CAD/CAM Data Exchange:

Since the introduction of the computer as an automation tool for planning and control of manufacturing operations, the problem of interconnecting various software and hardware systems has become a major issue. The first computer-based planning and control systems were custom designed and configured for dedicated applications. It was extremely difficult and often impossible to take existing software and hardware modules developed for one platform and use them for the configuration of a planning and control system for another.

Drawings made with Computer-Aided Design (CAD) tools, which were introduced in the year of 1960s, represented tremendous productivity gains over paper drawings, such like ease to revise and obtain. CAD tools also opened new opportunities, such like enabling manufacturing instructions to be derived automatically and directly executed from the drawing. Yet, as computer design and manufacturing tools proliferated to meet raising complex and diverse engineering needs, so did the formats that each of the  tool utilized to capture and store product data. Whereas paper drawings may be marked up by anyone with a pencil, a product model that may not be interpreted by the essential CAD tool is useless. To share designs for organizations across numerous CAD and Computer-Aided Manufacturing (CAM) tools, their data files should be formatted in a manner that the tool may recognize. This necessity has become increasingly significant in an age where large manufacturers frequently form joint ventures to address a business chance, and whereas partners in a supply chain are being called upon to deliver an enhancing complex array of services.