Computer-Aided Design tools and techniques
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A blind flange looks simple: a round plate with a bolt circle. Yet several checks compete to set its thickness – and not always the one you expect. This post walks from operating pressure to recommended plate thickness step by step.
A German version of this article is available — switch the language to Deutsch.
Dished ends close almost every cylindrical pressure vessel. In German-speaking markets two shapes are standard: the torispherical (Klöpper) head per DIN 28011 and the korbbogen head per DIN 28013. They look alike at first glance but differ clearly in height, material and load-carrying behaviour. This post explains the geometry, works through an example, and shows where geometry ends and the strength calculation begins.
A German version of this article is available — switch the language to Deutsch.
Expanded version based on the original article "Beyond Chatbots: LLMs in the Mechanical Engineering Workflow" (December 2, 2025). Goal: focus on practical automation, not "magical design" - especially where engineers lose time on repetitive steps, documentation search, format conversion, and recurring calculations.
FreeCAD 1.x is a rare case where a free CAD stops feeling like a hobby toy and turns into a practical engineering tool. After the 1.0 release (November 18, 2024), the project gained improvements that directly affect engineering usability: stronger parametric stability (mitigating the topological naming problem), a built-in Assembly Workbench, refreshed materials/appearance, and better UX. By late 2025, the first 1.1 release candidate had already appeared, so the 1.x line keeps moving.
Below is why FreeCAD can be called the "king" of open-source CAD, where it genuinely approaches commercial systems (SolidWorks, Inventor, Solid Edge, Creo, Fusion 360, NX), and where it still trails.
Why you can forget about Visio for quick diagrams.
In engineering and office work, "heavy software" is a recurring drag. To draw a simple flowchart or script logic, we reach for Visio, Lucidchart, or even CAD. That is slow, costly, and overkill when ideas just need to land somewhere. Excalidraw fixes this with a fast, open-source, hand-drawn canvas that runs in the browser.
Below is how to integrate it into your workflow if you are an engineer or script developer.
Traditional approaches to drawing generation rely heavily on bulky desktop software and proprietary APIs. The modern approach shifts the geometric kernel to the web.
In this article, we explore how to use the Chromium engine (via Puppeteer or Playwright) and JavaScript to automatically generate, validate, and nest DXF files.