CategoriesDesign Concepts and Techniques
CAD (Computer Aided Design)
Designing with software to draw, model, test and manufacture objects and buildings, from early plotters to parametric and generative tools.
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About
Computer-aided design began in engineering. Ivan Sutherland's Sketchpad (1963) let a user draw directly on a screen with a light pen, and car and aircraft makers soon built their own systems; at Renault, Pierre Bézier developed the curves that still shape digital drawing. Personal computers brought CAD to architects' offices in the 1980s, with AutoCAD released in 1982.
Software then changed what could be built. Frank Gehry's office adapted aerospace software to model the curving titanium skin of the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao (1997), and Zaha Hadid's practice used parametric scripts to generate flowing forms. In furniture, the same files drive CNC routers, laser cutters and 3D printers. Zhoujie Zhang grows faceted steel furniture from algorithms, and Gareth Neal cuts historic silhouettes into wood with digital tools. Look for faceting, stepped contours and repeats too precise for the hand.