The Many Favours of Open

This article highlights that a National Institute of Science and Technology (NIST) studies the problems in exchanging CAD models that makes at least $1 billion in profits from the US automotive industry every year. CAD has long been familiar to most engineers and designers. CAD systems design, model, and maintain engineering representations. The resulting models may describe something as simple as a screw or beam, or as complex as an automobile or aircraft. Companies now test and revise designs before building even a single physical mockup. CAD developers are discovering a demand for more interoperable programs. Private developers are rushing into the breach with a variety of programs that enable users to begin managing translation and healing. It is certainly a step in the right direction—and one that may eventually allow companies and their collaborators, customers, and suppliers to work together to design, analyze, simulate, test, manufacture, and assemble products electronically before anyone bends the first piece of metal.