January 2009
A team of Carnegie Mellon University engineers led by Levent Burak Kara and Kenji Shimada has developed software that will let designers and engineers design new products by simply sketching their ideas on a tablet computer.
"The idea is to empower engineers and designers with tools that are already familiar to them and are the most natural for the task," said Kara, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at Carnegie Mellon.
The software, dubbed SketchCAD, is a digital pen-based computer system that can be used to design 3D products for a variety of industry sectors.
Because thinking about a new product shape by sketching is more expressive and more intuitive for engineers than the traditional mouse-and-menu-based design interfaces, the new system gives users more freedom to be creative and a shorter learning curve for use.
By providing greater freedom in conceptual design phases and alleviating costly redesign issues, the new technology will have an immediate impact on a multitude of industries, Carnegie Mellon researchers said.
"Right now, our technology is being adopted by Honda designers for designing new cars in fast and cost-effective ways," said Shimada, the Theodore Ahrens Professor of Engineering at Carnegie Mellon.
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