plotting

raster means an array of simple dots as e.g. your newspaper is made of and you may create with a paint program as e.g. Phtoshop.

coordinates are the values of the control points of geometrical objects which are sufficient for describing the entity as e.g. the start and end point of a line or the center point and radius of a circle.

CAx systems of course do use vectors which is obviously needed for doing the transition calculations as e.g. moving, rotating, scaling, mirroring etc. without losing the objects 'quality' i.e. exact definiton.

Most CAx apps can of course embedd raster data which is often needed for e.g. logos or scanned plans in the architectural area (see GIS).

hth N.

Autocad uses Vector for its drawings, most publishing programs use Raster so if you need to access a drawing in Raster you will need a conversion programme like Scan2cad

Eric h