Computer-Aided Graphing and Simulation Tools for AutoCAD Users

This book allows readers to expand the versatility of AutoCAD® design and documentation software. It provides ready-to-use procedures and computer programs for solving problems in a variety of application areas, including computer-aided design, data visualization, evolutionary computation, numerical methods, single and multicriteria optimization, linkage and robot kinematics, cam mechanisms, and involute gears.

Students, engineers, and scientists alike will benefit from the text’s illustrative examples, first-rate figures, and many original problem-solving approaches, as well as the included software tools for producing high-quality graphs and simulations. Those who use AutoCAD LT, or have access to only a DXF viewer, can also make substantial use of this book and the accompanying programs and simulations.

The first two chapters of this book describe plotting programs D_2D and D_3D, which have many features not yet available in popular software like MATLAB® or MathCAD. Both plotting programs are available with the book. Other chapters discuss motion simulation of planar mechanical systems, design and analysis of disk cam mechanisms, and how to use the Working Model 2D and AutoLISP applications to demonstrate how involute gears operate. The book concludes with a collection of practical problems that can be solved using the programs and procedures discussed earlier in the book.

Petru Aurelian Simionescu is on the engineering faculty at Texas A&M University in Corpus Christi. He earned a BSc from the Polytechnic University of Bucharest, a doctorate in technical sciences from the same university, and a PhD in mechanical engineering from Auburn University. Simionescu taught and conducted research at seven Romanian, British, and American universities, and worked for four years in industry as an automotive engineer. His research interests include kinematics, dynamics and design of multibody systems, evolutionary computation, CAD, computer graphics, and information visualization. So far, he has authored over 45 technical papers and has been granted seven patents.