Computers are sophisticated tools that are used in every facet of society to provide accuracy, flexibility, cost-savings, efficiency, record-keeping, vast storage, decision-making tools, and modeling. The use of computers to design two-or three-dimensional models of physical objects is known as computer-aided design. Designers in architecture, electronics, and aerospace or automotive engineering, for example, use computer-aided design (CAD) systems and software to prepare drawings and specifications that once could only be drawn or written by hand.

Before CAD, manufacturers and designers would have to build prototypes of automobiles, buildings, computer chips, and other products before the prototypes could be tested. CAD technology, however, allows users to rapidly produce a computer-generated prototype and then test and analyze the prototype under a variety of simulated conditions.

Manufacturers and designers also use CAD technology to study optimization, performance, and reliability problems in prototypes and in already existing designs. Drawings can...