"Monu-Cad®"
Computer Aided Design System
In February 1992, Dodds became the first (and still the only) company in our area to offer an "in-house" computer design system called "Monu-Cad"®. We purchased this system from the company who created it, Monumental Computer Applications, in Cherry Valley, NY.
The Monu-Cad® system contains several different segments. First is a series of literally thousands of "components" such as flowers, religious emblems, fraternal and civic organization emblems, sports activities and much more. These components can be chosen individually, or grouped with other components to create a design which a family may want on their memorial. The Monu-Cad® system also contains over 25 alphabets from which a family can choose what style they would like for the names and dates that we would add to complete the overall design.
(Click on the thumbnails below to view full size, then hit the "back" button to return to this page)
Many times
if there are questions about design, we will have our computer designer complete
the design and send it to the family for approval before it is engraved, to be
sure it is exactly what they want. Changes are made as needed (at no extra
cost) until it is approved. Just another way to insure that a family will
receive complete satisfaction. Having created hundreds of complete designs
for families and creating new ones all the time, a family can also choose from
completed designs and many times find exactly what they are looking for.
All we have to do is complete the correct names and dates and the design is
ready for the next step.
After the Monu-Cad® design has been approved and saved in the computer, the computer sends a series of signals to a stencil cutter. Stencil is used as a template in the sandblast process which is explained fully in the "Engraving" section of this web site. The significance here is that most companies have to hand cut all letters and designs. With the Monu-Cad® cutting process, each letter, number and all components of a design are cut perfectly each time. Again, we are insuring that each memorial is as perfect for the family as possible.