Most colleges and universities don’t teach drafting anymore, concentrating their efforts instead on CAD, which is widely used in the industry. While CAD training is extremely important for a Computer Aided Drafter, what about the art of drafting itself? What’s the difference, you say? Think of it this way: if CAD can teach how to put together drawings, plans, and models, then the art of drafting can teach you how to organize all the visual elements to make them clear, intelligible and easy to understand. In other words, a well-drafted drawing is clean and intuitive, while a poorly designed drawing is cluttered and difficult to read. By following specific rules as to how to organize information, a CAD drafter can produce clearer drawings and plans, improving legibility and reducing the chance of miscommunications with other professionals.
Skills that drafting can teach you
CAD professionals can learn a lot from the art of the drafting. Some of the skills they can acquire include:
- A more thorough and systematic approach
- How to choose the perfect drawing scale
- Fully understanding fit, form and function
- A better sense of balance and proportion
- How to select proper section views with appropriate hatching
It’s important to remember that CAD, in itself, is only a drafting tool, just like a pen and a piece of paper can be drafting tools. Without good organization and solid principles, your CAD drawings will be more difficult to understand and therefore may lead to errors. Good drafting takes the same amount of time as bad drafting. If anything, being systematic may help save you time in the long run. All you need to do is learn the principles of the art of drafting and then apply yourself. Over time, these techniques will become second nature to you and you may even be able to teach them to others.
Going back
If you still aren’t convinced about the value of learning the art of drafting, try looking at old schematics and plans. You can find some at a library, or even at your CAD school. You’ll notice that they are drawn in an artful way that is much more expressive than CAD. Now, just think about having to draw something like this, then being asked to re-do the work whenever a change comes up! Still, even though this system is definitely less efficient than using CAD, you’ll notice that it puts a stress on the drafter to make the drawing absolutely perfect. And that’s where there are important lessons that a professional drafter can learn from the art of drafting, in the sheer perfection of these drawings, from dimensions to scale to annotations. You can find tremendous inspiration in these, and with some effort on your end, you’ll be able to produce CAD drawings just as efficiently.
