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It was more than 2,300 years after Euclid that the first true CAD
software, a very innovative system (although of course primitive compared
to today's CAD software) called "Sketchpad" was developed by Ivan
Sutherland as part of his PhD thesis at MIT in the early 1960s. Sketchpad
was especially innovative CAD software because the designer interacted
with the computer graphically by using a light pen to draw on the computer's
monitor. It is a tribute to Ivan Sutherland's ingenuity that even in 2004, when
operations which took hours on 1960s computer technology can be executed
in less than a millionth of a second and touch-sensitive TFT combination
display/input devices are readily available, there is no leading CAD software
that has yet incorporated such directness into its user interface.
One of the most influential events in the development of CAD was the
founding of MCS (Manufacturing and Consulting Services Inc.) in 1971 by
Dr. P. J. Hanratty who wrote the system ADAM (Automated Drafting And
Machining) but more importantly supplied code to companies such as
McDonnell Douglas (Unigraphics), Computervision (CADDS), Calma,
Gerber, Autotrol and Control Data.
Other key points in the 1960s and 1970s would be the foundation of CAD
systems United Computing, Intergraph, IBM, Intergraph IGDS in 1974
(which led to Bentley MicroStation in 1984)
Key products for 1981 were the solid modelling packages -Romulus
(ShapeData) and Uni-Solid (Unigraphics) based on PADL-2 and the release
of the surface modeler CATIA (Dassault Systemes). Autodesk was founded
1982 by John Walker, which led to the 2D system AutoCAD. The next
milestone was the release of Pro/ENGINEER in 1988, which heralded
greater usage of feature-based modeling methods and parametric linking of
the parameters of features. Also of importance to the development of CAD
was the development of the B-rep solid modeling kernels (engines for
manipulating geometrically and topologically consistent 3D objects)
Parasolid (ShapeData) and ACIS (Spatial Technology Inc.) at the end of the
1980s and beginning of the 1990s, both inspired by the work of Ian Braid.
This led to the release of mid-range packages such as SolidWorks in 1995,
SolidEdge (Intergraph) in 1996, and IronCAD in 1998. Today CAD is one of
the main tools used in designing products.
An engineering design
An engineering design
An architectural design
Three dimensional computer generated views.
FIELDS OF USE
The various field of use for CAD include the following areas;
HIGHER EDUCATION:
Higher education is provided by universities, polytechnics, institutions of
technology, colleges of education (which form part of the universities and
polytechnical colleges or are affiliated to these) and professional institutions.
Universities can be established either by federal or state governments. Each
university is administered by a Council and a Senate. Within the universities,
the institutes and colleges are more or less autonomous.
softwares;
2. Lack of skilled manpower, to manage available systems and
funds are used to solve more urgent and important survival needs by
the institutions;
5. The over-dependence of educational institutions on government for
everything has limited institutions ability to collaborate with the
private sector or seek alternative funding sources for ICT educational
initiatives.
6. Ineffective coordination of all the various ICT for education
initiatives.
The scope of CAD now covers various areas and fields of use, such as;
FUTURE TREND
Nigerian educational institutions face the challenge of globalization and
the information age for the transformation of the academic system from the
traditional role of teaching, learning, research, and development
technologies to those driven by the information technology, which is the
latest revolution changing all aspects of human endeavour. It must be
realized that the current ICT infrastructure in Nigeria can not enable
Nigerians or the universities to be part of the Global Information Society.
The poor telecommunication infrastructure, quantity and quality, constitute a
major problem to ICT development in many Nigerian universities. However,
the situation will start to change with the wind of deregulation blowing
across the country. One is happy to note that in the past five years things
have been changing for the better as far as information technology and CAD
use in Nigeria is concerned. Until a few years ago, it was generally assumed
that computer technology was not viable in Nigerian universities. However
some university are now either computerizing their activities through their
respective university's Computer Centres or installing these computers in
their own departments. One is also happy to note that both the Federal
Government of Nigeria and International funding agencies are now
interested in the general development of ICT in Nigerian universities. For
example, the Federal Ministry of Education has embarked on the
establishment of the National Virtual (Digital) Library Project. One of the
objectives of this is to provide, in an equitable and cost effective manner,
enhanced access to national and international library and information
resources and to share locally available resources with libraries all over the
world using digital technology. A Model Virtual (Digital) Library at National
Universities Commission (NUC) will be the hub of the university-based
libraries. The delivery of the Virtual Library will be through the Internet,
CD-ROM, and Wide Area Network (WAN). When this is finally
materialized, it will definitely be a boost to the development of ICT in
Nigerian educational system. There is the need for all universities to be
interconnected by a network to facilitate cross breeding of research efforts.
CONCLUSION
For an Architect, Engineer, Designer etc o succeed in his/her profession in
this 21st century, the understanding and use of CAD cannot be ruled out. In
various professional firms, CAD is being extensively in design, drafting and
so on, so the learning of CAD, in general, should be well encouraged in all
the Nigerian Universities running related programmes so as to impact he
necessary skills and knowledge that would prepare him/her for the
profession. The Nigerian University Education scheme should incorporate
programmes, workshops and avenues where the use and understanding of
CAD should be encouraged. This to a large extent would help prepare the
students for he challenges of the future.
REFERENCES
1 Computer Aided Design (CAD); www.wikipedia.com