TABLE OF CONTENTS This chapter provides an overview of CAD and CAM technologies. Many industrial engineers use CAD extensively for layout design. For those industrial engineers involved in manufacturing, CAD/CAM is also used for part/product modeling and numerical control part program generation. CAD began as an electronic drafting board, a replacement of the traditional paper and pencil drafting method. Over the years it has evolved into a sophisticated surface and solid modeling tool. Not only can products be represented precisely as a solid, factory shop floors can also be modeled and simulated in 3D. It is an indispensable tool for modern industrial engineers. In this chapter both the fundamentals of CAD and CAM technologies, as well as applications for industrial engineering are discussed
Computer-aided design (CAD) and computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) have drastically transformed the way engineers perform their tasks. CAD and CAM mean different things to different people. The interpretation of the term CAD can range from computer-aided drawing and drafting to computer-aided engineering analysis. CAM has been defined by some as the effective utilization of computers in manufacturing, while others consider only computer-assisted numerical control (NC) part programming as CAM. In this chapter we will limit our discussion to computer-aided geometric modeling and computer-assisted part programming.
Many industrial engineers (IEs) use CAD extensively for layout design. For those industrial engineers involved in manufacturing, CAD/CAM is also used for part/product modeling and NC part program...
