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Should Engineers Do Thier Own Drafting?

39 REPLIES 39
Reply
Message 1 of 40
kartz
6057 Views, 39 Replies

Should Engineers Do Thier Own Drafting?

 
39 REPLIES 39
Message 2 of 40
kartz
in reply to: kartz

Sorry, I hit Enter too soon. My question is to all CAD Managers (official or not). Do the engineers/architects in your office turn out their own sets of plans? Or do you have draftsman or CAD operators who do the plans. Is it too much to expect an engineer/architect to know all the ins and outs of AutoCAD, Civil Design, Survey, ADT, etc.? If your engineers/architects do their own drafting, how is it? Are they plans that you can be proud of or are they slopped together things that you hope you never have to revise? Please let me know your thoughts/experiences.
Kim Artz
Washington County Engineering
Message 3 of 40
Anonymous
in reply to: kartz

Only if they have a very light workload, and have excellent drafting skills.
Otherwise, that's what drafters are for.

In other words, no.

kartz wrote in message ...
>
>
Message 4 of 40
kartz
in reply to: kartz

Thanks Randy for your quick reply. I need as many opinions as I can get because I'm on the war path. I would like to be able to print out the response to this and go to my boss. We have some people here turning out plans that don't meet our standards but because these people are higher up the food chain that me, I can't do much about it without some support.
Kim Artz
Message 5 of 40
Anonymous
in reply to: kartz

In my office, it doesn't matter how high up the
food chain you are... YOU FOLLOW THE STANDARDS!!! If an engineer wants to sketch
ideas and have a drafter polish it off, that's fine BUT AGAIN, the engineer
better follow our standards.


style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
Thanks
Randy for your quick reply. I need as many opinions as I can get because I'm
on the war path. I would like to be able to print out the response to this and
go to my boss. We have some people here turning out plans that don't meet our
standards but because these people are higher up the food chain that me, I
can't do much about it without some support.
Kim
Artz
Message 6 of 40
Anonymous
in reply to: kartz

We've only had one engineer who really did drawings, but he was electrical
and these were single-line diagram-type drawings. Not much to mess up in
the way of accuracy (ala dimensions) and the electrical dept was kind of in
their own little world.

Of the three structural engineers we've had, two could get around AutoCAD
enough to plot and look at stuff. They never produced drawings, but if they
"tinkered" it was handed off to a drafter to clean up. Usually these
"tinkerings" are little details that don't have much to clean up.

The current PE we have has taken an AutoCAD class, which was applied to
keeping up his certification. He's slow, but he's actually quite good at
following our standards and drawing with dimensional accuracy. I think this
is because he's heard our complaints too many times when we get a new
drafter that won't follow standards and/or draw accurately. He know's he's
slow and therefore rarely does any drawing for us, but he has done drawings
that were used for an addition to his house. I have worked on his drawings
and would gladdly do so again.

A little over a year ago we joined with a larger company (~400 people) for
a job and went to their office. It seemed about the same there - most of
the engineers could "tinker" in AutoCAD but they didn't produce drawings.
This company's CAD standards manual was as thick as your fist and if it
wasn't "by the book" you would get called on the carpet (even us). Oh, they
weren't too inflexable as we did manage to talk them into using xrefs, but
they did have a lot of LISPs to make sure the standards were followed.
Dimensional accuracy, by the drafters, was held to in the mech dept.
However the struc dept was still typing lots of dimensions in by hand.

I think your best argument is going to be "time=money", "standards=speed",
"dimensional accuracy=speed". If _both_ of the last two can be met by the
person then the first is a given and all are happy.

Enjoy,
Stef
--
mailto: yodersj@ipass.net || Drafter, Leather-worker
http://www.ipass.net/~yodersj/ || Dos, Win, LT
in progress http://computerhowto.homestead.com/
RFC 1855, section 3.1.1, item 10 at http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/
Message 7 of 40
Anonymous
in reply to: kartz

Speaking as an architect, I think the real question is a matter of
efficiency. Can one engineer keep multiple drafters busy or is it one
engineer=one draftsperson? I would argue for what ever produces the most
efficient flow of work. (And of course they all need to follow standards)

