Should Engineers Use Cad Tools???

This is sort of a philosophical question but I think there is alot of controversy about it. What do mechanical engineers think about using MCAD tools as part of their everyday job? What do the managers of mechanincal engineers think about engineers use of MCAD tools?

This is sort of like when wordprocessors first came out; people started typing their own memos instead of using the department secretary. They found that it saved a lot of time because they didn't have to review what the secretary typed versus what they werer given ( usually a hand written copy), then mark it up for changes and repeat the process until the memo was ready to send.

Should only CAD operators (or designers, or drafters, or draftsman, or whatever you call your support CAD people) use the MCAD tools? With 3D MCAD doesn't it make more sense to visulaize what you trying to design yourself rather than try to explain what you want to someone else who then creates it in CAD????

Your opinions are crucial in this matter. Thanks.

PUTTER

I have not worked any where in the last fifteen years where degreed engineers have not done thier own design work either by cad or solid modeling. The companies that I have worked for ranged from 100-6000 employees. Certainly project managers usually do not do any hands on design using cad tools, but I have worked with physists that would describe what they wanted and you had to design it. However, mechanical design was not thier forte and they had no working knowledge of the solid modeling software.

Thanks for your reply to my post. My experience is the same as yours but now I have run into a degreed mechanical engineer that is my boss and doesn't know how to use the cad tools and ddoesn't think project engineers should do their own design work on CAD!!

Most of the time I cannot explain what I want designed until I start designing it myself and then I can see the design I need as it needs to be. It is next to impossible to try and explain to a "CAD Operator" what a design needs to be. So, bottom line is, I need to do the desing on CAD to make sure it what I want. How do I explain that to someone who hasn't been there?

Thanks.