CAD stands for Computer Aided Design. The key word here is Aided. This means that the computer will only help you with rendering the design on screen or on paper (when you print it out) - but the inputs are most definitely human. The computer will show you the designs that have been put into the software by engineers and designers. Therefore, it is essential that these designers and engineers have real-world, hands-on experience so that it can translate effectively into the designing software program.
Nowadays, most of the products we use have been designed from within software programs. This includes cars, airplanes and even computers themselves. However, it is very important to realize that the software doesnt design the product for you. It is the engineer or the designer who has put in the raw data - the input - within the software. And the software is merely rendering that information on your computer screen.
Therefore, it is very important to understand what kind of hands-on, real-world experience the designer or the engineer has in the field. Because it is going to affect the quality of his / her input into the software. If the input is wrong, so will the output.
Let me explain with an example. Many of us have used wrenches to remove the screws from our car tires - especially when we have a flat tire and have to replace it. Designing the wrench to use it with the screws of the tire is not a easy prospect. The tire screw often has a lot of dirt and grime on it. Many a times, it may even be a bit rusty. So the wrench has to be such that it can work with such screws - which means, it should hold on to the screw tight and not slip. Also, it must take into account the fact that the person who is using said wrench may not be physically capable to perform miraculous feats of power with it - many a times users of that wrench may be elderly people or women or even men who are not so very strong. Thus, the design has to be such that someone who is not so strong can still use the wrench to remove a screw which can be dirty, grimy, rusty and even stuck.
Given such conditions, only a person who has in fact changed a couple of tires in his life can have some ideas (especially if he / she is an engineer or a designer) as to how to design a wrench that can be useful in such conditions.
Such an experienced person can then input the data and details properly within the design software and thus get a better design rendered on the screen.
However, if an engineer or a designer does not have such kind of experience, it will not be an effective and useful design.
In the real world, however, such expectations can be quite difficult to reach. Computer software programs are not used simply for designing wrenches. They are also used to create complex machinery. And it is not possible that each and every designer has used that machinery or repaired that machinery in his lifetime.
However, using ones imagination and creative, out-of-the-box thinking capabilities, it is possible to overcome such hurdles. It is therefore very important to understand how the machine is used and how it is repaired. This kind of knowledge definitely will help the engineer and designer design a product that is effective.
Also, it is equally important to keep your eyes, ears and mind open when you receive feedback. Because the actual users are telling you what problems they are facing and where. You can thus, incorporate this feedback within your design cycle and eliminate these hurdles from your design, thus creating a product which works for the end user. This way you are using the hands-on experience of someone else in the design process.
Thus, hands-on experience is very important for design. A computer software cannot be a substitute for designing. It is merely the means of helping a designer render the design onto screen or paper.
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