Applications of CAD Software: Design Review and Evaluation

Applications of CAD Software: Design Review and Evaluation
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Design Review and Evaluation

Review and Evaluation is checking whether the designed part has been designed properly or not and if they will fail in practical situations. It is very important part of the whole design process. With CAD software the process of design review and evaluation has become much faster and convenient.

Design Review and Evaluation Features Offered by CAD Software

Here are the various design review and evaluation tools offered by the CAD software:

1) Zoom in: The CAD software has excellent feature of zooming in the part design details of the components and magnify the image for close scrutiny making the reviewing process far more authentic.

2) Layering: This is one of the most commonly used features of the CAD software. Layering is the process of overlaying one object over the other. Say for instance, you have raw object as the rough casting part and you want to machine it to some final dimensions. By the process of layering you can overlay the machined part on the casted part, thus ensuring that sufficient material is available on the casted part to accomplish the machined part of the required dimensions.

3) Checking interference: It is vital to check the assembled structure made up of various components to ensure that they occupy the designed space. There may be risk that components of the assembly may occupy the space same as the assembly itself, thus making the erection of the project very difficult. This can especially happen in large chemical plants, utility plants and others. The interference checking feature of the software ensures that such problems won’t occur.

4) Animation capability: Most of the CAD software have the feature of performing animation operation of the designed components. This is usually in the form of kinematics package of the software. With the animation feature the designer can animate the part that they have designed and see how it will work in real life practical situations. It enhances designer’s visualization capacity and to check for the interference of the object. In the absence of animation feature in the CAD software, the designers have to use pin and cardboard models to check the working of the component. With animation feature checking the objects like hinges, links and the complete assembled object is very interesting and useful. For machines like of airplane, ships and other locomotives this is a very special feature.

Reference

Book: CAD/CAM: Computer Aided Design and Manufacturing by Mikell P. Groover and Emory W. Zimmers

This post is part of the series: Applications of CAD

This is the series of articles describing various applications of CAD software like geometric modeling, engineering analysis, FEA, design review and evaluation, drafting etc.

  1. Applications of the CAD Software – What is Geometric Modeling?
  2. Applications of CAD Software: Engineering Analysis: FEA
  3. Applications of CAD Software: Design Review and Evaluation
  4. Applications of CAD Software – Automated CAD Drafting
  5. Applications of CAD Software: CAD/CAM Database
  6. Applications of CAD Software: What is Solid Modeling?