Just as with CAD in those early days, these functions can be implemented only by making substantial investments in training and software. It also uses CAD to perform complex functions such as automatic drawing and document generation, and automatic on-line updates of multiple cross-referenced drawings and documents (See Figure 1 below).ĪutoCAD was used to automatically generate a bill of materials for this control panel.Īs with CAD in the '80s, many industrial OEMs still see these functions as much too complex for their needs. It involves what might be called advanced CAD, and it encompasses the use of CAD to accomplish high-level functions such as collaboration among machine builders, their customers, and vendors.
CAD won and manual drafting lost.Ī few years ago, another story began, and CAD again is a participant. Virtually all industrial OEMs now use some form of CAD to produce drawings, and many also use CAD add-ons to automatically generate related electrical design drawings such as wiring diagrams, I/O ladder drawings, and panel layout drawings. CAD software improved, PC price/performance ratios leaped ahead, and designers jumped on the CAD bandwagon. We all know how this story eventually unfolded. Printers capable of producing quality drawings were large, finicky, and very expensive. Substantial investments that many industrial OEMs just had made in PCs were not sufficient for CAD software, so new or upgraded hardware was required. It was very hard to find people who understood machine builder needs, and who also knew how to navigate complex CAD software.ĬAD software was very expensive, filled with bugs, and the hardware to run it was pricey.
There were many skilled board drafters who understood machine, robot, and skid design from both a mechanical and an electrical perspective. The use of CAD to expedite and improve product design is a given these days, but this was not always the case.Īs recently as the late '80s, CAD applications were considered too complex and expensive for many machine builders.
JUST ABOUT every machine, robot, and skid builder OEM uses Computer Aided Drafting (CAD) to some degree to create the drawings needed to build its products. By Dan Hebert, PE, Senior Technical Editor
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