CAD Advantages: 7 Major Benefits of Using Design Software 

You’re creating the designs for your newest fashion line. The designs looked great when you were drawing them out on paper. When your models put the finished product on, however, it looks like they’re wearing baggy potato sacks.

In the scenario above, without software, you would have to start all over. If you’d made your designs using computer-aided design software (CAD), however, you would have caught the error before you got to the creation step. 

That’s not the only CAD advantages you should know about. Check out this guide to learn more about how investing in this software could save you tons of time and money.  

1. Higher Productivity 

Before CAD software, a designer would have to draw out their creations by hand. If they didn’t like how their drawing turned out, they’d be faced with tossing it in the garbage and starting over. 

As you can imagine, it’s a lengthy process. Not only is it faster to create your designs using software but you can go in and make edits rather than scraping the entire thing.  

Sometimes your vision works well in theory but falls apart in practice. When that happens, you’ll end up forking over extra money on fresh materials and spend more time on the final product. 

In some cases, one little slip up can set your production time back a few months. You have to run a series of trials and errors to figure out what went wrong the first time. 

CAD software takes out all this work by allowing you to test your creations. The program will run a diagnostic to locate the source of the issue so you can make a quick edit. 

For example, a clothing designer will be able to place their clothing designs on models in the software before they hit the sewing machine.

2. Increase Design Quality 

You start to work on sketching out a new design. Your drawing looks good so you begin the production process. Once the final product is made, it functions — which is good enough for you. 

The product is put on the shelves and a couple of months down the line the company you made the design for starts getting complaints. Apparently, there was a huge design flaw that was never caught. 

A diagnostic in CAD would have picked up on this small error and allowed you to make a much higher quality product. 

3. Nothing is Lost in Communication 

Putting an idea on paper is much harder than it looks. What is easy for you to understand may look like mumbo jumbo to the rest of the design team. This makes everyone’s jobs more frustrating and ups the possibility for design error. 

CAD software has many tools available that make it easy for you to create a clean, easy to read design.

4. It Makes Documenting the Design Easy

CAD software documents every single aspect of the design from the materials that are used to the angles and measurements. This is feature is handier then you think. 

For example, someone hires you to make up a CAD of their home remodel. When you get done with the finished product, they’ll have a list of materials (along with prices) that they can send their contractor. You can read more here about that if you’re interested in this process. 

The best part about this feature is that you will be able to save these specs. That way, you can use them again in the future if you need to tweak or revisit the design. 

5. You Can Do Detailed Work 

When using traditional drawing, you’re limited to the size of the paper that you’re working with. Unless you’re using a computer, it’s hard to get in there and do any deep, detailed work.  

CAD allows you to blow up your creations to whatever size you need without it becoming too pixilated. You can then use the tools available to you to seamlessly draw in the small details. 

6. Easily Change Up Your Designs 

Imagine that you design a shirt in CAD but it turns out you don’t like the material that you originally planned on using. No problem! You’ll be able to change up the material in the software without having to make a brand new shirt design. 

If you need to put a logo on several of your designs all it will take is a quick copy/paste to get that done. 

7. You’ll be Able to Collaborate With Team Members

If you’re on a design team, you’re aware of how much collaboration goes into it. More and more CAD programs are starting to work with the Cloud. All you’ll need is an internet connection to send your designs to any of your co-workers. 

They’ll then be able to view the design and design history so they can see your entire creation process and make changes if need be. 

CAD Advantages Every Designer Should Know About

Are you still drawing your designs by hand? It’s a long and tedious process that hurts production and makes life harder on your entire design team.

With CAD, you’ll be able to send your creations to co-workers, change up your designs when need be, run diagnostics, and more. As you can see, even with the possibility of computer error, there are so many CAD advantages that not switching over is a wasted opportunity. Work smarter not harder!

Using the right software isn’t the only way to make your life as a designer easier. Check out our blog daily for even more articles like this one.