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Issue Date: June 2003

AllyCAD flying high

1 June 2003

Of course it is all a matter of computers - or more precisely, computer-aided design technology - CAD, according to Johannes (JJ) Pretorius, senior project analyst at SAA Technical's airframe and propulsion system engineering division.
It is also the place where the bright, rainbow livery designs of the planes which performed those breathtaking fly-pasts for the recent Cricket World Cup and earlier Rugby World Cup were brought to life on the computer screen before they were transferred to the aircraft themselves.
The software system that Pretorius and his team use - virtually exclusively - is AllyCAD, an industrial-strength 2D CAD package. SAA Technical has been using AllyCAD since 1987 for a vast range of design uses - from an entire aircraft livery design to items of small, insignificant-seeming detail.
"I would say that AllyCAD is probably our most important and most commonly used design tool," Pretorius says. "It has the simple draughting capability we need. Apart from its innate capabilities, it operates seamlessly with all other software. You can play around with it to get the designs you want to all hang together. Livery design is perhaps the most dramatic expression of its usefulness, but there are many other examples of its value as a drawing design tool. In fact, it is the only CAD tool we use."
AllyCAD is constantly updated by its South African developer and distributor, Knowledge Base. "The design and development of aircraft - and, indeed everything else - has advanced since AllyCAD was first used by SAA Technical in 1987," says Vincent Bester, MD of Knowledge Base.
At SAA Technical, all design drawings - whatever the subject - are done using AllyCAD. For a really big project - a full aircraft exterior livery, for example - Pretorius uses AllyCAD to create a scaled-down version of the required final design, lettering and logo. This is then used in the manufacture of the actual full-sized template - known as a 'pounce' - to facilitate the final painting of the livery. He says a full-sized pounce can be as long as 17 m and as high as 2 m, depending on the size of the aircraft. "At the other end of the scale, even the no smoking warning sign you see in the toilets is the work of AllyCAD," concludes Pretorius.
For more information contact Knowledge Base, 011 701 1850.


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