Computer-aided design

Computer-aided design
Thorsten Hartmann · CC BY-SA 3.0 · source
Name	Computer-aided design
Acronym	CAD
First appeared	1960s
Developers	Douglas Engelbart, Ivan Sutherland, Sketchpad, MIT, Bell Labs
Related	Computer-aided manufacturing, Computer graphics, Computer-aided engineering

Computer-aided design is a technology for creating, modifying, analyzing, and optimizing designs using computerized tools developed in the mid-20th century. It evolved alongside advances in Douglas Engelbart, Ivan Sutherland, Sketchpad, MIT, and Bell Labs, and it underpins workflows in Boeing, General Electric, Ford Motor Company, Toyota, and Airbus. Modern systems integrate with Dassault Systèmes, Siemens AG, Autodesk, PTC (company), and Bentley Systems ecosystems to support product lifecycles for NASA, European Space Agency, US Department of Defense, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman.

History

Early milestones trace to experiments at MIT, Bell Labs, and Carnegie Mellon University where figures such as Ivan Sutherland and Douglas Engelbart demonstrated interactive graphics and human–computer interaction concepts that influenced Sketchpad, TX-2 computer, Whirlwind I, Project MAC. The 1960s and 1970s saw adoption by Boeing, Lockheed, General Motors, Ford Motor Company, and Hughes Aircraft Company driven by research at Stanford University, University of Cambridge, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Carnegie Mellon University, and Imperial College London. Commercialization in the 1980s brought companies like Autodesk, Dassault Systèmes, PTC (company), Siemens AG, and Bentley Systems into prominence, while standards efforts involved ISO, ANSI, ASME, SAE International, and IEC. The 1990s and 2000s expanded capabilities with contributions from Microsoft, Intel, NVIDIA, AMD, Sun Microsystems, and research centers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, CERN, and Los Alamos National Laboratory.

Software and Techniques

Commercial and open systems include offerings from Autodesk, Dassault Systèmes, PTC (company), Siemens Digital Industries Software, Bentley Systems, FreeCAD, OpenCascade, and Blender Foundation. Techniques emerged from contributions by Ivan Sutherland, John Warnock, James Clark, Michael Schroeder, Ivan Sutherland, and institutions such as MIT, Stanford University, Caltech, University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign, and Princeton University. Algorithms draw on work by Donald Knuth, Edgar F. Codd, Alan Turing, John von Neumann, Benoit Mandelbrot, Edsger Dijkstra, and Richard Hamming for computational geometry, topology, meshing, and optimization used in products by Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Oracle Corporation, and SAP SE. Rendering, visualization, and GPU acceleration leverage innovations from NVIDIA, ATI Technologies, Intel Corporation, Microsoft DirectX, and Khronos Group standards like OpenGL and Vulkan.

Applications

CAD is applied across industries served by Boeing, Airbus, Rolls-Royce Holdings, General Electric, Siemens AG, Schneider Electric, Tesla, Inc., Ford Motor Company, General Motors, Toyota, Honda, SpaceX, Blue Origin, NASA, European Space Agency, Bosch, and Siemens Energy. Use cases include product design for Apple Inc., Samsung Electronics, Sony, Panasonic, and LG Corporation; civil infrastructure projects by Bechtel, AECOM, Arup Group, Skanska, and Vinci; shipbuilding for Hyundai Heavy Industries, ThyssenKrupp, and Daewoo Shipbuilding; and electronics layout for Intel, Qualcomm, Texas Instruments, Broadcom Inc., and STMicroelectronics. CAD supports architecture for firms like Foster + Partners, Zaha Hadid Architects, Norman Foster, SOM (Skidmore, Owings & Merrill), and Gensler, and entertainment industries involving Walt Disney Company, Pixar, Industrial Light & Magic, Warner Bros., and Universal Pictures.

Modeling and Representation

Representation schemes cite computational geometry concepts developed at Bell Labs, MIT, Carnegie Mellon University, and University of Cambridge; methods include boundary representation influenced by Edmund Berkeley and Ivan Sutherland, constructive solid geometry with roots in John Conway and U.S. Air Force research, spline and NURBS formulations from Pierre Bézier, Paul de Casteljau, Isaac Jacob Schoenberg, and Henri de Casteljau, and parametric modeling advanced by Parametric Technology Corporation and Dassault Systèmes. Mesh processing and finite element meshes reference work from Ray Clough, O.C. Zienkiewicz, J. H. Argyris, and Olga Ladyzhenskaya used in commercial solvers by ANSYS, MSC Software, Siemens PLM Software, and COMSOL. Topology optimization and generative design draw on algorithms researched at Stanford University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, ETH Zurich, and University of Michigan.

Integration with Manufacturing

Integration connects CAD to systems developed by Siemens AG, Dassault Systèmes, Autodesk, PTC (company), Fanuc, ABB Group, KUKA, Mazak, and CNC toolmakers for Boeing, Airbus, Ford Motor Company, and General Motors. Computer-aided manufacturing and computer-aided engineering workflows coordinate with Rockwell Automation, Schneider Electric, Honeywell, Emerson Electric, and GE Digital platforms, while additive manufacturing adoption involves 3D Systems, Stratasys, EOS GmbH, Desktop Metal, and Carbon (company). Quality assurance and metrology reference tools from Hexagon AB, Zeiss, Mitutoyo, Renishaw, and Nikon Corporation integrating CAD models with inspection for NASA, European Space Agency, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman projects.

Standards and File Formats

File formats and standards include contributions by ISO committees, ANSI, ASME, SAE International, IEC, and specific formats such as STL (file format), IGES, STEP (ISO 10303), DXF, DWG, and initiatives by Khronos Group for glTF. Vendor-neutral efforts involve OW2 Consortium, Open Design Alliance, Linux Foundation, Apache Software Foundation, and research at NIST, Fraunhofer Society, CERN, and TÜV SÜD. Interoperability tools and product lifecycle integrations reference PLM platforms from Siemens PLM Software, Dassault Systèmes, PTC (company), and enterprise systems by SAP SE and Oracle Corporation.

Category:Design