Dan

"kartz" wrote in message
news:ef67d1f.1@WebX.SaUCah8kaAW...
> Sorry, I hit Enter too soon. My question is to all CAD Managers (official
or not). Do the engineers/architects in your office turn out their own sets
of plans? Or do you have draftsman or CAD operators who do the plans. Is it
too much to expect an engineer/architect to know all the ins and outs of
AutoCAD, Civil Design, Survey, ADT, etc.? If your engineers/architects do
their own drafting, how is it? Are they plans that you can be proud of or
are they slopped together things that you hope you never have to revise?
Please let me know your thoughts/experiences.
> Kim Artz
> Washington County Engineering
>
Message 8 of 40
KenP
in reply to: kartz

The senior engineers in our firm do not have AutoCAD installed on their computers, but are firmly behind standards. Most of our drafting is by technicians or E.I.T's. The E.I.T.'s are give a one-day training by a technician to give them an overview of the standards and network set-up. After that they're pretty good about asking questions and defering to the techs. If they mess up with the standards we literally slap their hands! Few make the same mistake twice! We also have in-house seminars to continue AutoCAD training. The senior engineers are invited to (and attend) these so they know the limitations of the software and what it takes to get the job done.
Message 9 of 40
Anonymous
in reply to: kartz

There is no right answer. 

 

I am the cad manager in a civil
engineering/surveying office with about 15 AutoCAD users.  I have been
using AutoCAD since 1987, release 2.6.  I have done
lots of customizing, and some lisp programming. 
I am not the
fastest, but we use LDD2 and I am the most familiar with the DESIGN features of
the software.  We have no real standards
here.  I've been trying to get some in place for several years.  The
drafters won't have anything to do with letting someone tell them how to do
their jobs, or how "their" drawings should look.  They each do their own
thing outside a few guidelines for fonts and linetypes.  Somehow all the
people putting out plans seem to create acceptable work (i.e. No one has
anything bad to say about anyone else's drawings/plans).

 

If your firm is using the software for design, then
the DESIGNER should be using CADD (computer assisted drafting/DESIGNING). 
I see no reason to sketch a road centerline on a piece of paper so someone who
has no idea why I put it there can trace it into CADD for me.  I can put it
there faster, and with more thought given to the design myself.  I realize
that things vary greatly from discipline to discipline, but for land development
work I feel we are moving away from an engineer/drafter team to a designer
environment.

 

In our office the top CADD users consist of
licensed engineers and surveyors.  They are not as fast as the cad jocks,
but are more accurate, and more knowledgeable about what the software will do
for them, and therefore can speed up the "design process".  If we could
find more qualified drafters we would hire them.  They don't seem to be
available.

 

It sounds to me like you have a problem with
standards, and personnel, not a problem with who is producing your
drawings.  Anyone who cares about what they are doing has no excuse for
producing a graphically poor plan set.

 

Just my $0.02,

Audie D. Osgood, P.E.

 

 

 


style="BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px">
Sorry,
I hit Enter too soon. My question is to all CAD Managers (official or not). Do
the engineers/architects in your office turn out their own sets of plans? Or
do you have draftsman or CAD operators who do the plans. Is it too much to
expect an engineer/architect to know all the ins and outs of AutoCAD, Civil
Design, Survey, ADT, etc.? If your engineers/architects do their own drafting,
how is it? Are they plans that you can be proud of or are they slopped
together things that you hope you never have to revise? Please let me know
your thoughts/experiences.
Kim Artz
Washington County
Engineering
Message 10 of 40
Anonymous
in reply to: kartz

I think we are in a transition period as far as this question goes. As
usual, we must realize engineers are different from architects. As an up
and coming architect (degree/no license) with over ten years drafting
experience, I do my own drafting. For me, it is simply not efficient to
spend a day trying to red-mark drawings clearly enough for someone to pick
up with satisfactory results. I can easily circle a problem with a note
that says "Fix", and I will know what it means. If I have to work out a
detail , there is no reason why I shouldn't work it out in CAD and be done
with it. I am seeing architects in general moving in this direction. A
rough generalization would be that architects that drew by hand that still
don't work with CAD, never will work with CAD. I will assume the same for
engineers.

Engineers seem to be behind architects where doing your own drafting is
concerned. Office culture may be to blame for this as I have seen young
engineers leave school with substantial CAD skills, enter the office
environment where they are coerced into thinking that they are too important
to waste their time drafting but yet can spend an equal amount of time
marking up drawings for someone else to "put into CAD".

