Three dimensional (3D) CAD (computer-aided-design) models have enabled major productivity gains in product design and engineering. Prior to the advent of economical desktop computers skilled draftsmen spent hours laboring with graphite lead pencils on velum and Mylar to achieve engineering quality documentation for fabrication and production manufacturing. The process required tedious checking to eliminate errors wherein modification required erasures and redrawing over and over on the same sheet. Large projects had many drawing documents linked to one another that required procedural revisions and archiving.
Two dimensional (2D) CAD (computer-aided-design) was a great step forward in moving from the drafting table to the desktop computer. The graphical display capabilities of the desktop computer enabled a user to graphically draft using mouse, keyboard strokes, text line commands, and tablet with stylus. Each CAD system had its own (UI) User Interface. While manual drafting may have actually been faster in the early years, two dimensional (2D) CAD (computer-aided-design) technologies allowed endless changes to be made with sharp clean printed copies printed without limitation. It was easy to export the CAD drawings in PDF format for viewing and printing on any non-licensed computer.
Three dimensional wire framing was the next step in CAD wherein two dimensional (2D) sections was given depth to extrude, sections were revolved around an axis and swept along trajectories to create 3D forms. Surface modeling was another advancement wherein surface skins were created using typical wire framing three dimensional commands. Solid modeling was the biggest advancement in three dimensional (3D) CAD (computer-aided-design). Solid models could be created using similar commands from surface modeling and wire framing but the result was that the model took on mass properties useful for analysis, sectioning, and Boolean operations of merging for adding, subtracting, and merging.
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