CAD/CAM

The term CAD/CAM is a shortening of Computer-Aided Design (CAD) and Computer-Aided Manufacture (CAM). The term CAD/NC (Numerical Control) is equivalent in some industries. Most CAD/CAM software was developed for product development and to design and manufacture of components and molds. They are also increasingly used by architects. CAD/CAM software uses CAD drawing tools to describe geometries used by the CAM portion of the program to define a toolpath that will direct the motion of a machine tool to machine the exact shape that was drawn.

Examples of CAD/CAM software are SolidWorks,^[1] INVENTOR,^[2] CATiA ^[3] and AutoCAD.^[4] Furthermore, examples of CAM software are SolidCAM^[5] and CAMWorks.^[6]

3D CAD/CAM software provides the ability to control CNC machinery from 2.5 axis, 3 axis and multi axis CNC machines.

Expert CAD/CAM systems were developed around 1988.^[7]

References

1. "3D CAD Design Software". www.solidworks.com. Archived from the original on 2020-02-21. Retrieved 2019-07-24.
2. "Inventor | Mechanical Design And 3D CAD Software | Autodesk". www.autodesk.co.uk. Retrieved 2019-07-24.
3. "CATIA™ 3DEXPERIENCE® - Dassault Systèmes® 3D Software". www.3ds.com. Retrieved 2019-07-24.
4. "AutoCAD For Mac & Windows | CAD Software | Autodesk". www.autodesk.co.uk. Retrieved 2019-07-24.
5. Ltd, SolidCAM (2019-07-23). "The Leaders in Integrated CAM". SolidCAM CAM Software. Retrieved 2019-07-24.
6. "CAMWorks | CAM Software | CNC Software for Machine Tools". CAMWorks | CAD CAM Software | CNC Software for Machine Tools. Retrieved 2019-07-24.
7. "metalwork designs history | CAM And 3D CAD Software | access-complete history".^{[permanent dead link]}