If you need an example for how CAD has revolutionized industrial production, look under your hood, says Zaia Abraham, president of PROCAD.

"The level of quality in a car engine designed in the 90s compared to now is phenomenal," he says. "Not only is the product superior, but it is also made less expensively thanks in part to the CAD data distribution to parts manufacturers."

CAD will continue to offer more accurate designs and quick prototyping, and has resulted in a higher level of efficient manufacturing production.

Zaia recently checked in with us to talk about the solutions PROCAD offers and shares advice on buying a great CAD workstation. Read on:

Tell us about PROCAD ... what software do you offer? Who should be using it?

For over two decades, PROCAD has offered a wide range of plant design software solutions for a customer base that includes multinational resource companies, owner-operators, engineering consultants and pipe fabricators.

PROCAD applications include piping and electrical design with a focus on the chemical and O&G industries. The piping applications include 3D, 2D, P&IDs and isometrics. PROCAD provides its software as an add-on to AutoCAD or as complete solutions with included CAD platforms (AutoCAD OEM).

PROCAD also serves the pipe fabrication industry with SpoolCAD. This application simplifies the creation of spool drawings ready for manufacture. It comes with reporting capabilities such as BOM generation, weld lists and fabrication cost codes for estimation and billing.

What sets you apart from other CAD solutions?

PROCAD applications are cost-effective and easy to deploy. From the time a customer chooses PROCAD software, our staff will help with installation, setup and training; which allows the user to be fully operational within a few days. With intuitive interfaces, robust modules, excellent technical support and timely upgrades, customers are provided with the necessary tools to get their projects done on-time and on-budget.

What do you think are the most important considerations to make or questions to ask when shopping for CAD software, no matter what your industry?

To make sure it answers their pain-point issues. The software selection process should be given full consideration to ensure the right solution is chosen. The most important factor in software choice is when you know you can live with it for a long time. Purchase of software is the easy part.

What advice can you offer on shopping for CAD workstations? What should every CAD workstation include?

Getting ample RAM and a reasonable graphic card if doing a lot of 3D.

What sorts of considerations should we make when shopping for a professional monitor for CAD?

Fast refresh rate, high resolution, good quality color, screen brightness, and visibility when viewed from different angles

How should these workstations be arranged to best suit the user?

Networked workstations are the most efficient way to setup a design office. By organizing data on sharable servers, the drawings created by the different designers use the same standards and specs for the project they're involved in.

What are some of the most exciting innovations you've come across in CAD Hardware?

The fact that an average machine can run reasonably complex CAD drawings without the need for very expensive graphics cards.

What sort of regular maintenance should we be doing to ensure our CAD hardware and software is running optimally?

Get extended warranties for the hardware, and keep software on maintenance. It's important to have the latest releases of software to ensure compatibility with the latest CAD platforms and Operation Systems.

Connect with Zaia and the PROCAD team on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.