ICT in business (CAM & CAD)

ICT in business (CAM & CAD)

1. CAD - Computer aided design.

   • The use of computer systems for design within engineering and products.
     • Examples: Producing kitchen or bathroom designs for customers. Producing the designs for a component that is to be manufactured.
     • Features of CAD packages
       • Rendering - materials can be displayed, you can do many what if type investigations to explore the finish.
       • Zoom - Enhance parts of drawings to make it bigger, to produce more work of more detail.
       • Rotate - Rotate in 3D across X,Y & Z axis, see design from all angles on the outside.
       • Walk-through - Visit the building before its build, allows spatial awareness of what he design looks like.
       • Stress/Strain - Work out weight materials can hold, avoids disasters later on.
       • Wire drawings - See design without any finishes, helps with perspective.
       • Advantages:
         • Easily stored and transferred, drawings are digisted and can sent via email.
         • Can manipulate image by the ease of manipulation of images on the screen.
         • Can produce 3D drawings which are useful for diagrams of kitchens.
         • Can produce lists of components automatically that can be used to create lists of dimensions and parts needed to create the product.

2. CAM - computer aided manufacturin

   • The use of computer based systems to control the machinery in manufacturing processes e.g. Drills.
   • Examples: Used to manufacture components in car engines, used to produce a design of a product and it taks theinput from CAD packages & uses the info to produce a set of instructions.
   • Advantages
     • Cheaper manufacturer, the manufacture is automatic so costs are reduced.
     • Better quality products produced by CAM are better quality because of no human involvement.
     • Lower wage costs, very little human involvement means the goods can be produced cheaply as the wage costs are lower.

3. Hardware/Software requirements of CAD/CAM

   • Input - The main device used extensively by CAD is the mouse with 2 buttons & a keyboard.
   • Processing - Speed of the graphic card - CAD needs to perform many complex calculations to deal with scaling, rotating or producing 3D models from 2D designs. The main influence is how fast the CAD system appears to the user.
     • Processing - Graphic card - CAD places lots of demands on graphic cards to be able to produce visualisations in 3D from 2D designs.
   • Output
     • Screen - Needs to be large to reduce eye strain &have good resolution.
     • Machinery - Output from CAD software can then be produced using CAM machinery such as drills & lathes, these CAM outputs are used to automatically manufacture components.