Maybe AI will eliminate the need for CAD, but I don’t think it will happen before the end of 2028, at which point the question will become much less important to me.
In some area.
Construction, sizing I-beams and structure.
Whatever we’re using macro to do.
Maybe faster in FEA, CFD-fluid flow.
Make drawings from model would be great.
Someone still need to check AI output for error.
Or build another AI to check AI error …
Wait for the parasite lawyers to show up. What company with anything to lose is going to put themselves in a position where their defense against the inevitable frivolous law suit involves, “AI said the design was safe…” ?
Intentionally avoiding the rabbit hole of how AI designs, etc, may affect product and consumer safety. That is a group of different conversations, each probably worthy of their own thread. As for AI making models and/or drawings, or doing the pre and post FEA processing, etc. it is fascinating and certainly a viable tool if done correctly.
Not much different then using CAM for toolpath. Someone need to check and verify them.
Of course, that AI should be trained with proper CAD model and proven toolpath files.
Not from Joe Blow’s STL and JPEG library.
Every company will need it’s own trained AI for each process.
So we will need “AI trainer” instead of programmer and CAD operator.
A different or upgraded “programmer/developer”.
Current 3D AI is a triumph of appearance over inner essence. It can replicate the “body” of a component, but it’s not yet capable of imbuing it with a “soul”—physics, technology, and engineering intent. But that will soon change—a storm is coming.
i dont think it’ll every fully replace cad or cam. we do some itar stuff where the customer does not even send electronic prints, they send physical paper via UPS or drive them here. I’m also not involved in our injection mold work, but seeing the complexity of some of these stack molds and the dozen to hundreds of components that go into them, with all the complex geometry… I would not trust AI to get that right. All of the sudden you’ve got water lines blasting though the part or wherever is super inconvenient. Like Fred said, anywhere you use macros or mundane tasks it is great. but, like an apprentice, you still need to check