What would the world be like if CAD operators these days had to be capable of using the drafting board?!?)
I only speak for myself, but I know there would be a pile of ugly, smudged, incoherent drawings with dozens of revisions at some company that I formally worked at, and I would be "head french-fry cook" at the taco bell. I was horrible at board drafting.
For one, you would have trained people who know what they were doing. I would make a horrible board drafter too, but at least I know what I am trying to accomplish rather than let a program do it for me. CAD is just a different kind of pencil.
Often times in looking at the "we used to do it this way" issues, we need to stop and ask why we did it that way, and then consider updating the company standard, to based on the tools and processes of the current time.
Some examples:
Why ALL CAPS in board drafting and AutoCAD? Here, I will admit, I am just a traditionalist. No reason to fix what isn't broken and it keeps consistency.
In board drafting it allowed different people to letter the same drawing, and have it look consistent. And then that got carried into AutoCAD, even though the computer and program allowed different people to letter consistently. Most people can read sentence case better than ALL CAPS though. So in Inventor does that rule still need to be followed? Some say yes, some say no.
Why "Never double dimension anything!" in Inventor? I am not opposed to double dimensioning except for the fact that our drawings generally have lots of features and are cluttered enough as it is without adding more dimensions. Machinists like simple and easy to read drawings.
In board drafting and AutoCAD dimensions didn't update in View one, if we made a change in View two, so the rule was do not dimension in both, or you risk that it might get changed in one place and not the other. In Inventor does that rule still need to be followed? Some say yes, some say no.
Generally speaking, on these types of questions, I don't have a strong opinion, so long as there is a commitment within the company (and / or industry) to do it consistently.
I guess in some ways I feel like Inventor is trying to tell me how to do my job and I don't appreciate the lack of flexibility some times.
