Advantages of AutoCAD:
1. A mid range Software
2. User Friendly
3. Fulfills most of the professional needs of a mechanical engineer
4. Lots of Time saving (but not always)
5. Paperless Environment
6. Ease of Accuracy — e.g. joining of lines head to head is not possible manually with desired accuracy
7. Easy to edit
8. Ease of Repetition / Addition
9. Reproduction of Drawing is easy, rapid and reliable in terms of dimensional accuracy and precision.
10. 2D and 3D production of drawings is very easy.
11. Zoom Command Facility allows us to see the minute details on larger scale view.
12. A facility of Modeling and making Parts library is available.
13. Parent – Child relationship allows multiple editing in single command, means if one part is edited all other linked parts are auto edited
14. Layers option allows us to hide or show some specific details of a complex assembly drawing for clear understanding.
15. There is no limitation of a Drawing size. You can draw a 2 light years long line through proper scale stetting.
16. Auto scale option is available. Full scale drawings can be formed.
17. Geometrical relationship can make quick mathematical operations easy, e. g. you can make an inscribed circle using dimensions of the triangle or polygon etc.
18. Mass, Area, Volume, Center of Gravity can be calculated
19. Auto Dimensioning – easy, accurate and rapidly done within no time.
20. Dimension Standards are strictly followed
21. Copy, scale, Move, Stretch, rotate, Pattern commands make the task simple and easy
22. Draw Guiding through Osnap, Ortho etc.
23. Direct and Quick Drawing of Symmetrical objects. e.g circle, ellipse, polygon rectangles and triangles etc.
24. Geometrical Relationships are possible. Like two parallel lines, Tangent lines, perpendicular lines etc.
25. Fixed line thickness throughout the drawing.—– remember that, ”by default, the line thickness of auto Cad is zero”
26. Fill, Hatch, Section lines, Chamfer and fillet commands make the software a blessing as these operations are very difficult in manual drafting.
27. Adding Text – Lettering – is a big facility
28. Images can be imported and traced out for digitization of conventional diagrams and drawings.
Disadvantages of Using AutoCAD:
1. Expensive equipment is required. like Computer, Plotter, big screen monitor etc.
2. Registered software is expensive and it requires a heavy re-occurring annual fee.
3. Continuous Updating of the equipment and software is needed.
4. Electricity is mandatory for running the equipment.
5. Piracy and hacking threats are always there when you use internet for data transfer or even storage of data on a computer which is connected to internet.
6. Special computer Skills are required.
7. Proper Maintenance, supervision and administration is required for computer networking.
