Im an intern and have only done hand drawing my first year of school. Even then I messed around with cad a little bit.
For the people (hesitant to say ppl) who have been around for the transition from hand drafting to CAD ...Im curious to know if the profession has changed at all interms of pressure on you to produce?!? ..i mean i have had 2 jobs working for architects where they just want everything done as quick and as accurate as possible. I dont blame the architects at all considering im sure there dealing with a shit load of pressure from the clients ...Im kind of assuming its always been like this.. but i feel i had to ask
it has definitely changed the profession. people think cad makes it so architects can draw faster and get the project done faster but i have been having this conversation for years with professionals ranging from 30 to 55 years old and they all agree that in the end it is about the same. that means more pressure.
in big projects where you can easily duplicate work with cad, e.g. towers, cad is a great tool. if you are doing a house you might as well draw by hand.
oops, wasnt done with that post...here is the rest of it:
the real time waster in cad is the troubleshooting. i think as an intern cad sucks because it is a black hole that does not help you draw. you have to know how to draw and a computer does not teach you that.
you teach you that. in cad you can zoom in all day and nobody cares. in the end you have to produce drawings, and to argue all day about 1/64" off is relavent only that that specific project.
remember that autocad was developed for engineers and architects picked it up and autodesk ran with it. cad or specifically autocad is a tool.
This is the funny thing about CAD, BIM, and whatever crazy Augmented Reality shit is coming after that: it's only a short term benefit in time and cost savings, and in the long term, the effect is reversed, washing out anybody who can't continuously keep up with the new software, the new training, and the new badass computers that are the only ones able to run this stuff.
Once everybody in your area, niche, or field is on BIM or CAD, too, there's no cost savings at all, because you're all bidding out with same factors in mind.
If everyone has the advantage, it's not an advantage, it's actually a potential disadvantage as you're tied into these unstoppable product cycles. Which is the whole IT business model in the first place ...
The problem with cad is that it removes alot of the artistic aspect of drafting out of the equation and replaces it with technical skills. Interns who want to be architects who want to be artists or at least think of themselves as artsy are driven nuts by this technical attention to detail that is now required of them. I love the potential of CAD/CAM, but hate the technical aspects of it. That is why I will always pay someone to do the tedious detailing and I can spend my time on activities that are much more interesting to me. If you are a frustrated CAD monkey or stuck in an unstoppable product cycle, it is your own fault.
Aug 3, 07 2:39 pm ·
·
The learning of computer drafting (2-dimensional and 3-dimensional) and the subsequent obsolescence of my drafting skills is what led me to start working on art. I was most inspired by the way I saw CAD changing the meaning of manual dexterity, and began to investigate the meaning of modern dexterity in art.
--excerpt from a 1989 resume
Cris you are wrong and from the sounds of it very frustrated.
I do care how buildings get put together. I just don't care to actually do the drafting. That's why I will spend my time designing, networking, managing the construction of the building. I'm not even sure 2D documents are the best way to communicate a design to a contractor, but that is another discussion.
I will hire competent firm XYZ, who employs all the frustrated architects out there and continually gets awards for working on great projects as the "Architect of Record". Then when I don't like the design of a detail I have the authority to make it whatever I want.
Construction Documents have become very technical and complex. They weren't always like that, part of that other discussion I was talking about. For all the Howard Roark wannabes out there, the frustration comes from nostalgia, Beaux Arts Drawings on the wall and denial of the truth. The truth being that there is a huge discrepancy between the career we learn in school and the career we enter into professionally with many of us being very disenfranchised when entering the workforce. Forgive the generalities. There are alternatives to 300 page construction documents. Have you taken the time to think about what they might be?
Parallel rule + Triangle = tartan grid
Why are you using a computer to do the same thing you can do with a parallel rule and a triangle?
Why aren't Architects designing their own software instead of taking that from other industries? (Ok I know there are a few out there.)
Speaking of CAD
speaking of CAD killing our profession
Im an intern and have only done hand drawing my first year of school. Even then I messed around with cad a little bit.
