PopPop, What’s a CAD Drawing?

POPPOP
Very nice child, it’s a drawing of the BBQ that’s over there on the deck, right? Did you know that whoever built that BBQ probably used something called an assembly drawing to make sure all the parts were put together properly? And before that, a company might have used mechanical drawings to make most of the individual parts that make up the BBQ. I would be happy to tell you all about how I used to….

OTHER GRANDCHILDREN
Ruuuuuunnnnnn!!

POPPOP
Freeze!! 

Gather round all of you and I will, as the kids say these days, “drop some knowledge.”

IRRITABLE GRANDCHILD
They don’t say that.

POPPOP
Regardless, mechanical drawings have been around for a long, long time. For many years, and even today, a majority of everyday items like the BBQ, your game controllers, even the car in the driveway started out as a mechanical drawing of some type. Back when your PopPop was young, we created mechanical drawings using pencils and a variety of special tools on a paper-like material called vellum.

GAMER GRANDCHILD
That sounds like a great name for a video game villain. I AM VELLUM, GUARDIAN OF THE UNDERWORLD.

SNARKY GRANDCHILD
And that was it for you, right? Cause you were born way before computers?

POPPOP
I’ll let that little insult pass because to the contrary your PopPop embraced the chance to not only learn something new but also increase my productivity and make a positive impact on the company I worked for. It was also new and fun. And we got a new title – CAD Drafter!

Some drafters at that time were reluctant to let go of the pencil and pick up the mouse, but soon realized the benefits, especially when drawing changes were required. 

Back in the old days, changing a drawing meant a lot of erasing and redrawing. In some cases, the whole drawing would be thrown away and redone completely. It took a lot of time and effort. CAD drawings solved that problem because now changes could be made quickly and easily on the computer. And a CAD drafter would never have to explain to the boss how they burned a hole in a drawing with an electric eraser. 

GRANDCHILD JENNY
Have you ever done that PopPop??

POPPOP
Never. 

One of the other advantages of CAD drawings was the ability to pre-set and share company standards electronically by copying them to each computer to ensure consistency and quality across the organization. It helped to a degree, but it wasn’t a perfect system.

At first CAD drawings simply replaced pencil lines on paper with two-dimensional lines on a computer screen. Then the data was printed out on paper and passed along to the people that needed the information.

SNARKY GRANDCHILD
Why didn’t you just post them on Instagram?

POPPOP
I’m not even going to go there.

Once 3D CAD modeling was introduced, things changed again. Now most functions used to create CAD drawings can be automated. With a 3D model as the main source of data, drawing views could be placed instantly, notes and information could have some intelligence built in, and even the drawing format itself could be “smart”. When there was a change to the 3D CAD model, the drawing views and information would update automatically in real-time. 

But there was still a problem – sharing the information.

SNARKY GRANDCHILD
No Facebook? No Twitter?? Really???

POPPOP
Really.

Like I said before, most CAD drawings were printed to paper and handed off so parts could be made. This worked just fine if the person making your parts worked in the same building, or was willing to wait while you rolled the drawings up, stuffed them in a round tube, and sent them via mail. Later, email came into wider use, and copies of drawings were now easily sent electronically. And there’s one of the problems I mentioned earlier. 

All of a sudden, it was easy to send multiple copies of the same file to many different people for quoting or manufacturing. But if something changed in the design, it was extremely difficult to make sure that everyone gets the updated information. There were too many electronic copies floating around and no one was absolutely sure which was the most recent and correct.

IRRITABLE GRANDCHILD
And now I suppose you’re going to tell us there’s an Onshape connection to all of this?

POPPOP
Of course, I love Onshape! Onshape solves the problem of multiple copies with one source of truth because it’s cloud-native CAD and creates cloud-native CAD drawings. Onshape users have a variety of options to quickly and safely share data – including drawings – with just a couple of mouse clicks. There are options to share data with certain permissions, and everyone is always seeing and working with the latest and most up-to-date information to which they are permitted.

GRANDCHILD JENNY
Tell us more about Onshape Drawings PopPop.

IRRITABLE GRANDCHILD
She never learns.

POPPOP
That’s one of my favorite topics Jenny, thanks for asking. Onshape CAD produces production-ready drawings for parts and assemblies and leverages industry standards for detailing and manufacturing. 

Only Onshape’s cloud-native platform provides the flexibility to share custom CAD drawing templates between users on any platform including iPad, iPhone, and Android. Onshape offers all that plus built-in Release Management with automatic part numbering and customizable revision schemes.

ALL GRANDCHILDREN
What????

POPPOP
I know, I know, that sounds like a paragraph right off the company website. What I meant to say is Onshape is a great tool for CAD drawings and so much more. I can go on if you like, or you can learn more about it on the Onshape site.

ALL GRANDCHILDREN
Running for the nearest device with a web browser.

POPPOP
If I have anything to say about it, all these kids are going into engineering careers.

Disclaimer: This story is only about 80% true. I am not a grandparent yet but you might be pleased to know that I will be soon. I did start my career on the drawing board after four years of high school drafting classes, and I have enjoyed creating every single one of the many thousands of mechanical drawings (both hand-drawn and computer-generated) that I have produced over my career. I also like a good barbecue.