can computer aided design be classed as art and will it one day be found in art galleries,taking the place of painting as the most used medium in creating art? im studing an MA in computer animation and have this subject to write about anybodies views are welcome.

Could be Only problem is the users of CAD systems arn't artist- they're engineers. On the other hand- rhino, max ect allready are being posted as art. The screens and output looks exactly the same :) I'd guess it's all a matter of marketing. Who the software distributors target.

Attached Link: http://www.formz.com/

For me, CAD design can sometimes be classed as art. It all depends. I frequently surf CAD/architectural design sites for inspiration. Many of the architectural design renders I've seen on these sites are genuinely art, to me. And if you've ever seen an architectural flythrough, that hits on animation, though only the camera is animated. There's one CAD program called, if I recall correctly, FormZ, that people have gone beyond to do some amazing art in. No one here uses it as far as I know. It's not a well known app among 3D artists. It started out as a basic CAD and architectural design app, but people kept pushing its limits and it's become a damn nice program. Take a look at some of the images on the websites listed in their users gallery. Granted, the users are generally professional designers, but for me, good design is art too. I'm actually surprised no one here uses FormZ.

Attached Link: http://freespace.virgin.net/robert.bradfilms/IMAGE.html

I recommend this site especially, this is an animated movie done in FormZ

I recall questions like this when doing A level art. We had use strange arcane things called books back then. Fortunately we have the net now and this seems like a good primer about the major players. http://www.arthistory.sbc.edu/artartists/artartists.html good luck with it!