BSA Committee on Design Software
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 About CADD

What is CAD, CADD, CAAD, CAD-CAM, CIM, CAE, Architectural CADD, CAFM, CAID, and Design Software ?

CAD - Computer Aided Design, a huge all-encompasing category of computer software which now includes just about everything humankind (and even cyberkind) can design, from clothes, cars, and airplanes, to electrical systems, buildings, and even designing other software. Specialized CAD software has evolved for each of these endeavors, resulting in some of the other acronyms. Now just about every field will add a "CA" in order to designate its particular area of specialized software, such as Computer Aided Facilities Management - CAFM, and Computer Aided Interior Design - CAID. A major difference amung all the sub categories is between Graphic (drawing and modeling) Software, usually designated as CADD, and Design Information software.

CADD - Computer Aided Design and Drafting, is the sub category of CAD which specifically involves graphics in the form of drawing/drafting and 3D modeling. The three main divisions of CADD are imaging, which uses rasters or dots on screen (usually used for photographs, scans, and renderings), 2D vector based CADD (which uses a concept of points connected by lines and arcs), and 3D CAD modeling, which involves either virtual surfaces or virtual solids to depict things or environments (virtual reality).

CAAD - Computer Aided Architectural Design, is an obsolete term most people have abandoned in favor of the less confusing more descriptive term "Architectural CADD". This term is still sometimes heard in europe, where the main CAD association is called eCAADe.

Architectural CADD - is a designation of software which cuts across several of these categories, as architects do a wide variety of tasks, but which is mostly a specialized area of CADD. Architectural CADD software usually has an assumed ground-plane, and has special entities to draw/model architectural elements such as walls, windows, doors, roofs, stairs, furniture. This differs from basic drafting software where plans and elevations can be drafted line by line, and from industrial design modeling software where elements are modeled irrespective of any ground plane. Since the architectural profession for all of its thousands of years of existance has essentially been one of virtual reality - depicting an environment that does not yet exist - Architectural CADD encompases a number of computer aided techniques in order to show those environments, including photo-composite imaging and rendering, 3D modeling and virtual reality, 2D drafting and production of construction details, and structural and mechanical systems design (which is part of CAE).

CAE - Computer Aided Engineering

CALD - Computer Aided Landscape Design

CASE - Computer Aided Software Engineering. This is essentially a computer program that automatically writes other computer programs. Not something one immediatly thinks of as within the scope of CAD, CASE is indeed a type of CAD software, as programmers, called software designers design, rather than "write" software. The head of a group of software designers is sometimes referred to as a Project Architect - though, when working on software within the construction industry, this title comes dangerously close to violating many State laws, which have legal restrictions on that title.

Imaging Software - Software that works with rasters (dots), usually in the form of photographs, scans, or renderings.

CAD-CAM - Refers to CAD for mechanical engineering and industrial design.

CIM - Computer Integrated Manufacturing

CAFM, CAID - Facilities Management software, Interior Design software

AEC - Architecture, Engineering and Construction, this term, in this acronym, refers specifically to the building industry. The seperate fields of Architecture, Engineering, and Construction each go on into many other fiields of endeavor - architecture gets into the design industry, virtual reality, and historic preservation, amung others - engineering covers everything from nuclear energy to bridge construction to aircraft, industrial design, and most of the transportation industry - and construction can involve building anything on earth and beyond. Together though, the AEC designation is not meant to cover all these fields, but instead where they intermix the most - in the making of buildings.

Design Software - a term we use to indicate that we are talking about not just Architectural CADD software, but also imaging, planning software, and various types of engineering design software.