The topic known as computer-aided design and manufacture has developed rapidly over the last 20 years. The range of hardware configurations and supporting software on offer to the potential user is bewildering. This extends from the inexpensive single-user micro-based system, through to the vast industrial networks which are supported by many remote mainframe machines and have been reported to service up to a thousand workstations. This advance in technology has been driven by, and in its turn has fuelled, the development of ever greater computing power and graphics capability. It is these features that all working in the field would now recognize as essential to any CADCAM system. Effort has thus been put into developing a range of structural and solid modellers which, in conjunction with the appropriate terminal configuration and ray tracing graphics technology, can construct pictures of uncanny realism. Complicated analysis programs have been developed that can calculate the stresses in complex structures and display the results as colour shaded maps upon the surface of a pictorial view of the object. If the time to process and the system cost are ignored, then the apparent ease with which these systems perform such analysis and generate such high quality images, leaves the observer awe struck.

Little more than a decade ago computer-aided design and manufacture (CAD/CAM) was a very esoteric field indeed, not one that was of much practical concern to a manager or industrialist unless his business was on the scale of, say, a major automobile manufacturer or in a field of high technology such as aerospace. Like so much else, this situation was revo lutionized by the invention of the silicon chip, the arrival of the micro processor and the dramatic fall in the cost of computer hardware. Today, CAD/CAM has spread down the market, and down the price scale, to the point at which it is both a feasible and an affordable technology for a wide range of small-and medium-sized companies in areas as various as architec ture and general engineering, plastic moulding and consumer electronics. But the explosion - there is no other word for it - in the variety and capabilities of CAD/CAM systems, and their spectacular climb to the top of the hi-tech hit parade, has placed the potential purchaser and user of the new technology in a difficult position. On the one hand he is assured, not least by the manufacturers of CAD/CAM equipment, that a failure to invest in it will leave his company stranded in the industrial Stone Age."

This text explores the use of computer-aided design (CAD) techniques in the solution of mechanical engineering problems. The numerous applications presented, provide the basis for a broad theory covering the creation and application of CAD systems in practice. This work has led to the generation of a more general approach to design theory. The second edition contains two new chapters covering the research and application of constraint modelling theory that arose directly from the work presented in the first edition. The book's general approach covers all aspects of mechanical design ranging from the design and control of assemblies to the remote operation of coordinate measuring machines via a CAD system.

Many books already exist on computer-aided design and manufacture most of which are dedicated to describing the complexities of mathematical modelling and its application to industrial problems. In the experience of the present authors, however, if the subject is to be understood within its true, industrial context it must be taught in relation to the design process. Thus, while this book discusses both modelling and industrial applications, it also tries to provide an insight into design methodology, system selection and usage, and the social relationships that exist within design and manufacturing facilities. The teaching modules which make up the book are the distillation of material used by the authors both for undergraduate courses in CAD at BruneI University, and for seminars given to industrial users. The modules are not intended to be used in isolation, but rather to serve as an introductory survey which will enable students to grasp the broad outlines of the subject. Most aspects ofthe course presented here will need to be supported by further work and reading (see 'Further Reading'). In the authors' own courses much of the geometric and modelling work described in the text is supported by tutorial activities using the university department's commercial and research CAD/CAM systems. These include the Computervision-CADDS4X and Personal Systems.