2D Drawings in Mechanical Engineering Becoming Obsolete is a Matter of "When," not "If" Universal Language Standards are Perfected

  When will 2D drawings become obsolete in the realm of mechanical engineering? Likely soon, as implied by authors Nomeda Puodziuniene and Evaldas Narvydas article in Mechanika entitled Standards for Transition from 2D Drawing to Model Based Definition in Mechanical Engineering (2021). There’s already a commonality among designers to start with a 3D solid model drafted using Computer-Aided Design (CAD), which can render a 2D from the 3D solid model when necessary. Computer-Aided Manufacturing (CAM) meshes well with this, which has the engineering world wondering if 2D drawings are even a necessity anymore.

 So what’s the hold up? As you may imagine, some engineers, especially those who didn’t learn Computer-Aided Design (CAD) natively, are likely more comfortable with sketching out 2D design renders by hand. However, the bigger contributor to the hold up seems to be establishing universal standards for “allowing different people who speak different languages to read the same engineering drawing and interpret and understand it equally.” (NARVYDAS & PUODZIUNIENE, 2021). In an ever increasingly globalized world, this makes a lot of sense. Utilizing a universal language that will allow engineers/designers and manufacturers to communicate seamlessly through the design models themselves would streamline the process of bringing engineering designs to physical form. 

Efforts are being made to build this system of standards which, to me, seems like the beginning of an entirely new language, kind of like Esperanto for engineers, fabricators, and manufacturers. The American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) introduced what they had built as a basis for these standards way back in 2003, but such a complex concept that needs to be 100% reliable and able to transcend language barriers is no small task and a multitude of facets need to be taken into very careful consideration. Luckily, companies that utilize 3D solid model based manufacturing are finding that it has the positive effect of increasing productivity in manufacturing, which will justify the investment into perfecting the standards. In time, 3D solid models will be the industry standard, and manufacturers will be communicating with engineers through the designs themselves with no concern for a language barrier. How cool is that? 
















References

NARVYDAS, E., & PUODZIUNIENE, N. (2021). Standards for transition from 2D drawing to model based definition in mechanical engineering. Mechanika, 27(4), 351–354. https://doi.org/10.5755/j02.mech.25777 

Comments

  1. UnknownDecember 5, 2021 at 12:36 PM

    Sounds cool, will be interesting to see what comes of the switch.
    -Shawn

    ReplyDelete

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