1.

Introduction to CAD/CAM/CAE and Concept of Integration

In the 20th century there was a revolution when computers were introduced. These computers offered an enhancement of mans mental capabilities. Computers are now being widely used in all the engineering fields, and it is not possible to undertake a major engineering project without this. Computing capabilities of computers have been rapidly improved in terms of their memory capacity and processing speed which means more complex problems can be tackled with ease and more calculations can be performed. More importantly, this has become possible due to developments in the field of technology. In the era of high technological and advanced computational changing pace, we are experiencing a new twist in the way we educate our students in the area of design. We are facing greater challenges in making competitive products that is why there is a need to have the ability to work in computer aided design (CAD) environment. In engineering practice, CAD/CAM has been utilized in different ways by different people. Some utilizes it to produce drawings and document designs. Other may employ it as a visual tool by generating shaded images and animated displays. A third group may perform engineering analysis of some sort on geometric models such as finite element analysis. A fourth group may use it to perform process planning and generate NC part programs. CAD can be defined as use of computers to aid the design process. The process of design is an iterative process. The steps in design are defined by Shigley. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Recognition of the need Definition of the problem Synthesis Analysis and optimization Evaluation Presentation

The product begins with a need which is identified based on consumers and market demands. The product goes through two main processes from the idea conceptualization to the finished product : the design process and the manufacturing process. Synthesis and analysis are the main sub processes that continue the design process. Synthesis is as crucial to design as analysis. The philosophy, functionality and uniqueness of the product are all determined during synthesis. The end goal of the synthesis is a conceptual design of the perspective product. Typically, this design takes the form of a sketch or a layout drawing that shows the relationships among the various product parts, as well as any surrounding constraints. It is also employed during the brainstorming discussions among various design

teams. The analysis begins with an attempt to put the conceptual design in the context to evaluate the performance of the expected product. This constitutes design modeling and simulation. Various design alternatives can be investigated to make better design decisions in shorter periods of time. Algorithms for both design analysis and optimization can be implemented and utilized. Once the major elements of the design have been analyzed and their nominal dimensions determined, the design evaluation phase starts. Prototypes can be built in a lab or computer to test the design. More often computer prototypes are utilized because they are less expansive and faster to generate. The designer can also generate the bill of materials, specify tolerances and perform cost analyses. The last phase is the design communication and documentation which involves preparations of drawings, reports and presentations. Drawings are utilized to be passed to the manufacturing process.

Design Process

Implementation of a Typical CAD process on a CAD/CAM System

Implementation of a Typical CAM process on a CAD/CAM System

The manufacturing process begins with the process planning and ends with the actual product. Process planning is considered the backbone of the manufacturing process since it attempts to determine the most efficient sequence to produce the product. The planner works with drawings and may have to communicate with the design department of the company to clarify or request changes in the final design to fit manufacturing requirements. The outcome of the process planning is a production plan, tool procurement, material order and machine programming. Other special manufacturing needs such as design of jigs and fixtures are planned. In addition to a centralized CAD/CAM database for CAPP, geometric models that are accessed must be unambiguous. Solid models possess such a characteristic and are used in CAPP development. Once the process planning is complete, the actual production of the product begins. The produced parts are inspected and usually must pass certain standard quality control requirements. Parts that survive inspection are assembled, packed, labeled and shipped to customers. Market feedbacks are usually valuable in enhancing the products. These feedbacks are usually incorporated into the design process.

CAD/CAM Systems in an Industrial Environment

Computer Aided Engineering (CAE) is defined as a product design & devopment philosophy that brings all the engineering activities together.

Computer Aided Manufacturing System (CIM) As describe earlier, CAD is automation of design process and CAM is automation of manufacturing process. The CAD/CAM addresses only the physical description of the product which share a common database.

CAD/CAM System

The CIM is an integration of CAD/CAM system that controls and optimizes all activities from the planning, design of product to its manufacturing and shipping. In true sense, such a system includes the management control of an entire business. CIM is to provide computer assistance, control and high level integrated automation at all the levels in design and manufacturing. The

technology applied in CIM makes intensive use of distributed data processing techniques, computer network and DBMS.

Major Components of CIM (Computer Integrated Manufacturing)

Other Activities of CIM (Computer Integrated Manufacturing)

CIM & its MIS (Management Information System)

Inventory Status

CIM & its MRP (Manufacturing Resource Planning) The CIM will benefit the enterprise in Quick launch of a new product Reducing delivery time Optimizing inventories Quick & fast production planning

Reducing lead time Better quality product Enhancing competition & responsiveness Thus the CIM will fulfill the objective to strengthen the relationship between customer and supplier. This is achieved by restructuring the organization.

1.2

Elements of CAD

CAD consists of three levels i.e. drafting, modeling, analysis and blended of two factors i.e. Machine and Human factor, working together to achieve the optimum design.

