By “CAD Standards”, we mean anything that can be used more than once during a CAD design process or during the creation of engineering documentation.

Having a good CAD standard in place and actively using it will make the engineering design process more efficient and productive. CAD standards are there to help take an engineers’ mind off the non-creative tasks that give no value to the project once it is finished. However, they do play a huge role during the design process, and many companies are losing money because of inadequate standards.

CAD standards are tools that make companies work faster and better. They minimize errors and provide consistency. Engineers that are using CAD standards can devote their time to the creative work that matters and can leave everything else to be done by the CAD standard.

The diagram below shows just a portion of what could be included in a companies’ CAD standard. This kind of standard could be used by a small engineering design company that is using SolidWorks and has no PDM system in place.

This post is intended to shine some light on the definition of CAD standards. Every single part of this standard could get explained in a separate post, and some of them will be.