Before the introduction of computer-assisted drawing (CAD) services, manufacturing was a much more laborious task. Engineers, fabricators and steel detailers depended on sketches and blueprints to bring their ideas to life, which was a time consuming, repetitive and sometimes inaccurate method of design.

When CAD services arrived a few decades ago, the process for these individuals was flipped on its head almost overnight. Fabricators, steel detailers and people working in manufacturing were no longer reliant on schematics and blueprints drawn by hand.

How did CAD help fabricators in steel detailing?

There are two massive advantages to CAD over traditional drawing methods – the versatility of designs and the speed at which they could be implemented. By adopting computer assistance, fabricators were able to create designs faster and more accurately than ever before.

Ditching pen and paper for CAD services

Prior to CAD services, fabricators were using pen and paper to create, pass on and implement their ideas. With CAD services in full swing, they could get rid of these archaic methods thanks to the adoption of digital technology. Any errors that needed to be addressed no longer required redrafts – all designs for fabricators could be edited on the fly through CAD. Better yet, multiple copies could be sent through to everyone involved in a streamlined fashion.

CAD services improved design

Thanks to CAD, squares and circles can be perfectly mapped out with the click of a button, rather than with a protractor and patience. Any repetitive designs can also be easily duplicated through CAD, rather than hand-drawing each one. Fabricators and steel detailers were able to move away from the physical constraints of drawing, which was a huge boon for efficiency.

CAD improved design visualisation

Being able to accurately display and explain fabrication designs was drastically improved thanks to CAD services and models. Prior to CAD, if you wanted to share your designs with a construction team, you would need to hand over physical blueprints. Separately from this, if you wanted to show an accurate visualisation of your design, you would need a separate concept art rendition.

CAD allows fabricators and steel detailers to visualise their plans directly on-screen, as either a digital blueprint or in 3D as concept art. Moreover, technological innovations are now moving towards augmented and virtual reality, essentially allowing you to walk through a building or hold a component before it is physically made.

Integrating CAD services into hardware

Things started to get really interesting for fabricators when CAD services could be directly implemented into hardware like computer numerical control (CNC) machines. As CAD designs are very precise, they can be easily integrated into machinery that follows precise designs, such as CNC.

The precise qualities of both CAD and CNC are a perfect pairing for fabricators, as it takes a lot of the stress and worry out of matching up measurements from one system to another. Instead, they can share the same specifications with no risk of imprecise measurements. This has streamlined work tremendously for fabricators and steel detailers by essentially cutting their workload in half.

CAD services have been integral to the growth and expansion of the fabrication and steel detailing sectors over the past few decades. Without the innovative foundation of CAD services, work would be less precise, streamlined and creative. CAD services practically changed multiple industries’ work processes overnight because of how useful they proved to be.

If you would like to know more about how CAD services can benefit your business, contact Restoric Design today. We provide a range of tailored CAD solutions to empower your work and harness the innovation of technology.