New York July 22, 2002 Online access to computer-aided design (CAD) drawings are saving engineers increasing amounts of time and having significant impact on designers' productivity, according to a new survey of the engineers themselves.
In the survey of mechanical, design, architectural and electrical engineers, conducted among 4,000 of ThomasRegister.com's registered opt-in engineering users, designers reported on average that online access to CAD drawings save them 17 hours of time per month. That figure is up from 15 hours last year and 12 hours per month in 2000.
In addition, 48 percent of respondents rated the impact of online CAD drawings as being "very significant" for their organizations, while 39 percent saw the impact as "somewhat significant" and just 10 percent rated the impact as "not significant."
"Online CAD drawings have proven to be an invaluable tool for engineers," said Ruth Hurd, publisher of Thomas Register, which offers a library of the drawings. "The results of this survey further demonstrate the efficiency online CAD drawings offer organizations and the productivity benefits engineers experience as a result."