On the other hand, I have also seen young engineers come out of school,
enter the workforce and not only engineer, but draft their projects as well.
In half the time described above. As a matter of fact, the best CAD
operator I know happens to be an electrical engineer. So I know its
possible for engineers to draft themselves.

There are different types of folks in offices. From degreed professionals
who can't draw their way out of a paper bag to CAD jocks who don't have the
foggiest idea of what they are drawing. These two extremes work well
together, but it takes two of them to produce a good set of documents.
Whereas folks that fall somewhere in the middle have the ability to
single-handedly produce a good set of documents.

Of course, standards should be followed no matter who you are or what your
title is. And finally, if an individual has the mental faculties capable of
earning a degree, license and title, they have the ability to learn CAD, no?

There is something quite ironic about the way some engineers (and architects
also) will look down their noses at draftspeople yet rely on them so much to
complete their work. Wouldn't that make it "our" work? I digress.

It's funny, some days I long for a stack of (good) redlines where all I have
to do is kick 'em out, but I never look forward to having to redline for
someone other than myself.

good luck
chris

"kartz" wrote in message
news:ef67d1f.1@WebX.SaUCah8kaAW...
> snip>Please let me know your thoughts/experiences.
> Kim Artz
> Washington County Engineering
>
Message 11 of 40
Anonymous
in reply to: kartz

Audie,

 

No luck yet? I'm still available 🙂

 

Nick Harper

CAD Manager

Palmer & Lauder Engineers, Inc.


 


style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">

There is no right answer. 

 

I am the cad manager in a civil
engineering/surveying office with about 15 AutoCAD users.  I have been
using AutoCAD since 1987, release 2.6.  I have
done lots of customizing, and some lisp programming. 
I am not the
fastest, but we use LDD2 and I am the most familiar with the DESIGN features
of the software.  We have no real standards
here.  I've been trying to get some in place for several years.  The
drafters won't have anything to do with letting someone tell them how to do
their jobs, or how "their" drawings should look.  They each do their own
thing outside a few guidelines for fonts and linetypes.  Somehow all the
people putting out plans seem to create acceptable work (i.e. No one has
anything bad to say about anyone else's drawings/plans).

 

If your firm is using the software for design,
then the DESIGNER should be using CADD (computer assisted
drafting/DESIGNING).  I see no reason to sketch a road centerline on a
piece of paper so someone who has no idea why I put it there can trace it into
CADD for me.  I can put it there faster, and with more thought given to
the design myself.  I realize that things vary greatly from discipline to
discipline, but for land development work I feel we are moving away from an
engineer/drafter team to a designer environment.

 

In our office the top CADD users consist of
licensed engineers and surveyors.  They are not as fast as the cad jocks,
but are more accurate, and more knowledgeable about what the software will do
for them, and therefore can speed up the "design process".  If we could
find more qualified drafters we would hire them.  They don't seem to be
available.

 

It sounds to me like you have a problem with
standards, and personnel, not a problem with who is producing your
drawings.  Anyone who cares about what they are doing has no excuse for
producing a graphically poor plan set.

 

Just my $0.02,

Audie D. Osgood, P.E.

 

 

 


style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
Sorry,
I hit Enter too soon. My question is to all CAD Managers (official or not).
Do the engineers/architects in your office turn out their own sets of plans?
Or do you have draftsman or CAD operators who do the plans. Is it too much
to expect an engineer/architect to know all the ins and outs of AutoCAD,
Civil Design, Survey, ADT, etc.? If your engineers/architects do their own
drafting, how is it? Are they plans that you can be proud of or are they
slopped together things that you hope you never have to revise? Please let
me know your thoughts/experiences.
Kim Artz
Washington County
Engineering
Message 12 of 40
Anonymous
in reply to: kartz

We have a combination of the two. We have young
engineers who are good enough to do there own drafting. We also have engineers
with the older mindset of " I design, you draw". IMO, the only way it can really
be efficent for the latter of the two is if your "draftsman" are really
"designers" and have a good understanding of the field in which they are working
with an understanding for what needs to go on a set of plans. they also need to
understand the software they are using, not just basic autocad. Our biggest
problem is only being able to find  "copy draftsman" who are content to
just draw only what is put in front of them. This is not an efficient process.
Engineers draws with pencil, then draftsman draws again. Anyway, enough
rambling. If you are going to have "draftsman" then they need to be trained and
willing to learn the tools they are provided with, and if the engineers are
gonna do it themselves, they need to follow the same drafting standards as the
lowly draftsman. I don't know if any of that helped or made any sense but your
welcome anyway 😉

 

Nick Harper

CAD Manager

Palmer & Lauder Engineers, Inc.


