Design & Drafting techniques

Another week: sddrawings.com In Keeping with drafting techniques for the beginner. Again, another post about keeping to the basics, keeping it simple, and keeping it accurate. I hope that even these ideas can be used in what ever job you may go into; whether it is design, pet sitting, auto mechanics, climbing telephone poles, etc…

Every Engineering firm & Architectural office has their own way of producing CAD drawings.  Just like every artisan has their own way of painting, every mechanic has their own way of fixing a problem and every telephone lineman has their own way of placing strand and cable.  The old saying goes at 'Ma Bell', you send 6 linemen out to do a job, you'll have 6 different ways for it to get done.  Whom ever you work for will have their own set of rules and ways of drawing.  A big secret I've used for years was to ask an Architect or Engineer for a copy of their work to reference.  Even a paper copy will give away secrets to their drawing style, though paper copies will not show advanced CAD information such as 'layers'.  Having a paper copy of a similar project as a reference handy, will help you on matching the office standards.

 Some Designers tend to have a lax approach to their drafting techniques.  They opt to simply get their point across, making the design being built their main focus, while they see CAD drawings are simply the means to make that happen.  Where they are lax in drawing techniques, they usually have a more hands on approach to the final outcome of the project.  The Contractor will usually find this designer in the field more often.  This designer is also more apt to make calls to check on projects and verify everything is going the way it should.  As a draftsman working for this style of Designer, you will probably be called upon to make field visits and document the progress or verify dimensions.

 Other designers are very meticulous about their drawings.  They will have every element fit on a page precisely.  This can provide for very quick drafting and allow for modifications easily.  Usually these designers are very detailed orientated and have greater success through release of their drawings to be built correctly, with little or no further input from the Designer.  Even during construction, a builder will have fewer questions regarding this Designer's intent (which I will address in the future).

 I personally like to use a mix of these two drafting techniques.  My goal is to find a happy medium between art and giving instructions on how something should be built or compiled.  One aspect of any design work, is the use of 're-usable' content.  This spans across all industry.  It is rare to find a car where every bolt is a different size and thread count.  The same goes for any of my designs, whether that is drawing a house or designing a web site. 

if we look at a few of my latest web site designs:

sddrawings.com   hikealabama.org   habitat2012.org (Just to name a few) 

You'll see a common element in all three of these.  That element is the menu bar (as of Sept 2012), is essentially the same across all 3 sites.  I did this to simply save time.  Not that I can not go back and change it later, but an initial place holder with a product I know was designed correctly the first time saved me days of fiddling with html & css code.  Just like one of my past posts about getting things drawn right the first time see http://sddrawing.blogspot.com/2012/09/its-all-in-dimensions_9.html, once you get a detail or drawing element correct, it's easy to reuse it across many drawings, or in this case a web page.

The bonus of this 're-use' of an element or detail, is that my finished product is completed much quicker as there is less drafting & design work to do.  The entire point being; learn what works for your office, learn how to reference other work to mimic or match what has been done in the past & be accurate with your work as it will make it much easier in the future to reuse your own work.

Feel free to email or post your own thoughts. sddrawings.com