The smarter 2D CAD

If your idea of a PC-based CAD system is based on your recollections of the old DOS-based systems which have gradually been updated to Windows, you'll be agreeably surprised by the latest generation of CAD software.

Particularly at the 2D draughting and sketching end, CAD no longer means weeks of training courses. Designed from the ground up to take advantage of Windows, the new generation makes it easy to 'sketch' designs, then have the system tidy them up.

Intergraph's SmartSketch 3 is perhaps the 'smartest' of all these CAD systems Ð as you'd expect from one of the biggest names in CAD. SmartSketch is intelligent enough to be able to put the tool you need at the end of your cursor, and its 'SmartSymbols' have intelligent behaviour, properties and actions. What's more, geometry automatically reflects changes made to dimensions, and of course dimensions are automatically updated when you change the geometry.

The creators of this system have really emphasised ease of use and fast working. With its parametric capability and close integration to Mathcad, SmartSketch is also an ideal component in a wider design system: direct links can be made between calculations in Mathcad and dimensions in SmartSketch. If your CAD requirements are a system which can handle sketches to 2D production drawings with maximum productivity (at reasonable cost) then this is a must.