 

 


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Message 13 of 40
Anonymous
in reply to: kartz

I don't necessarily think engineers should do there own
drawings..... but they definitely should understand cad
technology and keep up with current trends.

I do mechanical drawings.... and the plant engineer I work
for can use Autocad but hasn't a clue when it comes to
keeping up with new stuff or getting the right tool for the
job.

It was like pulling teeth to get him to upgrade form Autocad
to Mech Desktop. Like I said .... he doesn't have a clue.
Message 14 of 40
Anonymous
in reply to: kartz

With the advent of true design tools, i.e. MDT, ADT, LDD, it is cheaper to
teach an engineer to draft than it is to teach a draftsman to engineer. When
CAD was just drawing lines without calculations to back them that required
true knowledge, I think the seperation was fine. Now that drawing one line
wrong can change a design so radically, I think engineers should drive the
boxes.

We still have a split, but the only engineers that don't draft are the old
school guys (and gal.) Everyone we've hired since I started has been VERY
active in getting up to speed and preparing their own plans.

Just my $0.02.

--
James Wedding, E.I.T.
IT Manager
Jones & Boyd, Inc.
Dallas, Texas
jwedding@NOSPAMjones-boyd.com
Remove NOSPAM from e-mail for reply.
Message 15 of 40
Anonymous
in reply to: kartz

It seems you have better luck than we do with engineers. If ours can't find
out how to do everything by just opening the program and going for it then
they think program is not worth their time and doesn't do what they wan't.
we actually have better look making engineers out of our less technically
challenged and enthusiastic CADD staff. they like learning all the shortcuts
that these programs provide and learning how to use these programs (adt/ldd)
proficiently certainly helps the paycheck.

Nick Harper
CAD Manager
Palmer & Lauder Engineers, Inc.
pl-eng@nvbell.net

"James Wedding, E.I.T." wrote in message
news:B2AF5055DCFE16F5DE9AE76F1A701933@in.WebX.SaUCah8kaAW...
> With the advent of true design tools, i.e. MDT, ADT, LDD, it is cheaper to
> teach an engineer to draft than it is to teach a draftsman to engineer.
When
> CAD was just drawing lines without calculations to back them that required
> true knowledge, I think the seperation was fine. Now that drawing one line
> wrong can change a design so radically, I think engineers should drive the
> boxes.
>
> We still have a split, but the only engineers that don't draft are the old
> school guys (and gal.) Everyone we've hired since I started has been VERY
> active in getting up to speed and preparing their own plans.
>
> Just my $0.02.
>
> --
> James Wedding, E.I.T.
> IT Manager
> Jones & Boyd, Inc.
> Dallas, Texas
> jwedding@NOSPAMjones-boyd.com
> Remove NOSPAM from e-mail for reply.
>
Message 16 of 40
Anonymous
in reply to: kartz

"James Wedding, E.I.T." wrote in
:

>With the advent of true design tools, i.e. MDT, ADT, LDD, it is cheaper
>to teach an engineer to draft than it is to teach a draftsman to
>engineer. When CAD was just drawing lines without calculations to back
>them that required true knowledge, I think the seperation was fine. Now
>that drawing one line wrong can change a design so radically, I think
>engineers should drive the boxes.

Um, yes, I bet that would be a different situation indeed with MDT, etc
available. We're too small (and the boss is too cheap?) for that. That
other company I mentioned working with was just using plain AutoCAD. I
should've mentioned two of our structural engineers would use STAAD and
output stuff to DXF for us.

>We still have a split, but the only engineers that don't draft are the
>old school guys (and gal.) Everyone we've hired since I started has been
>VERY active in getting up to speed and preparing their own plans.