Levels of CAD

Integration of CAD

CAD system and its interactivity

The human factor is the key factor in the success of CAD system. This concerns the training of the designer/engineer, without whom the CAD system becomes redundant. The trained designers may be involved in CAD process due to the following. Computer aided Analysis : is used to perform calculations in the design process. Most of the calculations are complicated and it is not possible to solve them manually e.g. to solve simultaneous equations of the order of 100 can be solved with the help of computer. Performing such calculations with computer, the designer is free to focus towards the interpretation of the results which definitely would enhance the efficiency of the designer. Computer aided Visualization : automated drafting provides a mean to create the drawing of the elements or parts that are being designed. Computer graphics tools can be used to store, present, manipulate the drawing electronically and it can be visualized as and when required. The interactive graphics allows the user to interact with the presentation in real time. Now it is possible to create the product and test it electronically before actually producing it. You can feel and see the product if found satisfactory then produce it. Real time change of specifications may be possible with the help of this technique. Computer aided Synthesis : is to tell you how to improve the design. This gives many alternatives of design; the one most profitable and optimum must then be selected. The selection process may not be easy. One way is to evaluate the performance of the system by varying various parameters and observing the performance. Presently, AI, expert systems are available to make decisions in such situations. These systems involve the domain knowledge like experts and simulate the results. The system factor consists of two components namely the hardware and the software. The hardware forms the physical components. A typical list of hardware for CAD system is given as follows. CAD workstation Display Devices Interaction Devices Output Devices A large range of these devices are available which will be discussed subsequently. The second component of system factor is the software which is a set of instructions, procedures, and rules that directs the operation of the computer. A block diagram shown below depicts the elements of CAD and their interconnectivity within the CAD system.

Elements of CAD

1.3

Essential requirement of CAD

At one time, hardware requirements for CAD consists of a large mainframe host computer and costly peripheral devices and the cost of such installation was huge. Thus, the luxury of having such a system could be managed by very few large companies. Such a high investment kept the industries institutions away from benefiting from this technology. The scene, however, has changed as a result of rapid advancement in microcomputer industries. More and more powerful computers have been launched at a very affordable price. Similarly, the cost of peripheral devices has also gone down dramatically. This has made CAD affordable for every engineering activity.

CAD hardware, software and humanware connectivity The processing unit of a computer is called Central Processing Unit (C.P.U.). It is known as the brain of the computer because all the processing of data are carried out here. It consists of Storage, Arithmetic logical unit and Control unit.

The capacity of the storage unit to store data is expressed in terms of bits. A bit is the unit of binary numbers, which are formed by 0 and 1 only. Hence it converts all the information and data in terms of bits 0 and 1 represent the status of electronic signals that are passed to and

from computer. A bit is the smallest unit for storage, there are larger units for memory as follows : 1 byte = 8 bits 1 kilobyte (KB)= 1024 bytes 1 megabyte (MB) = 1024 KB 1 gigabyte (GB) = 1024 MB A computer system has the two types of memory : RAM (Random access memory) : temporary memory ROM (Read only memory ) : permanent

1.4 Graphics Input Devices

These devices are used to input the two possible types of information : text and graphics. Textinput devices are the alphanumeric keyboards. There are three classes of graphics-input devices : locating devices, digitizers and image-input devices. Locating devices, or locators, provide a position or location on the screen. These include lightpens, mice, digitizer tablets and styli, joysticks, trackballs, thumbwheels, touch-screens and touch-pads. Locating devices typically operate by controlling the position of a cursor on the screen. Thus, they are also referred to as cursor-control devices. Normally locators do not only have positioning functionality but also provide picking and choosing, tracing and sketching. Picking means selecting a displayed item or entity on the screen. Sketching sometimes referred to as painting, involves the free-hand generation of drawing. Another class of graphics input devices is digitizer boards or tables, or simply digitizers. They are considered as electronic drawing boards. Image-input devices such as video frame grabbers and scanners comprises the third class of graphics-input devices. Electronic imaging is an area of relevance to image processing. Image scanners are another form of image-input devices. They are used to convert flat paper drawings in to digital bit maps. There are four relevant parameters to measure the performance of graphics-input devices. These are resolution, accuracy, repeatability and linearity. The resolution of a device is defined as the smallest distance the device requires to recognize two adjacent points as separate e.g. if a digitizer has a resolution of 0.001 inch, the user can not digitize or represent two points that are less than 0.001 inch apart.

Accuracy is defined as the error in the measurement of actual data by the input devices. The accuracy of a digitizer is measured by how closely a point is reported as to its actual location on the digitizer grid. Repeatability measures the device ability to return to a given position e.g. if the same point is digitized many times, how close are the coordinates of the resulting point? Linearity measures the response of a device to the user hand movement. How does the device, increase or decrease the input coordinates in accordance with the user hand movements ?

1.4.1 Keyboards
Conventional keyboards are text-only devices and form an essential and basic input device. They are typically employed to create/edit programs or to perform word processing functions. These keyboards have been modified to perform graphics tasks by adding special function keys or attaching graphics-input devices such as mice to them. Keyboards available in the market may have a variety of sizes and shapes but most keyboards have the following keys in common: Standard type-writer keys are used to type text etc. Function keys labeled F1, F2, F3 and so on, are also called programmable keys. Special purpose keys such as Ctrl, Del, Ins, Alt, Caps Lock and Num Lock. Cursor movement keys used to move the cursor on the screen. Numeric keys are used to enter numbers for mathematical calculations. The most common keyboard design uses a sheet of elastomeric substance i.e. an artificial rubber placed between keys and a P.C.B. This rubber sheet has dome shape in it directly beneath each key. When the key is pressed, it pushes down the dome which comes in contact with an PCB below. There is a conductive spot on the inside of each of the dome which completes the circuit on the PCB, signaling to the CPU that the key has been pressed.

