have been many methods that companies and drafters have used for drawing sharing. Currier’s, messengers, and snail mail just won’t cut it when deadlines are a factor. When using CAD drafters can simply email the project to the architects, and engineers, or even to clients depending on the situation. Anyone who needs to see the design can do so within minutes. A more reliable method of sharing is done by using a flash drive, which can be hand carried to the customer or engineers to ensure delivery. “In nearly every project, you will need to share digital design data with other individuals and potentially other software packages. For instance, preparing drawings for distribution to mechanical, electrical and plumbing (MEP) engineers and other consultants offers some challenges in ADT.” With the sharing of projects one must be prepared to share drawings with different fields as well as different programs.
Software customization is a convenient way for any architectural drafting professional to make their business unique. If your workflow involves a lot of manual labor there is opportunity to make vital mistakes, which in turn costs the business money and time. There is probably a software application available but to obtain good business opportunities a program should be customized. There are several benefits to software customization. The amount of manual labor is dramatically cut, and the rates at which errors are made are also decreased due to the decrease in the manual labor.

REFERENCES

(1) Robert Green Sybex © 2007. Expert CAD Management: The Complete Guide.

(2) Rajashekar Patil 2009. Computer Aided Engineering Graphics. New Delhi New Age International

(3) Gavin Tunstall 2006. Managing the Building Design Process. Oxford Burlington, MA. Elsevier.

(4) Paul F. Aubin and Matt Dillon© 2007. Autodesk Architectural Desktop: An Advanced Implementation Guide. Cengage Delmar Learning