Implementation Of CAD Design and Drafting Techniques in Civil Engineering

Computer Aided Design (CAD) and Drafting Techniques have made quite an impact on the productivity and scale of the Civil Engineering design and drawing process. Not only have they reduced the time spent in redrawing by hand in order to add / implement design changes, but CAD has also revolutionized the design and drawing output process.

Civil Engineering deals with the design, construction and maintenance of bridges, roads and buildings. Civil Engineers use tools like models of buildings, and sketches and drawings of the buildings to convey their ideas to the people actually building the structure. Typically these drawings were hand drawn. Therefore, if there were any changes to be made, the Engineer had to redraw them. Naturally, this was a time consuming process.

Enter CAD with its variety of input and output systems, and the process of incorporating changes within the drawing became simply a matter of adding the changes and rendering the drawing again. Designers and Civil Engineers could also choose to render the drawing in a 2D or in a 3D format, if they so desired.

Implementing CAD design and drafting techniques within the civil engineering drawing process has definitely made a positive change. Not only has it contributed towards reducing the time spent in implementing changes within the drawings and models, but it has also reduced the costs arising therefrom.

Another advantage of implementing CAD within the drawing process is the increase in the accuracy of the drawings. These drawings can also be rendered in a traditional 2D format, or in the more modern method of 3D rendering. This gives the designers full control over the internal and external aspects of the building - and helps them to create more interesting and functional designs.

CAD software programs also have several additional benefits. One of the most widely used features of these software programs is Documentation. These documentation reports are often automatically generated from within the software using the data that has been inputted while creating the drawing. This documentation is often a very integral part of the design and drawing output and can provide valuable business information to the end users.

However, using CAD in the civil engineering design and drawing process also has its drawbacks. Most of the CAD software programs are often quite costly and require extensive training. However, in today’s fast paced world, these costs can easily be recovered from the revenue arising from the enhanced ability to create better and faster outputs from these CAD software programs.

Thus, one can easily see that the implementation of CAD design and drafting techniques in civil engineering has proven to be one of the most beneficial changes that modern technology has brought into the industry.