Outsource Benefits of Outsourcing CAD Conversion

What is CAD?

CAD which stands for Computer Aided Design, is the process of using computer programs to bring forth detailed models of physical objects (both two and three dimensional) including buildings and mechanical components. The term CAD conversion refers to the process of converting any existing manual (read: hand drawn) design into a CAD format to ensure better storage, higher accuracy and easier modification.

Why CAD conversion is required in Mechanical engineering?

Unlike yester-decades, mechanical engineering designs and drawing are no longer exclusively handled on physical media such as blueprints, papers, vellum, tracings, film etc. Gone are the days when a drafts-person would draw the designs on a physical media and then distribute copies to the engineering and manufacturing teams working on the project. To have a clear understanding of how the current day techniques involving Computer Aided Designs are making life immensely easier for the worldwide mechanical engineer community, the sheer limitations of the widely used pre-CAD era techniques must be taken into account.

To begin with, the design techniques used during the pre-CAD era mostly involved physical media, which unfortunately made the entire process painfully lengthy- meaning they always ended up consuming a lot of time and company resources. Worse even, any revision of the master drawing was truly a hectic and untidy task which would often leave behind certain elements of imperfection thus putting the entire project in jeopardy. But with CAD, to conceive or improvise any mechanical engineering design is no longer that cumbersome. In addition, with this relatively new technology, the entire process of modifying/improvising the original design tends to be far less prone to errors. This is why CAD conversion has emerged as the best and most practical approach to almost any mechanical engineering project such as product design and modeling, converting 2-D drawings to 3-D models, mechanical assembly drawings and what not! With the master drawings converted to CAD, they can be stored digitally, thus leaving room for further modification without making any alteration to the original design itself. An outsourced CAD conversion project may include (but not necessarily restricted to) one or more of the following tasks -

• CAD digitization
• Conversion of AutoCAD
• Conversion of MicroStation
• Conversion of raster to vector
• Conversion of JPG to DWG
• Conversion of PDF and MCD to DWG
• Conversion of DWG to DGN

Why outsource?

CAD conversion is a critical task which obviously needs some serious expertise alongside the right resources and a dedicated team. In addition, many businesses do not enjoy the luxury of sufficient funds to withstand the financial burdens of having to hire full time employees (including a draftsman) for this kind of operations. And even in the presence of sufficient funds, it might be inconvenient for project managers to allocate their valuable resources to CAD conversion instead of converging the entire focus on the project itself. So, outsourcing CAD conversion services to a reliable third party always seems to be the viable option that can benefit an organization on multiple fronts: cost reduction, time efficiency and retaining the focus on the core project being the most obvious ones amongst them. Above all, it ensures that the project is handled by qualified professionals with enough hand-on experience to deliver the highest quality work within the given deadline.

Here's a rundown of the benefits of outsourcing a CAD conversion project:

• Time efficiency
• Reduction on hiring cost
• Reduction on training cost
• Reduction on operational cost
• Quality work
• Better utilization of company resources
• Low overhead cost
• Guaranteed benefits from cutting-edge technologies
• Allows the management to shift focus to core business issues
• Competitive advantage