Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!rutgers!columbia!sylvester.columbia.edu!beshers
From: beshers@sylvester.columbia.edu (Clifford Beshers)
Newsgroups: comp.graphics
Subject: Re: Going into CAD
Message-ID: <5205@columbia.edu>
Date: 2 Jan 88 22:42:34 GMT
References: <391@xroads.UUCP> <17271@glacier.STANFORD.EDU>
Sender: nobody@columbia.edu
Reply-To: beshers@sylvester.columbia.edu.UUCP (Clifford Beshers)
Organization: Columbia University CS Department
Lines: 41

In article <17271@glacier.STANFORD.EDU> jbn@glacier.UUCP (John B. Nagle) writes:
>
>In article <391@xroads.UUCP> bethel@xroads.UUCP (Ben Bethel) writes:
>>
>>   1. What are some good colleges that offer CAD in the world?
>>   2. Is it better to go into computer animation or into computer
>>architecture?
>>   3. Where could I see some GOOD computer animation and computer
>>architecture?
>>   4. How well does a job in CAD pay?
>
>      Computer-aided design (CAD) is a tool for designers, not a career in
>itself.  If you become an architect, mechanical engineer, or electrical
>engineer, you will probably use a CAD system.  But it will be a tool 
>that you use when designing things, and unless you know how to design,
>CAD will not be very useful to you.  Check out engineering schools,
>starting with MIT.
>
...
>      Computer animation is a tool for artists.  The artistic standards for
>computer animation are rising rapidly.  There's a "computer animation
>festival" film made every year and shown in theaters around the country.

Saying that computer animation is a tool for artists is like saying
hammers are tools for carpenters;  the statement is true and
well-meant, but also misleading.  Computer animation is simply a
sequence of still frames generated by a computer, allowing us to see
events which we can describe but which may be too difficult to create
physically.  It is a tool used primarily, but not exclusively, by
artists, hence the appropriation of the term to refer to artistic
works.  However, just about anybody who needs to visualize something
can benefit from using computer animation.  Its role as a scientific
tool has become clear, particularly in engineering, medicine, biology,
chemistry and mathematics for example.  I think computer graphics and
animation could be better described as a type of abstract vise-grip, a
tool that's handy no matter what you want to do.


Cliff Beshers
Columbia University Computer Science Department
beshers@sylvester.columbia.edu