KBD with alphanumeric and function keys

1.4.2 Lightpens
The light pen is a position or picking device that enables the user to select a displayed graphics item on a screen by directly touching its surface in the vicinity of the item. An activated light pen pointed at a spot on the screen, as the electron beam lights up that spot, generates an electrical pulse that causes the coordinate position of the electron beam to be recorded. Use of light pen has certain limitations e.g. when a light pen is pointed at the screen, part of the screen image is obscured by the hand and pen. Prolonged use of the light pen can cause arm fatigue. Light pen require special implementations for some applications because they can not detect positions within black areas. Light pens sometimes give false reading due to background lighting in a room.

1.4.3 Digitizing Tablets

A digitizing tablet is a locating as well as pointing device. The tablet is flat surface over which a stylus or a puck can be moved by the user. The stylus is shaped like a pen and a puck is a little hand-held box. Sizes of digitizing tablets range from 11x11 to 36x36 inches and resolution is 0.005 inch or 200dpi. The tablet operation is based on sensitizing its surface area to be able to track the pointing element (stylus or puck) motion on the surface. The sensing technology used is electromagnetic, where the pointing element generates a magnetic field sensed by a wire grid in the tablet surface. Other tablets are based on magneto-restrictive techniques, in which a current pulse sent from the wire grid in the pad is picked up by the pointing element to calculate the coordinates of the desired position. A third type of tablet is based on sonic or acoustic sensing. The pointing element in these tablet has a sound generator with strip microphones along the edges of the tablet to pick up the periodic sound to determine the x and y values.

The operational concept of the digitizing tablet is simple. The user moves the pointing element to the desired position and then interrupts the computer to accept the coordinate value of this position. In the case of a stylus, the user presses it against the tablet surface or depresses a push button near its tip. This in turn activates a switching mechanism inside the stylus that picks signals from (to) the tablet position and sends them to the stylus decoding logic which stores the corresponding coordinates in the tablets buffer registers. These registers are read by the application program as soon as it is interrupted by the depression of the stylus.

Puck Most tablets have designed areas to input digitizes (usually called graphics area). The remaining area of the tablet surface is used to input the menu commands, therefore called the me n u are a.

1.4.4 Mouse System

Mouse is locating device and fairly popular due to its use with icons and pop-up and pull-down menus. Unlike the digitizing tablet, the mouse measures its relative movement from its last position, rather than where it is in relation to some fixed surface. There are two basic types of mice available : mechanical and optical. The mechanical mouse is a box with two metal wheels or rollers on the bottom whose axes are orthogonal in order to record the mouse motion in X and Y directions. The roll of the mouse on any flat surface causes the rotation of the wheel which is encoded in to digital values via potentiometers. These values may be stored, when a mouse push button is depressed, in the mouse registered accessible by the application program either immediately or during the computer interrupt every refresh cycle. Using these values, the program can determine the direction and magnitude of the mouse movement. Unlike the mechanical one, the optical mouse is used with a special surface (mouse pad). Movements over this surface are measured by a light beam modulation and optical encoding techniques. The light source is located at the bottom and the mouse must be in contact with the surface for the screen cursor to follow its movements. Pushbuttons may be mounted on the top of the mouse and programmed to various functions.

1.4.5 Joysticks, Trackballs and Thumbwheels

These are less popular locating devices than tablet and mouse. Their concept of operation is very similar to that of the mechanical mouse . Potentiometers record and encode the movements of the device. The joystick works by pushing its stick backward or forward or to the left or the right. The extreme positions of these directions correspond to the four corners of the screen. A joystick may be equipped with a rotating knob on the top which can be used to enter a third axis value, thus making the joystick a three-dimensional input device. Joystick are seldom used for graphics input because a slight movement of the stick by the user causes the screen cursor to change significantly due to an amplification factor. However, they are desirable to control velocity or force in some simulation application where fast responses are required. A trackball is similar in principle to a joystick but it allows more precise fingertip control. The ball rotates freely within its mount. Both the joystick and the trackball have been used historically in radar and flight control system. Both are used to navigate the screen display cursor. The user of a trackball can learn quickly how to adjust to any nonlinearities in its performance. Two thumbwheels are usually required to control the screen cursor, one for its horizontal position and the other for its vertical position. Each position is indicated on the screen by a cross-hair. Thumbwheels are usually mounted on the keyboard.

