AutoCAD

 INTRODUCTION TO AUTOCAD

• The word AutoCAD is made up of two words Auto – the logo of a company CAD – Computer Aided Design 
• It is 2D and 3D modeling software 
• It is developed by Autodesk company {USA based company} 
• It is widely used in the industry for 2D drawing and 3D modeling 
• It is suitable for the accurate and perfect drawing 
• It is used by the designers {interior, fashion, garment, graphic}, painters, engineers {civil, mechanical, electrical, electronics}, architects in their field 
• It is available in 14 languages {English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Russian, and so on}.

MAIN PURPOSE: To present our work imagination with calculated and specific measurements 

Father of AutoCAD: John Walkar - a computer programmer and co-founder of the computer aided design software company Autodesk

Definition

    Computer Aided Design {CAD} can be defined as using computer systems to assist in the creation, modification, analysis of a design.

VERSION OF AUTOCAD 

• AutoCAD software was firstly launched by Autodesk company in Dec 1982 {38 years ago}. It comes to India in 1988 
• The first version of AutoCAD was R1 after that R2, R3, R4,…….and so on 
• In 2000, Autodesk launched a version of AutoCAD 2000 after that 2001,2002,…… and so on 
• The latest version of AutoCAD is 2022, which is launched on 24th March 2021 {4 Months ago} 
• The latest version is easy to use and overcome the difficulties of an old version.

ADVANTAGES OF USING AutoCAD

1. A mid-range Software

2. User Friendly

3. Fulfills most of the professional needs of a mechanical engineer

4. Lots of Time saving (but not always)

5. Paperless Environment

6. Ease of Accuracy — e.g. joining of lines head to head is not possible manually

with the desired accuracy

7. Easy to edit

8. Ease of Repetition / Addition

9. Reproduction of Drawing is easy, rapid, and reliable in terms of dimensional

accuracy and precision.

10. 2D and 3D production of drawings are very easy. 

11.Zoom Command Facility allows us to see the minute details on a larger scale view. 

12.A facility of Modeling and making Parts library is available. 

13.The Parent-Child relationship allows multiple editing in a single command, which means if one part is edited all other linked parts are auto edited 

14.Data handling, data storage, and data sorting become very easy in soft form as compared to conventional Printing and filing. 

15.Data transmission to distant and remote areas is very easy and economical via emailing and link sharing. 

16.The layers option allows us to hide or show some specific details of a complex assembly drawing for clear understanding. 

17.There is no limitation of a Drawing size. We can draw 2 light years long line through proper scale stetting. 

18.Autoscale option is available. Full scale drawings can be formed. 

19.The geometrical relationship can make quick mathematical operations easy, eg. we can make an inscribed circle using dimensions of the triangle or polygon, etc. 

20.BOM or BOQ can be produced with accuracy 

21.Mass, Area, Volume, Center of Gravity can be calculated 

22.Auto Dimensioning – easy, accurate, and rapidly done within no time. 

23.Dimension Standards are strictly followed 

24.Bullion operation is possible. 

25.Copy, Scale, Move, Stretch, rotate, Pattern commands make the task simple and easy 

26.Draw Guiding through Osnap, Ortho, etc. 

27.Direct and Quick Drawing of Symmetrical objects. e.g circle, ellipse, polygon rectangles, and triangles, etc. 

28.Geometrical Relationships are possible. Like two parallel lines, Tangent lines, perpendicular lines, etc. 

29.Fixed line thickness throughout the drawing. —– remember that” by default, the line thickness of auto Cad is zero” 

30.Fill, Hatch, Section lines, Chamfer, and fillet commands make the software a blessing as these operations are very difficult in manual drafting. 

31.Adding Text – Lettering – is a big facility 

32.Images can be imported and traced out for the digitization of conventional diagrams and drawings. 

DISADVANTAGE OF USING AutoCAD 

1. Expensive equipment is required. like Computer, Plotter, big screen monitor, etc. 

2. Registered software is expensive and it requires a heavy re-occurring annual fee. 

3. Equipment is fragile, can be damaged drastically. 

4. Continuous Updating of the equipment and software is needed. 

5. Electricity is mandatory for running the equipment which is a big issue for third world countries like Pakistan which is facing a severe power crisis these days. 

6. Data storage is also fragile — a high probability of data corruption, data loss is a big threat for all soft form data banks. To overcome this potential disaster, experts suggest “Mirroring of Data” which is a storage of data on multi hard drives on multiple locations which involves a big capital allocation. Some disaster data recovery systems can also be implied to recover the lost data. 

7. Piracy and hacking threats are always there when we use internet for data transfer or even storage of data on a computer that is connected to internet. 

8. Special computer Skills are required. 

9. Proper Maintenance, supervision, and administration are required for computer networking. 

By,

Madhumalar.R,

Assistant Professor.