Unfortunately, I think that drawing these days is only equated with sketching, especially in regards to the design process.Now that hardline drawing does not have to be introduced as part of the professional skills needed to work in an office, I think there is a great opportunity to reclaim the hardline as an essential part of design exploration.

There still seems to be a digital vs analog "culture war" going on in some univeristies, where a few older faculty think the old way is being lost and the computer is a machine that causes students to want to make slick animations of their blobs (this is a gross overgeneralization, but it does exist). This creates a situation where the "keepers" of drawing skills are regarded (sometimes accurately) as being out of touch.

Every time I read Marco Frascari (Tell-the-tale Detail, etc), it reiterates my belief that, as a method of seeing, hardline drawing is an enormously powerful tool that can/should supplement models and digital work.

I do CAD 99% of the time. I am also hand drafting a set of construction documentts right now. This project came back from the dead and it was decided to continue the course. Hand drafting has its annoyances, but I have an understanding of scale and proportion that people that cannot or have not hand drafted do not. My working on this project has made me re-realize it. Should we use a computer? Absolutely, but i agree that students should learn sketching and hand drafting, especially in the first two years. If anything, it helps get your printing in line. And I have 3 erasing shields if anyone needs one.

Hand drafting reigns supreme at UF. Some people choose to go through our undergraduate program without ever using CAD (me, for example). I know I will have to learn CAD for entry level job purposes, but foundational design education does not require it (in my humble opinion).

adso - Frascari rocks.

i never, ever used a computer in college besides to type papers. I made fun of the kids who photoshoped stuff and printed it out again and hung it upside down to give the illusion of more work or the kids who did fancy fly-throughs of crappy space.
i excel at computers now (a real geek finally), do renderings and animations, and whip 2-d stuff out in cad pretty fast, and i can't hand draw anymore. Why? impatience is a big one, out of practice, but tendonitis is the main reason.

I have hand drafted simple professional CD's too - it takes forever, but is relaxing and much more thoughtful.

i have two erasing shields... i have no idea where they are. perhaps i should go find them.

Hand drawing skills are enormously valuable. The ability to look at something and not just record its appearance but also analyze it while drawing it is critical to an architect's education and way of reading the world. Keep those sketchbooks near to hand, everyone, because it is (as Strawbeary said) a skill that withers when not practiced.

That being said, I use CAD for all construction documentation. But! when I look at CAD drawing sets I can pretty easily tell who has an understanding of hand drafting and who just does mechanical drawings. The telltale quality? Line weights. An understanding of themeaning and use of different line weights is the most important aspect of making your drawing a clear communication tool. I have my hand drawing classes with Kirby Lockhard to thank for my graphic communication skills - tools like lineweight and dashed lines translate easily from hand to CAD.

At my school, Oklahoma State, we spend the first 3 years without the computer. Then switch to CAD in one semester. All of a sudden the drawings become more elementary and less personal. By 4th yearh you spend 90% of your time on the computer, with minimal time in either a sketch book or on the drafting table. However, the system at OSU heavily emphasizes the use of hand drafting and hand graphics. I believe they are a staple to any good designer. Hand graphics are the underlying fundamentals that allow the great computer designers to do their work.

With out the abilities that I have in hand drafting and hand graphics, I don't think I could do as well on a computer. But in all actuallity, while I like the stuff I do on the computer, I think I could do the same thing better if it were done by hand. Same board, same project just better by hand. Atleast it has "ME" and not "adobe" or "autodesk" ingrained in the linework.

For me, hand drafting will never go away. Especially in the form of sketching. in this last semester, I have nearly filled an entire sketchbook with only 2 projects. And for that I feel as though I have accomplished something. I think we underestimate the ability to think things out by hand, in either sketching or drafting. The ideas we can generate with a simple pencil outweigh the ideas we can generate through computer... meaning, someone that can sketch can be a more usefull tool in the workplace than someone that can only use the computer.