Joystick

Joystick

Tracker Ball

Thumb Wheel

1.4.6 Comparison of Input Devices

1.4.7 Scanners
A scanner is the most common input device. There are two kinds of technologies commonly adopted for designing scanners are CCD (charge coupled device) and CIS (contact image sensor). Scanners based on CCD use a moving mirror and focusing optics to image the text or drawing of the document lying on its window on to a linear array of light sensors called charged coupled device. A bright light inside the scanner illuminates a band on the window that moves along the mirrors motion, thus permitting the scanner to read the contents of the document placed on the top of the window. Contact image sensor is an array of light sensors that can be moved along with the linear light source on the underside of the scanner window and receive the reflected light from the document directly without using focusing optics. But the disadvantages of such scanners are that they have lower image quality and resolution as compared to CCD scanners. There are three major types of scanners in common use today: flatbed, film and drum. They have differing uses, strenghts and weaknesses. Flatbed Scanners The most common scanners are flatbed scanners. These are a type of reflective scanner that commonly sits flat on a desk. Flatbed scanners are adapt at scanning pieces of paper, objects, photo prints, and other opaque items. Using a flatbed scanner is relatively simple. First you open the cover and set your subject on the glass surface, and close the cover. Usually you can then run the scanner software, tell the scanner what resolution to use for the scan and possibly set a few other simple preferences. The scanner will then begin scanning your subject. After the scan is complete, you can remove the subject from the surface. Some scanning software comes with simple editing tools, or you can edit your image by yourself. Reflective flatbed scanners can not scan transparent objects such as slide or negatives, however, unless they are equipped with a transparency adapter. A transparency adapter allows the scanner to shine light through the film. With a transparency adapter, a flatbed can scan slides and negatives. Generally speaking, the quality of such scans is not as good as those from dedicated film scanners or drum scanners. Some higher end flatbed scanners do a very passable job on films, however.

Flatbed scanners can be very inexpensive, even with a transparency adapter. Flatbed scanners with good film scanning capabilities are more expensive, however. Film Scanners Film scanners are specialized transmissive scanners made to scan film strips and mounted slides (negatives and positives). Film scanners have optics and electronics specifically catered to scanning film. Because of this specialization, film scanners achieve better results when scanning film than flatbed scanners. Some film scanners include feeder attachments that can make doing many scans easier and faster. Having an automatic feeder is very helpful for more extensive scanning work, such as a large slide collection. Only a few models of film scanners have this capability, and it is generally a fairly expensive optional attachment. Film scanners are relatively easy to operate. Film scanners are moderately priced Drum Scanners

The last type of scanner that we discuss here is the drum scanner. Drum scanners work differently than the other two types of scanners. Flatbed and film scanners rely on light from a source hitting a microchip called a CCD (Charged-Coupled Device). The drum scanner, instead of a CCD, has a photo multiplier tube which is a type of vacuum tube that is highly sensitive to light. A beam of light, which can be focused quite small, is then moved across the image and the photo multiplier tube picks up the reflection. Drum scanners can generally scan any type of film. Drum scanners are large, very expensive, and very difficult to use. However, due to the extremely sensitive photo multiplier tube, you can obtain images that are higher quality than images from a CCD scanner. Therefore, applications requiring extremely high quality utilize a drum scanner. Film is mounted in the drum scanner using a special kind of oil, instead of simply inserted into the scanner. This use of fluid mounting reduces the effect of dust and scratches in the film and reduces the effect of the film grain structure. Fluid mounting can be used in some flatbed and film scanners, though this is rather uncommon because of the expense, effort and mess involved.

The table below summarizes a few of the key differences between flatbed, film and drum scanners. Scanner Scanner Type Expense Low to Moderate Difficulty of Flexibility Operation Film Scan Quality OK Good (with f lu id mounting) Very Good (better with f lu id mounting) Excellent Scan Speed Batch Scanning Capiblities?

Flatbed

Easy

High

Moderate Minimal

Fi l m

Moderate to High High

Easy To Moderate Very Hard

Low to Moderate Moderate

Fast

Moderate (with feeder attachments) N on e

Drum

Slo w

1.4.8 White Light Scanner

The latest among the scanners used for reverse engineering is White Light Scanner. White light scanning is the art, science, and technology of obtaining reliable information about physical objects through the process of recording, measuring, and interpreting photographic images. White light scannning uses the image of a 3D scene on a 2D medium to reconstruct a reliable and accurate model of the original 3D scene. White light scanning is used for reverse engineering and CAD re-creation . The remote sensing, non-contact measuring feature of the system is fast and extremely accurate. It allows the retrieval of up to 4 million surface points in under a minute and creates a reliable database enabling part measurements and verifications. As a non-contact measuring device, the system retrieves all of its data through photographs. The system is comprised off a projector and two cameras which are mounted to a frame. By projecting a fringe pattern onto an object and simultaneously recording the pattern, the software is able to create an accurate point cloud of up to 4 million points of the surface of the object. For larger projects, reference points are added which allow a quick and accurate way to join together multiple measurements. The system is able to take on projects from the size of a dime up to the size of an airplane. After the measurements are taken,, the software processes the data creating a single point cloud file with a common point of origin. The data can then be aligned and manipulated to suit the needs of the required task.

After all of the scans have been taken and processing has been completed, the 3 dimensional object is now part of the virtual world. The information retrieved can now be worked on and exported as either point clouds, sections, or STL data. The STL data, which is comprised of small triangular surfaces and is automatically created from the point cloud, can be used for machining or creating surface files.

1.4.9 OMR, OCR, MICR

OMR stands for Optical Mark Reading and Recognition. In this method special pre-pointed forms are designed with boxes which can be marked with a dark pencil or ink. Each box is annotated distinctly so that the user clearly understands what response he is marking. Such a document is read by a document reader which transcribes the pencil or ink marks in to electrical pulses which are transmitted to the computer. OMR sheets are used for Objective type answer papers in examinations where large number of candidates ap p e ar. Market surveys, population surveys etc., where response may be restricted to one or more out of a few possibilities. Order forms containing choice of items. Time sheets of an organization in which employee in and out timings may be marked. Advantages of OMR Information is entered at the source and no further manual transcription is required. This minimizes data entry errors. Disadvantages of OMR Need for accurate alignment of printing on forms. Need for good quality paper, which is expansive. The can not be alter frequently because it will lead to reprinting of the form, which is expansive. OCR stands for Optical Character Recognition. An optical character reader is a device used to read an image. It converts the image in to a set of Zero and Ones and stores in computer memory as a bitmap. Each bit in the representation of the image is called a pixel. The bright pixel has bit value zero and the remaining pixels have bit value one. The job of OCR software is to translate that array of pixels in to text that the computer can interpret as letters and numbers. To translate bitmap in to text, the OCR software looks at each character and tries to match the character with its own assumptions about how the letters should look.

