Clash Detection

I found this on some website that touts the value of 3D piping design software:

"Clash or interference detection is a necessary task in 3D design and one of its big values".

Please forgive me for saying so, but good designers are the answer to this problem, not better software. The problems with 3D software are usually glossed-over because there is always something better (i.e., maybe something similar to manual drawings) "coming down the pipe" and there is a management attitude that more, faster data collection and manipulation is a good thing.

We've bought into CAD, so there's no going back. But the problem with this is that by doing so we've also expensively locked ourselves into whichever software we use. Imagine if 20 years ago your employer or client insisted that you use Koh-i-Noor rather than Staedler mechanical pencils.

Using 3D, database-dependant software opens up a whole other can of worms whereby the production of drawings takes a back seat to someone called "sysadmin" or "administrator".

That's enough for my periodic venting for now.

Paul Received on Sun Apr 24 13:38:00 2005