Is CAD essential to all teams?

[protoserge]

Originally Posted by indieFan

CAD is a great tool provided the people using it understand that just because something may be designed in CAD doesn't mean it may be manufactured.

My example for students is always: You can draw a solid steel sphere with a hollow core, but how are you going to make it with no seams? As far as I know, you can't.

The other example is that a student drew a wheel knowing we had access to a CNC machine. What the student didn't know/understand was that it was a 3-axis machine and couldn't do the angled portion of the wheel that he was expecting to be done.

Out of curiousity, would you mind posting the wheel drawing in a new thread or upload an image? It might not be impossible on a 3 axis machine and would generate some good discussion.