MICR stands for Magnetic Ink Character Recognition. In this method, human readable characters are printed on documents (such as cheques) using a special magnetic ink. A magnetic ink character reader can recognize such characters. For example, in a cheque, cheque number and branch code are pre-printed at the bottom using magnetic ink. The amount written in the cheque is later entered by a person using a machine which prints the amount with magnetic ink. The cheque itself can now be read using a special input unit which can recognize magnetic ink characters. This method eliminates the need to manually enter data from cheques. It saves time and ensures the accuracy of the data.

1.4.10 Other Input Devices

In addition of above input devices, there are other non mainstream devices. These include three dimensional input devices such as white light scanners, some digitizers, touch and voice devices. Touch and voice input devices are attempts to satisfy the great demand for easy-to-use man-machine interfaces. The touch devices are more often used to select items or buttons from an on-screen menu (sometimes called soft buttons) by touching the screen. Touch entry systems incorporate various types of touch-sensing methods such as resistive membranes, optical sensing, acoustic sensing and capacitance sensing.

1.5 Output Devices (Hard copy Printers and Plotters)

Output devices of both printers and plotters are available to CAD/CAM systems for the purposes such as creating check plots for offline editing and producing final drawings and documentation on paper. Printers usually provide hard copies of text as well as graphics. Hard copy devices, in general, employ one or two methods of plotting : vector or raster plotting. The two methods are very close in concept to refresh and raster display respectively. Vector plotting can employ either absolute or incremental plotting depending on whether the coordinates of the current point are measured relative to the absolute origin of the plot or to the last point plotted. In general, absolute plotting is preferred because it eliminates any error. Raster (or dot matrix) plotting is based on using the presence or absence of dots to draw lines and other geometric information present in the document. For many years, plotters were the only means of obtaining high-quality outputs from a computer. Currently, various printers are available that provide either black and white or multicolor pictures. The hard copy devices that are available include impact or nonimpact devices. Impact devices include dot matrix printers and typically produce an image on paper by hammering a ribbon on to the surface of the paperhence the name impact printer. Nonimpact devices utilize other methods and include pen, photographic, electro-photographic, electrostatic, thermal-transfer and inkjet plotter and/or printers. 1.5.1 Pen Plotters There are two common types of conventional pen plotters: flat-bed and drum. In the flat-bed plotter, the paper is stationary and the pen-holding mechanism can move in two axes. In drum plotter, the paper is attached to a drum that rotates back and forth, thereby providing movement in one axis. The pen mechanism moves in the traverse direction to provide movement along the other axis. Pen plotters are considered vector plotters and employ multiple pens (4 to 8) to provide varying line widths or colors. Pen may be of wet ink, ball-point, or felt-tip type. The plotting speed is limited by the speed of the writing pen used. Pen plotters require supervision to oversee pen performance and are relatively inexpensive to acquire and operate.

1.5.2 Electrostatic Plotters They are considered dot matrix or raster plotter. The image in vector form, as lines, arcs, characters and symbols, has to be converted into raster form and sorted. Then these rows of dots can be printed across the width of the paper or plastic film as it slowly moves through the plotter. Typically the plotter resolution is 200 dpi or more and each dot is arranged to overlap adjacent ones. This provides a relatively high quality image. Electrostatic plotters have the virtue of being quite, usually trouble free, undemanding of the operators time and about an order of magnitude faster than pen plotter. However, they are also an order of magnitude more expensive than pen plotters. It is important to know where the vector-to-raster conversion and sorting is done due to the time they take. Electrostatic plotters are normally monochrome i.e. black images on a white, translucent, or transparent medium. Color plotters are available but are quite expensive.

1.5.3 Inkjet Plotters They utilize the dot matrix method of plotting. As with electrostatic plotters, they produce a raster image. Each dot is, however, created by impelling a tiny jet of ink on the surface of the paper. The jets are switched on and off at high speeds to create multicolor plots. Typical application include color plots of solid models, shaded images and contour plots.

