COMPUTER AIDED DRAFTING

By-Er. AMAN AMIT

1.Introduction
Application of computers in our daily life has become our way of
life. The development of computers during 1947 has crossed a
long way to our modern computers which are very simple and
user friendly. They are used in all the fields. Though they were
originally developed for performing numerical calculations, the
computer graphics techniques lead the way to use them for design
and drafting from 1960 onwards. The preparation of an
engineering drawing with the aid of computer using soft wares is
known as computer aided drafting or computer aided design and
drafting and abbreviated as CAD. CAD is not a substitute for
design or drawing concept. It is only a tool that can be used for
making drawings. The underlying basic concepts as Orthographic
projection, sectional view and Isometric views etc., remain the
same regardless of the tool used for creating drawing.
9.2.Benefits
The CAD systems are user friendly. The work can be completed
very quickly. This results in reduction of labour and time.
The computers work very accurately, giving better quality
drawing.
The drawings can be stored and recollected when ever needed.
The corrections and modifications can be done quickly and easily.
Different design ideas can be tried having single basic drawing.
Visual modelling of any object or component can be done.
When the same component is needed in many places, the same
drawing can be
inserted in the required places, instead drawing it again.
It helps to visualize how the final product will be by using colour
graphics.
These are only few benefits of Computer Aided Design.
3.System components and computer hardware for CAD
The system requirements for installing CAD software comprises
of common PC of minimum Pentium configuration, Plotters,
drafting pads and monitors of large display area. Large area
facilitates easy viewing and maximum details of large drawings.
Drafting software is an application package that can be loaded in
the computer hardware and provide a platform to create high
quality drawings. The first CAD soft ware was developed by IBM
in 1960s called DAC-1 for custom use by General Motors in car
design. In 1882, a company called AutoDesk introduced the first
CAD program for the PCs, called AutoCad. With this CAD
become economically affordable. Then many packages become
available like SolidWorks, ProEngineer, IDEAS etc.,
4.Display
The display area is a monitor, the size of which is given by the
distance across the corners. The displays can be texts or graphics.
The screen is divided in the horizontal and vertical directions in
to a large number of picture elements called ‘pixels’. The higher
the pixels, the better will be the appearance of the picture. We
have colour monitors now a days.
5.Input devices
The input devices are those devices used to feed the data or the
requirement to the computer system. We communicate with the
system through the input devices. . Software drivers are required
to enable the host applications programs. i.e., the CAD/CAM
software, to interpret the information received from input devices
as well as send information to output devices. There are many
input devices. The input may be in the form of text or graphics.
The input in the form is given by the alphanumeric (character-
oriented) keyboards. Graphics devices, or locators, provide a
position or location on the screen. These include lightpens, mice,
digitizing tablets and styluses, joysticks, trackballs, thumbwheels,
touchscreens, and touchpads. Locating devices typically operate
by controlling the position of a cursor on the screen. Thus, they
are also referred to as cursor-control devices. The joystick provide
three-dimensional input are two-dimensional input devices
Another class of graphics input devices, besides locating devices,
is digitizer boards or tablets, or simply digitizers. Digitizers can
be divided into three kinds relative to the mode of operation of
the cursor. They are free-cursor, constrained-cursor, and motor-
cursor digitizers. In the first kind, the cursor is attached to the end
of a flexible chord, in the second it slides along a gantry that
traverses the entire digitizing board area, and in the third kind the
cursor motion is accomplished by motors driven by an operator
controlled joystick. Image-input devices such as video frame
grabbers and scanners comprise the third class of graphics-input
devices
5.1 Keyboards
Conventional keyboards are text-only devices and form an
essential and basic input device. They are typically employed to
create/edit programs or to perform word processing functions.
These keyboards have been modified to perform graphics tasks
by adding special function keys or attaching graphics –input
devices such as mice to them. The programmable function
keyboard (PFK) is another type that typically has pushbuttons that
are programmed to eliminate extensive typing of commands or
entering coordinate information. The pushbuttons are controlled
by the software and maybe assigned different functions at
different phases of the software. PFK maybe built as a separate
unit, or button may just be integrated with a conventional
keyboard.

Fig.1.Keyboard
5.2. Light pens
The light pen is intrinsically a pointing or picking device that
enables the user to select a displayed graphics item on a screen by
directly touching its surface in the vicinity of the item. The
application program processes the information generated from the
touching to identify the selectable item to operate on. The light
pen, however, does not typically have hardware for tracking,
positioning, or locating in comparison to digitizing tablet and
stylus. Instead, these functions are performed by utilizing the
hardware capabilities of the graphics display at hand. The light
pen itself does not emit light but rather detects it from graphics
items displayed on the screen. Using the emitted light as an input,
it sends an interrupt signal to the computer to determine which
item was seen by the pen
5.3.Digitizing tablet
A digitizing tablet is considered to be a locating as well as a
pointing device. It is a small, low-resolution digitizing board
often used in conjunction with a graphics display. The tablet is a
flat surface over which a stylus or a puck (a hand-hold cursor to
differentiate it from a display screen cursor) can be moved by the
user. The close resemblance of the tablet and stylus to paper and
pencil contributes to its popularity as an input device in computer
graphics. The stylus is shaped like a pen, and a puck is a little
hand-held box. The puck contains a rectile and at least one
pushbutton. The rectile’s engraved cross-hairs help locate a point
for digitizing. Pressing the pushbutton sends the coordinates at
the cross-hairs to the computer. Additional buttons may be
available on the puck and may be programmed by the software
for other functions than digitizing locations such as selecting
alphanumeric font sizes or electronic symbols. Sizes of digitizing
tablets range form 11 x 11 to 36 x 36 inches and perhaps larger.

