Graphics Reference
In-Depth Information
My irst real brush with design software was writing code for graphics
design in high school. In college I found a part-time job helping a Dutch
manufacturer create simple sheet metal parts on a computer. The fact that
he had to ask a geeky freshmen to help him out on this shows you how few
professional engineers were using CAD in those days. My classmate Guy
Shaviv and I wrote a simple program that allowed an engineer to sketch out
the outline of a sheet metal part, as if it were made of paper—disregarding its
actual physical thickness.
The thinking was that the production loor people would enter the actual
thickness of the part later, when the physical stock actually arrived on the
plant. In response, the engineer's design would automatically adjust. It was a
simple idea—a far cry from today's real-time, photorealistic, ly-through ani-
mations. But my faculty advisor, Moshe “Shei” Shpitalni, had the foresight to
realize that CAD wasn't just about improving the design itself.
Design software can communicate seamlessly with different divisions in
a manufacturing plant. Our program allowed the manufacturer to relax its
procurement criteria and purchase a much broader range of raw materials
than it could with a traditional “ixed” blueprint. The software was a huge
success and eventually sold for $4 million (of which my buddy and I got
2.5 dollars per hour).
Later, when I was in my early 20s and serving as a naval oficer, our unit
had a special blueprint division. This division was housed in a well-lit room
where trained draftsmen and women toiled over slanted drafting tables draw-
ing detailed blueprints of ship's hulls, engines, and other parts.
My commander and I lobbied to introduce 3D design software to the
naval engineering unit. Eventually, we succeeded, but it wasn't an easy sell.
Draftspeople had invested years in learning their trade, and it was a coura-
geous few—typically the new recruits—who were willing to start over again
learning how to use computer-based design tools. However, eventually even
the top brass came to realize that design software was not only more eficient,
but design iterations aside, it had built-in capacity for making calculations and
predictions that no human draftsperson could touch.