For the people (hesitant to say ppl) who have been around for the transition from hand drafting to CAD ...Im curious to know if the profession has changed at all interms of pressure on you to produce?!? ..i mean i have had 2 jobs working for architects where they just want everything done as quick and as accurate as possible. I dont blame the architects at all considering im sure there dealing with a shit load of pressure from the clients ...Im kind of assuming its always been like this.. but i feel i had to ask
asses and elbows.
legs and trays
we be production
zub-zub
from my first job out of school: "don't think! draw!"
the beatings will continue until the morale improves....
all those who enter must surrender the booty
it has definitely changed the profession. people think cad makes it so architects can draw faster and get the project done faster but i have been having this conversation for years with professionals ranging from 30 to 55 years old and they all agree that in the end it is about the same. that means more pressure.
in big projects where you can easily duplicate work with cad, e.g. towers, cad is a great tool. if you are doing a house you might as well draw by hand.
oops, wasnt done with that post...here is the rest of it:
the real time waster in cad is the troubleshooting. i think as an intern cad sucks because it is a black hole that does not help you draw. you have to know how to draw and a computer does not teach you that.
you teach you that. in cad you can zoom in all day and nobody cares. in the end you have to produce drawings, and to argue all day about 1/64" off is relavent only that that specific project.
remember that autocad was developed for engineers and architects picked it up and autodesk ran with it. cad or specifically autocad is a tool.
This is the funny thing about CAD, BIM, and whatever crazy Augmented Reality shit is coming after that: it's only a short term benefit in time and cost savings, and in the long term, the effect is reversed, washing out anybody who can't continuously keep up with the new software, the new training, and the new badass computers that are the only ones able to run this stuff.
Once everybody in your area, niche, or field is on BIM or CAD, too, there's no cost savings at all, because you're all bidding out with same factors in mind.
If everyone has the advantage, it's not an advantage, it's actually a potential disadvantage as you're tied into these unstoppable product cycles. Which is the whole IT business model in the first place ...
The problem with cad is that it removes alot of the artistic aspect of drafting out of the equation and replaces it with technical skills. Interns who want to be architects who want to be artists or at least think of themselves as artsy are driven nuts by this technical attention to detail that is now required of them. I love the potential of CAD/CAM, but hate the technical aspects of it. That is why I will always pay someone to do the tedious detailing and I can spend my time on activities that are much more interesting to me. If you are a frustrated CAD monkey or stuck in an unstoppable product cycle, it is your own fault.
The learning of computer drafting (2-dimensional and 3-dimensional) and the subsequent obsolescence of my drafting skills is what led me to start working on art. I was most inspired by the way I saw CAD changing the meaning of manual dexterity, and began to investigate the meaning of modern dexterity in art.
--excerpt from a 1989 resume
ha ha ha, are you being sarcastic wurdan freo?
so, you're basically saying that you really don't care how buildings get put together, because someone else will figure it out?
cad removes the "artistic aspect" of drafting?
aren't construction documents "technical" in and of themselves?
Cris you are wrong and from the sounds of it very frustrated.
I do care how buildings get put together. I just don't care to actually do the drafting. That's why I will spend my time designing, networking, managing the construction of the building. I'm not even sure 2D documents are the best way to communicate a design to a contractor, but that is another discussion.
I will hire competent firm XYZ, who employs all the frustrated architects out there and continually gets awards for working on great projects as the "Architect of Record". Then when I don't like the design of a detail I have the authority to make it whatever I want.
Construction Documents have become very technical and complex. They weren't always like that, part of that other discussion I was talking about. For all the Howard Roark wannabes out there, the frustration comes from nostalgia, Beaux Arts Drawings on the wall and denial of the truth. The truth being that there is a huge discrepancy between the career we learn in school and the career we enter into professionally with many of us being very disenfranchised when entering the workforce. Forgive the generalities. There are alternatives to 300 page construction documents. Have you taken the time to think about what they might be?
Parallel rule + Triangle = tartan grid
Why are you using a computer to do the same thing you can do with a parallel rule and a triangle?
Why aren't Architects designing their own software instead of taking that from other industries? (Ok I know there are a few out there.)
ha ha, frustrated? no. =)
and thanks for letting me know that i'm wrong. you must be right.
but anyway, aren't construction documents technical and complex for a reason?
and i'd be interested in hearing what your alternatives to construction documents might be.
I dont think a CAD drawing is nearly as artistic as a hand drawing. i havent seen many CAD plots hanging in museums/homes.
Not true,
My children use their crayons on them and they hang in our basement!
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