Computer-aided Drafting or simply CAD Drafting has wiped out and replaced almost all traditional hand drafting techniques used in many industries – especially within the realm of mechanical engineering and design. Neater and faster to conduct, computer aided drawings are also fairly easy to modify and far less vulnerable to physical damages. For these sheer advantages, CAD drafting has become an essential standard for mechanical engineers to formulate comprehensive strategies about a product and its mechanical components as well as to demonstrate a visual illustration of how it needs to be constructed to allow a flawless and effective functioning. And need we say, in order to cash on the ever-rising popularity of these drafting techniques, many global brands have stepped forward and dished out their own sophisticated CAD drafting software – thus eventually making it difficult for customers to make up their mind which program to pick. In order to help you out with the cause, today we are going to have a closer look at 3 of the best CAD drafting software around in the market today:
- AutoCAD
- CATIA
- MicroStation
What makes AutoCAD one of the best CAD drafting software
AutoCAD made its way into the market as an excellent CAD Drawing Software almost 3 decades back – in 1982, and ever since has been there at the top continuously ruling the charts. It is undoubtedly the best utility for documenting your design ideas – and thank the wide range of features and tools it brings along, the whole drafting process becomes more like a walk in the park. The program allows efficient editing and repurposing the drafting process in order iterate and evaluate the available design options. Allowing the improvisation of existing geometries with easy-to-remember and easy-to-execute commands is another highlighting feature of this program. Now, let’s have a look at the key advantages that make AutoCAD the best CAD drafting software in the market today:
- It allows you to drive efficient design documentation and other important drafting practices.
- Efficient reuse of content is possible.
- You can work on either Windows or Mac platform – whichever you may prefer
- It allows you customize your work environment as you prefer
How CATIA made it to the list of best CAD drafting software
CATIA – which happens to be the abbreviation for Computer Aided Three-dimensional Interactive Application, also deserves to be there in the list of the 3 best CAD drafting software around today. It is a multi platform suite written on the C++ language. Even though the first stable release was on March 2011, the origin of CATIA can be traced back to as early as 1977.
CATIA is a leading product development solution for manufacturing organizations across various industries, including aerospace, industrial machinery, electrical, automotive, electronics, plant design, shipbuilding and what not! Some of its highlighting aspects include:
- Easy drafting even in the context of rather large products or configuration
- Real time drafting with adequate security, integrity as well as traceability
- Support for multi-disciplinary collaboration on diverse systems and products
- Cross platform support
Three decades of excellence makes MicrosStation one the best CAD drafting software
Dished out by Bentley Systems, MicroStation is a computer-aided design software suite for both two as well as three dimensional design and drafting purposes. This widely popular product across multiple industries has been around in the market since the 1980s. While earlier its focus was more at Apple’s Mac platform, the recent most releases of this CAD Drawing Software are exclusively aimed at the Windows OS. While DGN is its native format, MicroStation also extends its compatibility to other formats like DWG, DXF, AVI, JPEG, BMP, PDF, VRML and so on. As one of the best CAD drafting software, Microstation facilitates:
- Extensive format inter-compatibility, including the likes of DGN, DXF, PDF, 3DS, IGES, IFC, CGM and what not
- Real time sharing of live design data across all project participants simultaneously
- The ability to view and render point clouds with bare minimum effort.
– The CAD Chief