3.Digitizing tablet
5.4.Mouse Systems
The mouse was invented in the late 1960s as a location device but
has only recently become fairly popular due to its convenient use
with icons and pop-up and pull-down menus. Unlike the
digitizing tablet, the mouse measures its relative movement from
its last position, rather than where it is in relation to some fixed
surface. There are two basic types of mice available: mechanical
and optical. The mechanical mouse is a box with two metal
wheels or rollers on the bottom whose axes are orthogonal in
order to record the mouse motion in the x and y directions. The
roll of the mouse on any flat surface causes the rotation of the
wheel which is encoded into digital values via potentiometers.
These values may be stored, when a mouse pushbutton is
depressed, in the mouse registers accessible by the application
program either immediately or during the computer interrupts
every refresh cycle. Using these values, the program can
determine the direction and magnitude of the mouse movement.
Unlike the mechanical one, the optical mouse is used in
conjunction with a special surface (the mouse pad). Movements
over this surface are measured by a light beam modulation and
optical encoding techniques. The light source is located at the
bottom and the mouse must be in contact with the surface for the
screen cursor to follow its movements. Pushbuttons may be
mounted on top of the mouse and programmed to various
functions.

4.Mouse System
5.5.Joysticks, Trackballs, and Thumbwheels
These are less popular locating devices than the tablet or the
mouse. Their concept of operation is very similar to that of the
mechanical mouse. The joystick works by pushing its stick
backward or forward or to the left or to the right. The extreme
positions of these directions correspond to the four corners of the
screen. A joystick may be equipped with a rotating knob on the
top.
A trackball is similar in principle to a joystick but it allows more
precise fingertip control. The ball rotates freely within its mount.
Both the joystick and the trackball have been used historically in
radar and flight control systems. Both are used to navigate the
screen display cursor. The user of a trackball can learn quickly
how to adjust to any nonlinearity in its performance.
Two thumbwheels are usually required to control the screen
cursor, one for its horizontal position and the other for its vertical
position. Each position is indicated on the screen by a cross-hair.
Thumbwheels are usually mounted on the keyboard.

5.Joysticks, Trackballs, and Thumbwheels

6.Output Devices
Output devices form the other half of a CAD/CAM workstation,
the first being the input devices. While CAD/CAM applications
require the conventional output devices such as alphanumeric
(video) displays (terminals) and hardcopy printers, they require
output devices to display graphics to the user. Graphics output
devices can be divided into soft and hard devices. The former
refer to the graphics displays or terminals which only display
information on a screen. Hard output devices refer to hardcopy
printers and plotters that can provide permanent copies of the
displayed information.
6.1 Graphics Displays
The graphics of a workstation is considered its most important
component because the quality of the displayed image influences
the perception of generated designs on the CAD/CAM system. In
addition to viewing images, the graphics display enables the user
to communicate with the displayed image by adding, deleting,
blanking, and moving graphics entities on the display screen. As
a matter of fact, this communication process is what gives
interactive graphics its name to differentiate it form passive
graphics, as in the case of a home television set, that the user
cannot change.
Various display technologies are now available to the user to
choose from. They are all based on the concept of converting the
computer’s electrical signals, controlled by the corresponding
digital information, into visible images at high speeds. Among the
available technologies, the CRT (cathode ray tube) is the most
dominating and has produced a wide range of extremely effective
graphics displays. Other technologies utilize laser, flat panel
displays, or plasma panel displays. In the first, a laser beam,
instead of an electron beam, is used to trace an image in a film. In
the second, a liquid crystal display (LCD) and light-emitting
diodes (LEDs) are used to generate images. The plasma display
uses small neon bulbs arranged in a panel which provides a
medium resolution display. Thus far, none of these display
technologies has been able to displace the CRT as the dominant
graphics display device.
By controlling the beam direction and intensity in a way related
to the graphics information generated in the computer,
meaningful and desired graphics can be displayed on the screen.
The deflection system of the CRT controls the x and y, or the
horizontal and vertical, positions of the beam which in turn are
related to the graphics information through the display controller,
which typically sits between the computer and the CRT. The
controller receives the information from the computer and
converts it into signals acceptable to the CRT. Other names for
the display controller are the display processor, the display logical
processor, or the display processing unit. The major tasks that the
display processor performs are the voltage-level convergence
between the computer and the computer and the CRT, the
compensation for the difference in speed between the computer
and the CRT (by acting as a buffer), and the generation of
graphics and texts. More often, display processors are furnished
with additional hardware to implement standard graphics
software functions into hardware to improve the speed of
response. Such functions include transformations (scaling,
rotation, and translation) and shading.
The graphics display can be divided into two types based on the
scan technology used to control the electron beam when
generating graphics on the screen. These are random and raster
scan. In random scan (also referred to as stroke writing, vector
writing, or calligraphic scan), graphics can be generated by
drawing vectors or line segments on the screen in a random order
which is controlled by the user input and the software. The word
‘random” indicates that the screen is not scanned in a particular
order. On the other hand, in the raster scan system, the screen is
scanned from left to right, top to bottom, all the time to generate
graphics. This is similar to the home television scan system, thus
suggesting the name “digital scan”. The three existing CRT
displays that are based on these techniques are the refresh
(calligraphic) display, direct view storage tube, and the raster
display. The first two are vector displays based on the random
scan technique and the last is based on the raster scan technique.