I hope that makes sense... Personaly, I think I would rather be hired on my abilities to make quick, loose, expressive sketches, rather than my ability to do awesome, highly detailed and well rendered computer drawings... but that's just me.

p.s. Keep kickin' ass!

its seems that hand drafting has become a luxury rather than a neccesity in professional practice today. its more convinient, practical, and efficient to work through a CAD system and when your on a deadline, thats all that really matters when trying to get CD's out. I think there is still merit to hand drafting when you take it in tandem with CAD work for presentation work. There is just something about the hand drafted aesthetic that can't be reproduced on the plotter and overlaying hand drafted work over computer generated stuff can produce some incredible results.

i thought drafting was a nascar thing?

My comment on drafting is that you really learn the purpose of the "line" it has a weight, a thickness,a start and a finish. When you prepare a set of construction drawings you understand what every line means and represents, and consequently have a true knowledge of the stuff that makes a building. Too often in my own practice I see the young staff with a ton lines that but really don't completely understand everything and although they do eventually learn it seems some what a flawed process, maybe its more about there lack of technical training????. I am still impressed when we do renovations on existing buildings and see old CDsets done by hand that are outstanding.

forget hand drafting... what about computer drafting? With powerful parametric software taking over, the industry is going to go through another change. Drafting didn't die with the computer, it just changed. It might die this time.

haha people who saw my portfolio actually thought my portfolio of hand drawn cd's were done on autocad.

drafted all my thesis stuff by hand..trhough it into photoshop, collaged, then illusstrator, attdetd lines, atnd intdesitng, added text....looked hot

my portfoliio out of school was all hand drawn with pencil and then photographed. people who saw it thought it was done on computer

I am old enough to remember the transition from a scaled universe to a 16 digit universe (close enough) - - - Good riddance!

the culture of hand drawing, sketching, gestual experimentation, thinking through drawing etc. is not really thought anymore... while there is not yet an equally rich and coherent digital design culture. in my recent teaching experience, i felt a bit of a vacuum... students that know a bit about both, but are not fluent or comfortable with neither. transition

ahh... to be as fluent with the computer as with pencil and paper... probably impossible. That's the idea behind shit like Architectural Studio though, I suppose

I still use my slide rule - usually to clip cocky interns who are surfing the web instead of working.

Old technology can be adapted.

My university works bridged the gap a decade ago by hand drafting the images to render and tweak in photoshop / coreldraw.

Good point sini - students that know a bit about both, but are not fluent or comfortable with neither - thats my experience.

"surfing the web instead of working"

how ironic

My second year every drafting table was removed from the studios, and computers became a required tuition expense for incoming students. All first year students arer learning CAD.

I went to OCAD and graduated in 2000. CAD skills were treated as secondary, and were to be learned on the side (the curriculum shunned technical or software instruction). All drafting was done by hand.

First year we weren't allowed to use computers at all. Now the current first years are required to use FormZ, but still aren't allowed to touch CAD. For my year, we started being allowed to use CAD 2nd year, but were never require, but now students are required to learn CAD in their 2nd year. I sort of liked it the way it's been for us, and think that there's something to the "we don't care how you've done it as long as it looks good" approach".

You guys are going to love this-

The office where I work just switched from 100% hand drafting to AutoCad about a a year and a half ago, because I insisted. When I was in school (early 90's) CAD was treated as an 'extra' so I've never been formally taught anything about it. Being the only CAD operator in the office, the thought of hiring a new person (with actual CAD training) and introducing them to my system could be interesting to say the least.

My favorite archi-drawing skill has to be the ability to sketch to scale upside down (so it is right side up to clients on the other side of the table.)

^wow

so when they switched to CAD, did they fire half the drafting staff?

sorry, 'they' is a he. He is he and I am they, losing half the staff would involve the they firing the he (which is generally called 'quitting'). So if you're still with me, I guess the answer is yes, half the 'staff' no longer drafts.

ah... no worries about downsizing then.

You could always work part-time though! And make the same pay of course...

I plan to master parametric modelling. Once this is acomplished, I will work a fraction of my day, and get the same amount of work accomplished. I will keep AutoCAD running so that I can pop it up when my boss is around, and just peruse Archinect for the better half of the day.

YEAH! I was thinking I should have worked more slowly when I started, since he has no idea how long things would actually take in AutoCAD. It'd be the life of leisure for me........