The aim of CAD is to apply computers to both the modeling and communication of designs. There have been two different approaches - which are often used together - namely:

· at a basic level, to use computers to automate or assist in such tasks as the production of drawings or diagrams and the generation of lists of parts in a design;

· at a more advanced level, to provide new techniques which give the designer enhanced facilities to assist in the design process.

The bulk of the development in CAD (computer aided design) has been in modeling the form of products (i.e. in providing techniques to assist in the representation of form using conventional drawings or new modeling techniques) or in systems to assist in the production of diagrams and the subsequent evaluation of designs represented by these diagrams.

The driving force behind the provision of computer assistance for conventional modeling techniques has been the desire to improve the productivity of th

e designer by the automation of the more repetitive and tedious aspects of design, and also to improve the precision of the design models. New techniques have been developed in an attempt to overcome perceived limitations in conventional practice - particularly in dealing with complexity - for example in the complexity of form of some designs such as automobile bodies, or the intricacy of structure of products such as integrated circuits. Computer-aided design should therefore enable the designer to tackle a task more quickly and accurately, or in a way that could not be achieved by other means. Computer-aided design should involve the development of a central design description on which all applications in design and manufacture should feed. This implies that computer-based techniques for the analysis and simulation of the design, and for the generation of manufacturing instructions should be closely integrated with the techniques for modeling the form and structure of the design. In addition, a central design description forms an excellent basis for t

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