Mechanical CAD domain review
The first MCAD tool was introduced in 1997 and since then 4 major tool vendors -- Dassault Systems, Autodesk, Siemens and PTC have evolved these tools and integrated them into computer-aided assembly line manufacturing processes. These production management tool integrated MCAD tools are currently used by most large manufacturers. Solidworks/CATIA by Dassualt Systems, SolidEdge/NX by Siemens, Inventor by Autodesk and CREO by PTC are well-known examples.
In addition, there are several active (non-integrated) MCAD tools for smaller scale design and manufacturing.
These tools are MCAD only, and hence simpler, easier-to-use, and include collaborative design capabilities and specialised modeling capabilities, such as NURBS.
They are also quite interoperable.
Standardisation of a structural-assembly model exchange file format by the ISO (STEP-10303), has helped with interoperability for such non-integrated tools.
The first MCAD product, was a Windows app designed to run on an advanced PC-workstation,
with specialised 3D graphics and large high-resolution screens.
It used keyboard and mouse input to enable a user to input the 3D specifications of objects.
These inputs could be visualised through a camera-view on a 2D screen.
The purpose was to enable digital exchange, between designer, prototyper and production-unit.
A digital specification could be used directly to control computer aided manufacturing tools.
A design could also be visualised before production.
Even today, MCAD tools are primarily used for digital exchange and pre-production visualisation.
Over time, libraries of specified objects developed
and major advancements were made in geometric modelling. The specification tool could now also be used as a design tool and digital-first design started, to an extent.
Digital-first design introduces a gap between design and produceability,
that has to be bridged.
A digital-domain design has to be verified for its physical performance parameters,
and each production iteration is usually expensive.
A traditional physical-prototype-update based design-process is lot cheaper and more efficient.
3D printing is a new technology that is directly connected to digital-first design.
Some virtual physics-based simulation capabilities,
such as finite-element-analysis, and motion and kinematic analysis were introduced.
This improved the predictability of a design's real-world performance.
Another direction of MCAD tool specialisation was production-technique specific modeling,
such as weldments and sheet-metal production guidelines.
This improved production efficiency.
To model mathematically smooth curved surfaces, NURBS-based modelling also started being used.