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CAD (What is it?) Computer aided design gives the illustrator a new tool. It uses computer power to digitally store and resolve exact information about any form the designer defines. 2-D CAD allows users to easily make perfectly scaled plans and elevations that are simple to edit and plot, extract lists of objects or calculate the optimal use of materials. 3-D CAD exponentially extends the powers of the illustrator-designer allowing the creation of models that contain precise data about forms as they would exist in space. With suitable software and skill these 3-D models may be scaled, rotated, mirrored and sectioned without distortion. They then may be rendered with perspective, surface textures, reflections, shadows, within environments or simply as projected line drawings. The computer is able to keep all the necessary information organised while it performs the millions of calculations necessary to do CAD, thanks to the brilliant work of imaginative mathematicians and software developers who are currently striving to make ever more efficient algorithms and stable code. Modeling, Drafting and Rendering (Paper and Pencils) With pencil and rule a competent draftsperson can calculate the geometry of a complex object but each view of the object must be replotted (a laborious and very complex process in the case of perspective rendering). Since the designer is relying upon the pencil and paper (the former being generally too big and the latter too small) to act as geometrical calculators, errors may be introduced, intersections confused and time is lost. Typically, hand drawn construction drawings have some degree of ambivalence because one view often contradicts another.
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