Does CAD make better cars than human designs?
Did you ever spend hours as a kid sketching pictures of cars, devising design variations and more streamlined looks? Or carving derby cars from blocks of wood? Pencil and paper have gone the way of the dinosaur since then: Modern automotive designers and engineers have a powerful tool — computer-aided design (CAD) software — at their disposal to help bring their ideas to life and facilitate the process of imagining, designing and refining them. CAD software is also used in packaging, shipbuilding, aerospace design, industrial and architectural design, film animation and many other applications. Dr. Patrick J. Hanratty helped pioneer the use of CAD in automotive design by developing a computer software system for General Motors in the mid-1960s that automated some repetitive drafting chores. The use of CAD systems in automotive design expanded significantly over the years as computer costs decreased and technology grew by leaps and bounds. Now, almost every automotive manufacturer in