1.5.4 Black-and-White Printers The major two types of black-and white printers are dot matrix and laser printers. Dot matrix printers are commonly used where physical impact with the paper is important, such as when the user is printing to carbon copy. A dot matrix printer (DMP) creates an image by using a mechanism called a print head, which contains a cluster of short pins arranged in one or more columns. On receiving the print instructions from PC, the print head can create alphanumeric characters by pushing out pins in various combinations. The protruded pins from the cluster strike a ribbon , which is in between the print head and the paper, producing ink impressions on paper. The more pins that a print head contains, the higher the printers resolution. The low resolution dot matrix printer has only 9 pins and the higher one has 24 pins. The speed of dot matrix printer is measured in CPS (Character Per Second). The slowest printer create 50~70 cps while fastest printer create more than 500 cps. Because of low resolution and poor quality of printout as compared to inkjet and laser printers, these are suitable for high speed, low cost, high volume hard copies like balance sheet of accounts and bill of materials of a machine. Laser printers are the most popular printers. They are more expensive but faster and better than DMP. Their typical resolution is 300 dpi and may reach 600 dpi. Their speed, measured in pages per minute, is typically 6~12. The laser printing mechanism is simple. A laser source is turned on and off. The laser beam bounces off a spinning mirror and exposes a photosensitive drum covered with an even charge. When the drum is exposed to the beam, the charge on the drum surface changes which attracts the toner. The tonner is then transferred to the paper to produce the image. 1.5.5 Color Printers The demand for color printers has increased since the color displays have become affordable and popular. The major six types of color printers available are impact, photographic, electrophotographic, electrostatic, thermal-transfer and inkjet printers. Color impact DMPs operate similarly to B&W DMPs. Dots of ink are transferred from an inked ribbon on to paper through the print-head wires or hammers. Color can be placed on ribbon or multiple ribbons, one per color, can be used. Typically, four colors (black, red, green and blue) are available. The electro-photographic color printer works in two steps. First, the negative images of the primary colors (red, green and blue) are scanned one at a time and selectively discharged onto a charged photoconductor drum. Second, each latent image corresponding to each primary color is transferred to paper by developing it with cyan-colored toner.

The thermal-transfer printer (wax printers belong to this type) has a thermal print-read unit which consists of tiny resistors. By controlling the temperature of these transistors, selectively melted dots of colored wax can be transferred on to paper. The transfer process is repeated for each color to generate a full-color image. The electrostatic printer works in a similar way to the electro-photographic printer by producing a charged latent image. The latent image is produced in the printer by generating discharges through the control of voltage potentials on wire printing nibs. The latent image is then developed with the proper colored liquid toner. The process is repeated four times for each full-colored image. The inkjet color printer works in a similar way to inkjet plotter. It ejects ink on to the paper medium as it revolves on a drum beneath the carriage of the ink jets. The jets are controlled by digital data received from the image to be printed. The carriage contains four jets to produce full-color images. The carriage movement is synchronized with the drum revolution such that it advances one scan line for each revolution; hence the image is produced in one carriage traverse.

Basic Movement of Inkjet Color Printer

Color Inkjet Printer

The photographic printer produces the highest quality image by receiving video signals from the color terminal and transferring it to conventional photographic media. The printer separates the primary color components of the image, outputs them to a mono monitor and then passes them through corresponding color filters on to a photographic film.

1.5.6 Comparison of Color Printers

1.6 Necessity & Importance of CAD

1.7 Engineering Application of CAD

The important engineering applications of CAD are :

1.7.1 Characteristics of good CAD Software

1.8 Benefits of CAD

1.9 Graphics Display Devices

The graphics display of a workstation is considered its most important component because the quality of the displayed image influences the perception of generated designs on the CAD/CAM system. In addition to viewing images, the graphics display enables the user to communicate with the displayed image by adding, deleting, blanking and moving graphics entities on the display screen. This communication process is what gives interactive graphics its name to differentiate it from passive graphics, as in the case of a home television set, that the user can not change. Various display technologies are now available to the user to choose from. They are all based on the concept of converting the computers electrical signals, controlled by the corresponding digital information, in to visible images at high speeds. The display media that are used are : Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) is the most dominating and has produced a wide range of extremely effective graphics displays. Plasma Panel display uses small neon bulbs arranged in a panel which provides a medium resolution display. Liquid Crystal display (LCD) and Light emitting diodes (LED) are used to generate images. Thus far, none of these display technologies has been able to displace the CRT as the dominant graphics display device. 1.9.1 Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) The operation of the CRT is based on the concept of energizing an element beam that strikes the phosphor coating at very high speed. The energy transfer from the electron to the phosphor due to the impact causes it to illuminate and glow. The electrons are generated via the electron gun that contains the cathode and are focused in to a beam via the focusing unit as shown. By controlling the beam direction and intensity in a way related to the graphics information generated in the computer, meaningful and desired graphics can be displayed on the screen. The deflection system of the CRT controls the x and y, or horizontal or vertical , position of the beam which in turn are related to the graphics information through the display controller (also known as display processor, display logical processor or display processing unit),

which typically sits between the computer and the CRT. The controller receives the information from the computer and converts it in to signals acceptable to the CRT.

The major tasks that the display processor performs are the voltage-level convergence between the computer and the CRT, the compensation for the difference in speed between the computer and the CRT (by acting as a buffer) and the generation of graphics and texts. More often, display processors are furnished with additional hardware to implement standard graphics software functions in to hardware to improve the speed of response. Such functions include transformations (scaling, rotation and translation) and shading. The primary components of a CRT are electron gun, electron beam focusing system, deflection system and phosphor coated screen. Electron gun consists of a metal cathode and a control grid. The cathode is heated by a heating filament when a current is passed through the filament. Thus causes the electrons to reach an excited state and leave the hot cathode surface. The control grid is a metal cylinder that fits over the cathode. Intensity of electron beam generated by cathode is controlled by setting various voltage levels on the control grid. A negative voltage is applied on the grid. Due to this control grid repels the electrons coming from cathode and hence reduces the intensity of electron beam that passes through a small hole in control grid. The intensity of electron beam will vary inversely with the negative voltage over the control grid. Thus we can vary the brightness of the display over the screen. The need of a Focusing System in the CRT arises from the fact that the electrons in the beam being negatively charged will repel each other thus the beam may spread over the screen. Focusing of electron beam is accomplished by using a focusing system which comprises of electric focusing anode. This focusing anode is a positively charged metal cylinder that forms an electrostatic lens.