Fig.6.Cathode Ray Tube

6.1.Refresh Display.
In this system, the deflection system of the CRT is controlled and
driven by the vector and character generators and digital-to-
analog converters. The refresh buffer stores the display file or
program, which contains points, lines, characters, and other
attributes of the picture to be drawn these commands are
interpreted and processed by the display processor. The electron
beam accordingly excites the phosphor, which glows for a short
period. To maintain a steady flicker-free image, the screen must
be refreshed or redrawn at least 30 to 60 times per second, that is,
at a rate of 30 to 60 Hz.
The display file is generated by the CAD/CAM software and is
considered a data structure which must be updated and
constructed according to the needs of the application program,
that is, the software. Changes made to the display file by
the software.

Fig.7.CRT screen scan technique and

Fig.8. Refresh display
must be synchronized with the display refresh cycle to prevent the
display of an incomplete picture. If the software updates the file
fast enough, then it is possible to use the dynamic techniques such
as animation to stimulate movements as well as developing
responsive user interfaces.
6.1.2 Direct View Storage Tube (DVST).
Refresh displays were very expensive and, at the end of the 1960s
the DVST was introduced by Tektronix as an alternative and
inexpensive solution. It is believed that the emergence of the
DVST in that time had a significant impact on making
CAD/CAM systems affordable for both users and programmers.
The DVST eliminates the refresh processors completely and,
consequently, the refresh buffer used with the refresh display. It
also uses a special type of phosphor that

Fig.9. Direct View Storage Tube

has a long-lasting glowing effect. The phosphor is embedded in
a storage tube. In addition, the speed of the electron beam in the
DVST is slower than in the refresh display due to elimination of
the refresh cycle.
In the DVST, the picture is stored as a charge in the phosphor
mesh located behind the screen’s surface. But due to the lack of
selective erasure, the DVST cannot provide colors, animation,
and use of a lightpen as an input device. Due to its main
advantages of inexpensive price and high resolution, early
turnkey CAD/CAM systems used storage tubes for their displays.
6.1.3 Raster Display
In raster displays, the display screen area is divided horizontally
and vertically into a matrix of small elements called picture
elements or pixels or pixels, as shown in Fig. 9.10. A pixel is the
smallest addressable area on a screen. An N x M resolution
defines a screen with N rows and M columns. Each row defines a
scan line. A rasterization process is needed in order to display
either a shaded area or graphics entities. In this process, the area
or entities are converted into their Corresponding pixels whose
intensity and color are controlled by the image display system.

Fig.10. Pixel Matrix of Raster display

The creation of raster-format data from geometric information is
known as scan conversion or rasterization. A rasterizer that forms
the image-creation system is mainly a set of scan-conversion
algorithms. Due to the universal need for theses algorithms, the
scan conversion or rasterization process is now hardware
implemented and is done locally in the workstation. As an
example, there are standard algorithms such as the DDA (digital
differential analyzer) and the Bresenham’s method which are
used to draw a line by generating pixels to approximate the line.
Similar algorithms exist to draw arcs, text, and surfaces. This is
why it is possible to create images with different colors and
hollow areas on raster displays.
The values of the pixels of a display screen that result from the
scan-conversion process are stored in an area or memory called
frame buffer or bit

Fig.11.Colour raster display

map refresh buffer (bit map, for short).. Each pixel value
determines its brightness (gray level) or most often its color on
the screen. There is a one-to-one correspondence between every
cell in the bit map memory and every pixel on the screen.
The display processor maps every cell into its corresponding
screen pixel brightness or color. In order to maintain a flicker-free
image on the screen, the screen must be refreshed at the rate of 30
or 60 Hz, as in the case of refresh displays. The refresh process is
performed by passing the pixel values in the bit map to the display
processor every refresh cycle regardless of whether these values
represent the image or the background. Therefore the refresh
process is independent of the complexity of the image and the
number of its graphics items. Thus there is no chance of a flicker
problem with the increased complexity of the image as in the case
of refresh displays.