Emerging Trends in Engineering – Part 1: Draughting
Source: Beca - www.beca.com
10 June 2016
Beca: As computer systems become more
sophisticated and capable of performing complex technical tasks,
professional engineering may undergo changes – similar to those that
greatly reduced the roles of skilled craftsmen during the Industrial
Revolution and manufacturing trades during the 20th century.
During the Industrial Revolution, highly skilled craftsmen were largely
replaced by mechanised processes overseen by tradesmen. These mechanised
processes have now been computerised, replacing those tradesmen with
fewer technicians.
In this article, the first of a two-part series, I consider the trends
in draughting and identify barriers preventing adoptions of integrated
3D CAD in some sectors.
Emerging Trends in Draughting
Draughting has almost entirely moved from manual drawing to a few
ubiquitous Computer Aided Design (CAD) systems such as
AutoDesk
(AutoCAD) and Dassault Systems (Solidworks). Three dimensional (3D)
design is becoming commonplace in most industries and enables realistic
modelling of buildings, equipment and services. The individual models
from different disciplines are normally imported into a common platform
for coordination and clash detection.
While the time taken to model an object in 3D CAD may be similar to the
time taken to manually draw the same object, small changes can be made
quickly and inexpensively. Previously manual draughting departments
included a large pool of ‘tracers’ reproducing drawings to make
relatively minor changes. 3D CAD has significantly reduced the cost of
an iteration of design development.
Large engineering draughting departments with a variety of levels of
technical and design capability have been replaced by smaller teams of
skilled CAD operators. Training programmes have evolved to prepare
work-ready CAD operators, rather than on the job development from tracer
to lead draughtsman over a number of years.
Integrated 3D CAD
Software vendors, consultants and other industry participants are
transitioning towards designing directly within collaborative and
integrated 3D CAD platforms, thus allowing continuous and real time
coordination of design between different contributors. These 3D CAD
systems include integrated
Building Information Management (BIM)
systems, supported by database functionality that is useful beyond the
construction phase of a project and into asset maintenance.
Heavy industrial designs have been fully 3D modelled for a number of
years – generally by larger multidisciplinary engineering consultancies
under a single commission. This is because industrial projects are
typically bespoke and the cost of rework to resolve clashes onsite is
very expensive and disruptive to operations. Clients have seen the
benefit of using more expensive drafting platforms and larger
multi-disciplinary consultancies, rather than managing the interfaces
between multiple design packages.
Other segments, such as building design, have been slower to adopt
integrated 3D modelling. This in part has been due to prevailing
engineering services procurement strategies and allocation of design
scope within the supply chain.
Engineering services are generally split into several separate
commissions by discipline. Also some elements of the design, such as
building ventilation, are only developed to a conceptual level by the
design consultant with a performance specification, and then detailed by
vendors. This is slowing the universal adoption of integrated 3D
modelling and is an area of focus amongst engineers working within the
buildings segment.
Integration of CAD models is likely to be mirrored at an organisational
level with a shift to multi-disciplinary engineering consultancies. The
adoption of integrated 3D CAD has been easier with the
multi-disciplinary engineering services procurement strategy favoured by
the heavy industrial market; compared to the buildings market that
favours procuring separate single disciplinary services. Single
discipline engineering consultancies are likely to form collaborative
relationships with other consultancies to take on multi-disciplinary
consultancies, be absorbed into existing multi-disciplinary
consultancies, or be challenged by shrinking niche markets.
Conclusion
I’ve summarised the CAD trends below:
| Aspect | Historical | Current | Emerging |
| Draughting | Manual | CAD | Integrated CAD |
| Team compositions | Draughting teams with a range of skill levels | Reduction in ‘tracing’ positions | Shared CAD with less back-office personnel |
| Industry structure | Small single disciplinary consultants and large multidisciplinary government engineering departments | Large multi-disciplinary and specialist single-disciplinary consultancies | Smaller multi-disciplinary consultancies |
Some market segments such as heavy
industrial have almost completely moved to integrated 3D CAD and are
enjoying the benefits of fully coordinated design and realistic
visualisations. And they are now moving to more sophisticated systems
that depend on having a fully realised and complete 3D model of a
facility. Other market segments have been slow to adopt integrated 3D
CAD, perhaps due to project engineering procurement practices and
allocation of engineering scope between designers and specialist
vendors.
Future trends in engineering are considered in the second part of this
article, including the effects that these are likely to have on team
compositions and the structure of engineering services consultancies.
In the second part of this series, I investigate the trends in
engineering calculation and convergence of draughting and engineering
into common automated systems.
Contact
Tom Morten | Senior Associate - Project Management | Beca
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