Machinery manufactures will wax lyrical about the wonders and miracles of the their digital systems with a growing emphasis on AI (however they may define it), but there is one area of computing that has probably had as great an effect on farming as any other and that is Computer Aided Design (CAD) for short.

CAD kicked off in the 1950s as computer scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) started to develop existing radar systems to show debugging protocols on the oscilloscopes being used to display the radar images.

It was found that electronic circuit diagrams, with the associated symbols, could be shown on the scopes and their size and orientation could also be altered, enabling technicians to trace faults without the need of manuals and it was at this time that the term CAD was coined.

Putting curves into cars

Fast forward to the 1960s when Renault and Citroen started using computers to help in the definition and design of curved body panels based on the work of French mathematician Pierre Bezier.

Renault 18 car — The Renault 18 launched in 1978 would have been one of the first cars from the company to have benefitted from CAD

Bezier had developed algorithms and calculations to describe shapes and curves that went beyond what was already possible with standard trigonometry, and being employed by Renault at the time it was the French who got a head start in using CAD for automotive design.

It was he that developed the programme known as UNISURF, which entered full service in 1975 and is now regarded as the first functional purpose designed CAD system.

Yet, Boeing was also also working on the concept and it was used to help design the surface panels of the Boeing 727, which entered service in 1964. Within 30 years, the company’s 777 was designed completely on a computer.

CAD found everywhere

Naturally, it was not long before the rest of the engineering world woke up to the concept with the well-known AutoCAD programme popularising it throughout industry.

Agricultural machinery companies were by no means immune to the capabilities of CAD and not just the tractor manufacturers, implement makers also took to it with alacrity.

CAD designed JD — Larger tractors need bigger implements which require sophisticated engineering to work and not disintegrate in the field

It naturally followed that as the power of tractors increased so to do did the size and complexity of implements to match, leading to what we see today in the field which would most probably not have happened at all if it were not for computing power.

A step further

However, there is a further aspect to this and it is the incorporation of Finite Element Analysis (FEA), which actually predates CAD, going back to the early 1940s when two researchers established the basic methods of stress analysis using multiple points within the structure or material.

It took a while for computing to become powerful enough to handle the maths involved and it wasn’t until the 1990s that low cost PCs allowed the method to be deployed outside of major corporations and academia.

CAD image — One of the great advantages of CAD is the ability to visualise complex shapes and mechanisms

Now, it is a part of all advanced design work with engineers being able to test new machines virtually before they commit to actually building a prototype and trying it out in the field.

It is not just the complexity of the equipment that has blossomed due to CAD, with FEA it has led to machines that are lighter and stronger, for rather than simply welding more metal onto a frame, for instance, the frame can be designed to have the strength in the right places without further bracing.

A real game changer

All this has dramatically changed the the farm machinery industry. The wide range of constantly updated new machines that have been available over the past two to three decades would simply not have been possible without CAD.

Complex machinery — CAD has enabled complex machinery to be designed and built by extending its use to tooling and parts inventories

Yet we never hear about it, it is only the supposed advances in tractor systems, data generation and its deployment through telemetry, and now artificial intelligence, that are mentioned.

It may be argued though, that none of them have made as great an impact on farming as taking machinery design off the drawing board and putting it onto a chip.

Putting curves into cars

CAD found everywhere

A step further

A real game changer

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CAD: The unsung hero of modern machinery