Focusing of electron beam can also be accomplished by making use of magnetic field forming a magnetic lens. The magnetic field in this case is generated by a coil mounted around the outside of CRT envelope. The magnetic lens generates highly focused image and is used in special purpose devices where high precision is desired. As in the case of focusing, deflection of beam can also be regulated either with electric fields or with magnetic fields. However, magnetic field deflection has become more common in CRT. In this case two pairs of coils are used. Coils in each pair are mounted on opposite sides outside the neck of the CRT envelope. One pair is mounted on left and right side while the other pair is mounted on the top and the bottom of the neck. The magnetic field produced by each pair of coils generates a traverse deflection force that is perpendicular both to the direction of magnetic field and the direction of travel of electron beam. The display screen of virtual display unit is coated with phosphor. When the electron beam impinges on the phosphor coated screen, the kinetic energy of the electrons is absorbed by the phosphor. A part of kinetic energy is transferred to the phosphor electrons, which as a result get excited and rise to higher energy levels. The remaining part of kinetic energy is converted by friction in to heat. After some time, the excited phosphor electrons loose their extra energy and return to their ground state (stable state) emitting small quantums of light. Different kinds of phosphors are available for coating the screen having different levels of persistence. Persistence is defined as the time it takes by the light emitted by the screen to decay to one-tenth of its original intensity. Phosphor with lower persistence value needs high refresh rates to maintain a flicker free image. The phosphor on the screen of a raster CRT is composed of a myriad of small spots in a fixed pattern. In a color CRT there are three electron guns, one for each primary color red, green and blue. The phosphor dots on the screen are arranged in a triangular pattern as shown.

Arrangement of phosphor dots

The electron guns are arranged in a similar fashion and the individual beam converge or intersect at a shadow mark as shown. The shadow mask directs the beam to the red phosphor dot and prevent it from impinging on green or blue dot. In the simplest case each pixel has a t riad .

Because the light emitted by phosphor fades away rapidly, therefore some methods have been developed to maintain the screen picture. One method of keeping the pictures lighted for a longer time is to scan the tube repeatedly by the electron beam over various bright points on the screen, at a rate that is sufficiently fast to give the impression of a continuous picture. It has been observed that if the repetition rate is at least 30 times per second, the human eye will perceive a steady picture, without any flicker. Typically, the scanning rate is kept between 30 to 60 times per second to obtain a flicker free image. This type of display is called Refresh CRT since the entire picture is refreshed during the scan. In refresh type video displays, the electron beam scans the phosphor coated glass screen by using two techniques. Raster Scan Display In raster scan the electron beam follows a fixed path as shown. The electron beam moves from top to bottom and from left to right one row at a time (scan line). The beam starts at the upper left corner of the screen and moves horizontally to the right. During the scan, the intensity of beam is changed according to the pattern of the desired image. At the right end of the screen, the beam is blanked and moved to the left edge, positioned one unit below the previous starting point. This is shown by dotted line in the figure. The scanning is continued till the lower right hand corner of the screen is reached. At this point one scan is completed and the beam is then repositioned at the upper left corner of the screen for starting the next scan.

In raster scan technique, the screen is divided into small squares called pictures elements or pixels. An importance feature at pixel is that is that it is addressable. The image is displayed by illuminating the pixel. The quality of the monitor is referred in terms of resolution. More the number of pixels on the screen, higher will be the resolution I.e. more clarity in the picture. Raster scan system consists of a memory area called frame buffer or refresh buffer. This memory area stores the set of intensity values for all the picture elements. Stored intensity values are then retrieved from the refresh buffer and pointed on the screen one row at a time. At each pixel, the beams intensity is set to reflect the pixels intensity. In color systems, three beams are controlled- one each for the red, green and blue.

Raster Display System Architecture

A frame buffer can be considered to be a contiguous piece of computer memory. In simplest case there can be one bit per pixel in the raster. This amount of memory is called a bit plane. Hence a 320x200 raster requires 64K memory bits in a single plane. The memory bits can be either in 0 or 1 state. If a particular pixel is to be addressed, than the corresponding bit in the frame buffer is in state 1. Since the raster CRT is an analog device, it requires an analog voltage

and the digital data of the frame buffer has to be converted to an analog voltage through a digital to analog convertor (DAC).

Frame buffer and raster display system To understand the performance of raster displays and to evaluate them, one must ask the following question : how many bits are required in the bit map to adequately represent the intensity of any one pixel on the display screen? The trivial answer of one bit/pixel produces only a two level image (bright or dark) which is very unsatisfactory to basic applications. The practice suggests that8 bit/pixel are needed to produce satisfactory continuous shades of gray for monochrome displays. For color displays, 24 bits/pixel would be needed: 8 bits for each primary color red, blue and green. This would provide 2 power 24 different colors, which are far more than needed in real applications. Typically, 4 to 8 bits/pixel are adequate for both mono and color displays. Specialized image processing applications may require more than that. The bit map memory is arranged conceptually as a series of planes, one for each bit in the pixel value. Thus an eight-plane memory provides 8 bits/pixel as shown. This provides 2 power 8 different gray levels or different colors that can be displayed simultaneously in one image. The number of bits per pixel directly affects the quality of its display and consequently its price.

