Multi-criteria decision making using ahp to select the best CAD software

Abstract

One of the important questions that design and manufacturing firms face is which CAD software to use in their product development and realization activities. However, selecting the right CAD software is not a simple task due to the many criteria involved in the selection process such as package cost, ease of use, software popularity, features on offer, and system requirements. What makes it more challenging is the availability of a large number of commercial packages in the market. This constitutes a Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) problem that is addressed in this study using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). Because CAD software can be very specialized and vary significantly depending on the area of application, this study is limited to CAD software intended for mechanical design applications. The most popular packages in this regard include CATIA®, Pro/ENGINEER, SOLIDWORKS, and Inventor®.