This case study is based on a real job. A company making shade sails to order was experiencing increasing demand for its design and installation service. Their research suggested that this was likely to continue as an appreciation of the damage that excessive exposure to the sun can cause takes hold in the public's psyche.

Two major problems faced the company:

1. There is a pressing need to cut down on wastage of materials. At present, the company sales consultants tend to measure and design a job using pencil and paper and a scale ruler. They tend to over order material, just in case it is needed for the job. Somewhere between $100 and $200 of material is wasted on every job.

2. Some clients experience great difficult reading and interpreting 2D plans. It is important that the company be able to produce 3D models of designs.

This small study attempts to show how CAD software like AutoCAD and IntelliCAD can be used to overcome both these difficulties.

The instructional movies here are made with IntelliCAD as the software tool, but essentially the same operations are carried out in the AutoCAD environment.