CAD in creative design, problem solving

Existential Angst · 2010-05-17T15:25:17+00:00

Awl -- In a pointless response to the Village Idiot (Jon Banquer, unemployed ex-thief of Qualcomm, in his absurd notion of him asking difficult Qs), I brought up the notions of CAD being more for communication than the design process itself.Bonkers of course confuses "difficult" with "rancorous".Some refinements of the design vs. communication notion.In "art" type design, like, say, for a new car body, certainly CAD could be useful, as a simple curvature of a line can alter the visual effect in auto design..But this is more of an "illustrating" context than say a parts/machining context.Ito of the actual function/design of mechanical parts, has anyone actually solved a "design problem" using CAD?And by design problem, I don't mean radius blends, geometry problems, etc, for which CAD can really shine, but rather the solution to a "how do I do this" engineering-type problem.For me, the problem is always solved on paper, the essence of the design clearly present on a napkin.CAD, for me, is just for telling other people where the holes go, or for keeping track of the history/evolution of a design....Now admittedly, for things like carburetors, these holes can get perty complicated, and mebbe CAD would be useful in doping a few things out in something like that, but I would think mostly it's a tool for communicating/building, not really thinking per se.After all, some perty complicated carburetors were built before CAD, and I don't know that CAD really improved them.But mebbe they did.Opinions? Experiences?