Application of Computer Aided Design
There are several CAD software applications. Several of them along with their respective vendors are listed here:
CAD Applications Scanner Vendor: Desktop
AlphaCAM Canon
Ashlar Vellum Epson
AutoCAD Hewlett Packard
CATIA/CADCAM UMAX
CAD Applications Scanner Vendor: Large Format
Eagle point Action Imaging
FastCAD Contex
Pro/E Xerox
FelixCAD Kip
IntelliCAD Ricoh
MasterCAM Vidar
MasterStation Widecom
There are several more applications not listed in the list specified above.
These applications replicate the old drafting panel as a means to illustrate and create designs. As Computer-Aided-Design applications run on computers they give a great deal more functionality than a drafting board and a great deal more difficulty. The text and lines created in Computer-Aided-Design are vectors. It means that their shapes and positions are explained in mathematical terms. These vectors are stored on computer systems in Computer-Aided-Design files.
There are a great many diverse file formats for Computer-Aided-Design. Most Computer-Aided-Design applications produce their own proprietary file format. The Computer-Aided-Design applications from Auto-Desk Inc. are utilized widely. As a consequence their DWG format is very general. Some other Computer-Aided-Design applications from the other vendors can generate and open DWG files, and also their own proprietary formats. Computer-Aided-Design data is frequently exchanged using DXF format.
Note: The DWG file format is a computer-aided-design vector format developed through the Autodesk and created through their Auto-CAD application. DXF is also a computer-aided-design vector format. This is designed to permit the exchange of vector information between various CAD applications. Most computer-aided-design applications can save to and read from DXF format.
When computer-aided-design drawings are sent to printers the format usually used is HPGL. HPGL files usually have the extension .plt.
Note: The HPGL file format is a vector format developed through Hewlett Packard for driving plotters. The file extensions used comprise: .plt, .hpg, .hp2, .pl2 and occasionally .prn. Conversely, the use of the .prn extension is not an absolute indicator which the file comprises HPGL code. They are frequently referred to as 'plot files'. Trix Systems gives some options for handling HPGL and the later HPGL2 file formats.