Before the internet and digital design were mainstream, manufacturers would go door-to-door to architecture, engineering and design firms to pitch their products to be used in design projects. Our founder, Jim Ballantyne, a landscape architect by trade, wanted to make this process easier and more seamless for both manufacturers and designers. That's how CADdetails was born. In 1997, CADdetails set out to provide a service for manufacturers and designers - connecting the two, previously separate worlds together, making it easier for manufacturers to reach designers and get specified into projects.
In this article, you'll find three ways CADdetails helps manufacturers communicate their product information to designers with effective and impactful 2D CAD drawings.
1. CADdetails Formatting
All of CADdetails' CAD drawings are designed in the same model space layout, layering styles, and uniform labeling across all details. Not only does this create a consistent formatting across all drawings, but, your products will be transformed into professional 2D CAD drawings that are easy for architects and designers to use.
Architects who use our site regularly know how to download, and use our files with ease. To top it off, we develop CAD in with 6 different file formats, including: VWX, GIF, DXF, DWF, DWG, and PDF for anyone to use in any program, at any time.
Our CAD details are developed with designers, architects and manufacturers in mind. Our drawings make it easy for specifiers to plan projects with manufacturer products. It's a simple, easy and fast process - all architects and designers have to do is copy and paste the details into existing AutoCAD design plans and scale appropriately to the proper manufacturers specifications [which are also provided by CADdetails].
2. CAD Drawings in Paper Scale
At CADdetails, we specifically create our drawings in an A-Size format, which can be easily printed on an 8.5" x 11" printer paper. This means architects, designers and manufacturers can easily use them for any bidding opportunities. This makes it easier for CADdetails’ CAD drawings to be used on job sites, be it in a digital or printed format.
3. Quality Check-List
CADdetails extracts all the necessary components to create CAD drawings from manufacturers existing product information. This can include: sketches, images, line art, or a description of a product. From there, our in-house expert CAD development team starts to develop 2D standard drawings which include the manufacturer information and our typical standard notes section. Our notes section conveys essential information to architects and designers downloading the CAD drawing. These drafts are then put through our quality assurance processes, which are broken into 3 major (and essential) components:
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Scale - Does the drawing accurately represent the product that it is conveying? CADdetails’ A-size format allows for effortless sharing, collaboration and printing. Many of the CAD details developed allow designers to select product options (such as mounting, size or finish) so they can ‘configure’ a product right in AutoCAD (or in another cad software package).
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Accuracy & Standards - We ensure our drawings are up to our CADdetails standards, meaning layers, line weights, spelling and formatting is consistent. Once the file is downloaded, the standard we set will remain in place, making the file easy to use and understand.
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Layout - It is essential to provide details that are useful without crowding the drawing. Less is more. There should be just enough information to accurately specify a product into a design plan.
Each of these components have been thought out thoroughly from our technical experts who know exactly what users, designers, and architects are looking for in a 2D CAD drawing.
Conclusion
CADdetails connects products to projects by simplifying the design process and making your product easy to specify. Through the development of high quality and visually appealing design content, products can be organized and hosted on a one, easy-to-use digital platform where designers are inspired to bring projects to life.
Want to know how CADdetails' CAD development can get your product specified more often? Talk to one of our experts or visit our CAD Drawings page to learn more.