Color Raster Display with eight planes

A basic problem with raster images arises due to discrete array of pixels on the monitor. As a result although lines that are horizontal and vertical look perfectly straight, those at some other angle have a pronounced jagged appearance as shown. This effect is called Stair casing.

It is due to the fact that the pixels appear on the screen are small rectangular boxes with horizontal and vertical sides. Random Scan Display In random scan technique, the electron beam moves in a random order controlled by user or software. It draws the component line of an object in any order specified. This implies that the electron beam is directed only to the parts of the screen where a picture is to be drawn. After the electron beam generates the complete image, it is repeatedly retracted by the electron beam. Hence such a display is also called refresh display. Refresh display terminals have the disadvantage that they can not display colored images, shaded and animated images. Also, the display image starts flickering if a substantial amount of data is stored on the screen. Due to these reasons, this is not recommended for CAD systems.

The main advantage of random scan is that the image is characterized by high brightness and resolution. Also unlike in case of raster scan where jagged lines is plotted on pixels, random scan produces smooth line drawing since there are no pixels on the screen. It is important to note that picture definition is stored as a set of line drawing instructions and not as a set of intensity values for all pixels. 1.9.2 Direct View Storage Tube (DVST) The DVST makes use of two electron guns, a primary gun and a flood gun. Primary gun is used to store the picture pattern and flood gun is used to maintain the picture display. DVST stores the picture information as a charge distributed on a fine mesh wire grid, coated with dielectric, mounted just behind the phosphor coated screen. A pattern of positive charge is deposited on the grid, and this pattern is transferred to the phosphor by a continuous flood of electrons issuing from a separated flood gun. Thus the image is traced only once and is stored directly on the screen instead of making use of solid state memory.

Direct View Storage Tube

The general arrangement of DVST is shown above. The main advantage is that large amount of graphics data can be shown on the screen without flickering of image. This is because image is stored on the screen itself rather than being constantly refreshed from the computer memory. But DVST has some major disadvantages because the image is not refreshed, the display has low brightness and contrast. It requires dimmed ambient lighting. Also image is once displayed and stored, it cannot be changed without repainting the entire screen. This reduces the productivity in drafting. 1.9.3 Flat Panel Display The CRT has some disadvantages. It is very bulky which reduces its portability. Moreover, CRT consumes considerable power. Such disadvantages prompted the manufactures to develop different types of flat screens as output devices for computers. Flat screens are now being extensively used for laptops, notebooks and palm top computers. The following flat screen displays are available in the market. Plasma Screen The plasma panel has been found to be useful though in a limited sense. Plasma uses a neon gas in a glass envelope with electrodes fore and aft to display the image. Though they are small and flat, they consume a large amount of power and also the resolution is not very good.

Plasma Display It consists of two glass plates, as shown above, arranged very close to each other. The region between the glass plates is filled with inert gas. A series of very fine vertical conducting wires are arranged on the inside of one glass plate and a series of horizontal conducting wires is placed on the inside of other glass plate. When a suitable voltage is applied to fine mesh of horizontal and vertical conductors, it causes the gas at the intersections to breakdown into

glowing plasma of electrons and ions. The information regarding picture definition is stored in a refresh buffer and the voltage is applied repeatedly to refresh the pixel position at a frequency of 60hz. As in the storage tube (DVST), pixel remain lit until they are erased. Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) Liquid crystals exist in a state between liquid and solid. The molecules of liquid crystal are all aligned in the same direction, as in a solid, but are free to move around slightly in relation to one another, as in a liquid. Liquid crystal is actually closer to a liquid state than a solid state, which is why it is sensitive to temperature. The array of liquid crystals becomes opaque when the electric field is applied, for displaying the image. Their use as display devices has been made popular by their widespread use in portable calculators and in laptops or portable computers. Their full screen size with reasonably low power consumption has made them suitable for portability. Another advantages is that they occupy very small desktop space while reducing the power consumption. LCD consists of two sheets of polarized glass. Each sheet of glass has a film on one side which gives the glass its polarizing properties, while a special polymer is applied on the other side which will set small, microscopic grooves in to the surface. The grooves must be in the same direction as the polarization of the glass. A coat of liquid crystal is added on the top of the this polymer such that the molecules of the crystal align with the direction of the grooves. Electrodes are embedded in to the LCD to administer the electric current. Since LCD does not produce light and only transmit or hides it, it needs to have a light source. LCD monitors are backlit using either built-in fluorescent bulbs or LEDs. A white panel behind the LCD diffuses light so that it is spread out evenly over the display surface. For an LCD to produce color, each pixel on the screen has to have three sub-pixels, each being a primary color (red, blue and green). The light from the LCD passes through color filters (like CRT monitors). A transistor applies voltage to liquid crystals that sets their alignment. Light changes its polarization angle when it passes through the ordered liquid crystal molecular structure and depending on its new polarization angle, it will be absorbed completely or partially. This generates the required color.