Wow, an "old school gal". I didn't think they existed. Ask her where she
was when I was looking for mentors and had nothing but the coddgy "old
school guys" around.

I do remember meeting my first "real" engineer back in the '80s. The
company I worked for had hired him even before he graduated and I kept
hearing how he was supposed to be so good. Then I found out he couldn't
even sketch, much less draft. (The other drafter and I were still on boards
and would later get our first CAD system.) I think that's when I decided
not to go the engineering route in college. What's the point if you can't
draw, right?

Enjoy,
Stef
--
mailto: yodersj@ipass.net || Drafter, Leather-worker
http://www.ipass.net/~yodersj/ || Dos, Win, LT
in progress http://computerhowto.homestead.com/
RFC 1855, section 3.1.1, item 10 at http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/
Message 17 of 40
Anonymous
in reply to: kartz

James,

I have to agree with you for the most part. Wish I could get the principals
of this firm onboard with that line of thinking. As an architect and CAD
Manager, I couldn't imagine doing design work without the benefit of
AutoCAD. To me it's much more than a "drafting" program but is a design tool
as well. I know much time could eventually be saved in the design of a
connection, detail, building, whatever if an engineer had at their immediate
disposal a tool that would show them EXACTLY what they have in mind and let
them know if there's something that needs revising in their thinking. How
many times have you had to go back to an engineer and say "This detail won't
work- you've got some dimensional problems that won't allow it to work."?
Now, a good engineer will crank out some numbers and toss out some trig to
make sure their beam slope hits where they expect it to, but I can do it
more faster with AutoCAD and adjust things on the fly if need be. They can't
do that as fast with paper and pencil- at least not with as much immediate
accuracy.

I've been trying to get the company to let me do some CAD training here for
our engineers (we have about 20 of them) but they see it as a loss of
productivity in engineering time. Ever see an otherwise capable engineer
draw with AutoCAD the first time? It's like watching someone pulling teeth.
A handful of that twenty would make excellent CAD operators and it would
boost their productivity in engineering as well. But, being much lower on
the food chain here, I don't make the rules- nor the really really really
big paychecks.

Now, having said all of that I'll tell you what I think. Some engineers
should use CAD, some shouldn't. BUT, some drafters should use CAD, some
shouldn't! (They don't last here too long!) It's not so much as part of the
job description, but more of an aptitude discription.

Cheers,

Robert Grandmasion

"James Wedding, E.I.T." wrote in message
news:B2AF5055DCFE16F5DE9AE76F1A701933@in.WebX.SaUCah8kaAW...
> With the advent of true design tools, i.e. MDT, ADT, LDD, it is cheaper to
> teach an engineer to draft than it is to teach a draftsman to engineer.
When
> CAD was just drawing lines without calculations to back them that required
> true knowledge, I think the seperation was fine. Now that drawing one line
> wrong can change a design so radically, I think engineers should drive the
> boxes.
>
> We still have a split, but the only engineers that don't draft are the old
> school guys (and gal.) Everyone we've hired since I started has been VERY
> active in getting up to speed and preparing their own plans.
>
> Just my $0.02.
>
> --
> James Wedding, E.I.T.
> IT Manager
> Jones & Boyd, Inc.
> Dallas, Texas
> jwedding@NOSPAMjones-boyd.com
> Remove NOSPAM from e-mail for reply.
>
Message 18 of 40
Anonymous
in reply to: kartz

Kim,

 

In our small six person office, 3 partners, 2 drafters & 1 admin I am
the only architect that designs & documents with CAD. I have one partner
that won't ever convert & a senior partner that is highly interested (so the
jury's out on him). The drafters are strickly redline types who don't understand
building & design enough to work unsupervised.

 

We use Architectural Desktop 3 & utilize the 3d model concept when it
makes sense. This stuff works really well but requires some serious skill.

 

I'm not sure there's a clear cut answer to your question. Some
professionals have an apptitude for CAD while others are better off doing pencil
sketches, making redlines, marketing, doing CA, etc.. Some have the ability to
evolve.

