Background, mine.

I have drawn the conclusions and made the comments I have from a background that has now spanned a little over thirty years in drawing and design offices and an involvement and interest in the application of CAD software from my very first contact with it in the early 1970's.

My PC-CAD support and sales experience commenced with Autodesk’s products over eighteen years ago and has formed the core of my activities ever since.  But I am by no means ‘one eyed’; as you will have gleaned already I regard CAD software as a tool not an end in its own right.  Nobody needs CAD to express their design intent and hopefully on this point all will agree.

Equally I have never fully stopped doing what I really enjoy and that is producing drawings of new, modified or existing products.  Drawing to me is a source of enjoyment as well as an income but the efforts value is in the use of those drawings to produce something not their creation.  And it was understanding this that made CAD attractive to me in the first instance. It would be a lie to say I enjoyed drawing hundreds of dimensions on a new tiny plastic product or machine component but it was a task that had to completed to achieve the satisfying end.

Repetition in design, draughting and manufacture occurs in many ways and various forms and CAD’s greatest contribution was its ability to relieve us of some of this repetition.  The ability to increase productivity and therefore profitability has to remain the only reason why any person or company would want to use CAD software.

As far as industry is concerned I initially trained at a shipyard, then joined a company  producing plumbing fittings and packaging products, then a number of years designing heavy vehicles, bus and coach bodies and chassis (including the first production LPG powered bus built in Australia), truck chassis modifications and consulting to manufacturers of large custom built tractors used for broad acre work. All my hobbies involve making or using machinery of some description as well.

Working as a CAD consultant, sales, training and support I have had the privilege to work with a wide variety of manufacturers and their staff, in some cases being able to contribute to their design and drawing tasks or products in ways other than just supplying CAD services this has been in the form of suggestions to product design and 3D modelling for those who have as yet not moved down this road for whatever reason.  This has to be the best way to learn and fully understand CAD and its correct application.

In summary the comments and criticisms I have made are from a background that has grounding in the use and application of CAD over a wide area, of design and manufacturing, and hence my focus on ‘Flexibility’ as the main feature of any good CAD system.

It is with some pride that I look at the many people I have introduced to CAD and the great products they have produced using firstly and most importantly their intelligence and knowledge and then expressing the resulting creativity using CAD as one of those tools.

I really want to see CAD progress but not in the direction it is currently heading, this will lead in the long run to repetition and a loss of productivity that will nullify many of the initial gains.

R. Paul Waddington.
Proprietor – cadWest.
 
 

P.S.

As I have done in the prologue and all other documents, I issue an invitation to any person who may wish to respond to this document, supporting comments or dissenting no matter, your views will be respected as I trust mine will be also.