CAD & CAM

Computer Aided Design

Computer Aided Manufacture

Uses of CAD/CAM
Designing houses architects
Product design Designing cars

Designing bridges
Fashion design Landscape/Garden design Furniture design

Input & Output Devices

Input Devices
Scanner Digital camera Digitiser Graphics tablet and pen

Output Devices
High resolution Colour monitor Plotter CAM machinery

Memory & Processor Requirements

Extra memory/graphics cards to handle graphics processing faster Fast, powerful CPUs Specialist input and output devices including graphics tablets allowing the designer to draw on screen in a suitable package. Digital cameras and digitisers are used to capture existing images before altering them. Such graphics packages especially when the drawing is large take a lot of processing power. The speed of the processor is of vital importance if it is going to cope with the needs of re-rendering after changing textures for example. The quickest processors available need to be used here along with computers with over a Gb of RAM. Output systems can be almost any type of machine be it a lathe, router, drill or miller. Some machines are designed and built to do specific work (CAM: computer aided manufacturing). Plotters are used for hard copies of drawings.

CAD
Feature Hatching or rendering

Computer Aided Design

Definition Different finishes or materials can be displayed Enhance parts of a drawing to make it bigger Rotate in 3D across X Y and Z axis Visit rooms etc in 2D Advantage Can do many what if type investigations to explore the best finishes To produce work of more detail or add detailed design See design from all angles on the outside Allows spatial awareness of what the design looks like in relation to other features Automatic estimates are given and designer can investigate different options or work within a budget. Avoids disasters later on when building as the designer should build well within the safety requirements Helps with perspective and working out stresses and strain areas

Zoom

Rotate Walkthrough

Costing

Produce estimate of cost of building materials

Stress and strain

Working out the weights materials can take

Wire drawings

See design without any finishes or solid form

C.A.M. Computer Aided Manufacturing

Design with CAD

Produce with CAM e.g. lathes in DT