 

Dennis McNeal

Architectural Resources

 


style="BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px">
kartz wrote in message
...
Sorry, I hit Enter too soon. My question
is to all CAD Managers (official or not). Do the engineers/architects in your
office turn out their own sets of plans? Or do you have draftsman or CAD
operators who do the plans. Is it too much to expect an engineer/architect to
know all the ins and outs of AutoCAD, Civil Design, Survey, ADT, etc.? If your
engineers/architects do their own drafting, how is it? Are they plans that you
can be proud of or are they slopped together things that you hope you never
have to revise? Please let me know your thoughts/experiences.
Kim Artz

Washington County Engineering
Message 19 of 40
Anonymous
in reply to: kartz



I see a major move coming in the industry, actually...not for more engineers
to design in CAD, but for more CAD drafters to do design.  My office
is making a major effort to train the drafters in design principles (e.g.,
every room needs a light switch and it goes on the RHS of the door...)

This seems much more natural to me, and allows the engineers to make
the important design decisions w/o having to spend lots of time redlining.

-Eva

Dennis McNeal wrote:

 Kim, In our small six person office, 3
partners, 2 drafters & 1 admin I am the only architect that designs
& documents with CAD. I have one partner that won't ever convert &
a senior partner that is highly interested (so the jury's out on him).
The drafters are strickly redline types who don't understand building &
design enough to work unsupervised. We use Architectural Desktop 3
& utilize the 3d model concept when it makes sense. This stuff works
really well but requires some serious skill. I'm not sure there's
a clear cut answer to your question. Some professionals have an apptitude
for CAD while others are better off doing pencil sketches, making redlines,
marketing, doing CA, etc.. Some have the ability to evolve. Dennis
McNealArchitectural Resources 

style="BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px">kartz wrote
in message ...Sorry, I hit Enter too soon.
My question is to all CAD Managers (official or not). Do the engineers/architects
in your office turn out their own sets of plans? Or do you have draftsman
or CAD operators who do the plans. Is it too much to expect an engineer/architect
to know all the ins and outs of AutoCAD, Civil Design, Survey, ADT, etc.?
If your engineers/architects do their own drafting, how is it? Are they
plans that you can be proud of or are they slopped together things that
you hope you never have to revise? Please let me know your thoughts/experiences.

Kim Artz

Washington County Engineering


Message 20 of 40
Anonymous
in reply to: kartz

I am working in an AEC office and I am trying to
get the point across to the engineers that I/we/drafters do not tell them how or
what to do their work with, so they do not need to tell me how or what to do our
work with. It is simple, CAD drafters are specialist in what they do. Therefore
engineers should not really get into doing cad work, they have too much else to
do and when they do, the drafters normaly have to go back behind them and clean
it up and there is no standard followed. All in all, if an engineer insists on
doing cad work, the project will be slowed down and deadlines may not be
met.

 

just my thoughts

Joel Luedke


style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
I
see a major move coming in the industry, actually...not for more engineers to
design in CAD, but for more CAD drafters to do design.  My office is
making a major effort to train the drafters in design principles (e.g., every
room needs a light switch and it goes on the RHS of the door...)

This seems much more natural to me, and allows the engineers to make the
important design decisions w/o having to spend lots of time redlining.

-Eva

Dennis McNeal wrote:

 Kim, In our small six person office, 3
partners, 2 drafters & 1 admin I am the only architect that designs
& documents with CAD. I have one partner that won't ever convert & a
senior partner that is highly interested (so the jury's out on him). The
drafters are strickly redline types who don't understand building &
design enough to work unsupervised. We use Architectural Desktop 3
& utilize the 3d model concept when it makes sense. This stuff works
really well but requires some serious skill. I'm not sure there's a
clear cut answer to your question. Some professionals have an apptitude for
CAD while others are better off doing pencil sketches, making redlines,
marketing, doing CA, etc.. Some have the ability to evolve. Dennis
McNealArchitectural Resources 

style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid">kartz wrote
in message ...Sorry, I hit Enter too
soon. My question is to all CAD Managers (official or not). Do the
engineers/architects in your office turn out their own sets of plans? Or
do you have draftsman or CAD operators who do the plans. Is it too much to
expect an engineer/architect to know all the ins and outs of AutoCAD,
Civil Design, Survey, ADT, etc.? If your engineers/architects do their own
drafting, how is it? Are they plans that you can be proud of or are they
slopped together things that you hope you never have to revise? Please let
me know your thoughts/experiences.
Kim Artz
Washington County
Engineering

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