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How should I prepare a product sketch before CAD?

Short answer

Before CAD, make the idea easier to understand rather than more polished. Bring a readable sketch or photo, simple part names, notes about how the product should behave, the key views needed to explain it, and the questions you have not answered yet. This gives a CAD designer or product-development partner a clearer starting point and reduces guesswork in the first conversation.

What to check

  • Name the visible parts in plain language.
  • Mark movement, connections, locking states, or contact surfaces.
  • Separate front, side, and detail views when one drawing is crowded.
  • Write down constraints and unknowns instead of hiding them.

Important limits

  • A clearer brief is not CAD or an engineering specification.
  • A professional still needs to assess feasibility, materials, safety, and manufacturability.
  • Use non-confidential or sanitized examples during FigDraft validation.

Where FigDraft fits

FigDraft is being developed to bring those early inputs together into a compact, reviewable handoff brief before formal product work begins.

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