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[Brad Weber]

Mac Kerr wrote on Thu, 28 August 2008 23:18

Yes, Leroy lettering, and actual T squares. Somewhere I still have all my plastic templates of lighting design symbols, and a 24" architect's scale rule. As an engineering student in the late 60s and early 70s I took college level courses in drafting. Maybe that's why I am still more comfortable with plan-section-elevation than 3D drawing.

Now I'm getting bad memories!  Sitting at a big old drafting table in the original Michael Golden Labs drawing three view perspectives; top, front and side views with a perspective in the upper right quadrant drawn to a random vanishing point.  Still have my T-square, 45 and 30/60/90 triangles, french curve, circle template, Staedtler-Mars compass and eraser shield and brush and occasionally use them.

[Kevin Rusch]

Still have all mu mechanical drafting stuff set up, believe it or not i still use it,  on very rare Occasions.  Primarily to teach my son who is starting to show an interest.  It is allot easier to teach scale to a 10 yo on paper that to explain you are drawing a 1500 seat church on a 24" screen in actual size, hey its how my dad taught me.  It is a great unit to have to hold down drawings and get the curve out of the page

Also have a circa 1910  Ivory inlays on ebony wood (Grand Father;s Then  Ed Rusch's now mine) slide rule that i am making my daughter learn before she gets this new graphing calculator she wants for school.  Hey its a really cool calculator but does nothing to show how numbers relate.  As i am sure many of you can relate.  it was followed by pity for Me, Much like the same laughing that followed a purchase of all the old Atari 2600 games released last sumer  so my wife and i could play and remember the time of metal ice tray, TV's with knobs and the worlds greatest remount controls ()  the one in our house was voice activated it would give comments like "Kevin go put the Tv on channel 8",, You do not even want to know her reaction to seeing my Comodore64 1200-baud modem with a breadboarded interface to a 1gb hard drive.

Ok i have had y pity party O god we Are getting old

Well i have to go and take me Lipitor, Bennicar,  Paxil,Xanax, and Lunesta

[Brad Weber]

Now that I'm done waxing nostalgic...

I also wanted to note that it depends a lot on the user.  In my personal use I barely scratch the surface of what a program like AutoCAD or VectorWorks can do.  However, I once worked with someone who could really make use of some of the power AutoCAD has to offer with custom scripts and attributes and so on.  It required a very creative person who really knew AutoCAD and some significant effort, but it made it much more valuable as a tool to efficiently perform the work, allowing some of the more automated functionality of StarDraw, d-tools, VidCAD and other similar programs but tweaked specifically to our needs.  

[Mac Kerr]

Kevin Rusch wrote on Fri, 29 August 2008 01:45

Also have a circa 1910  Ivory inlays on ebony wood (Grand Father;s Then  Ed Rusch's now mine) slide rule that i am making my daughter learn before she gets this new graphing calculator she wants for school.  Hey its a really cool calculator but does nothing to show how numbers relate.  As i am sure many of you can relate.

The first class I took at Clarkson was how to use a slide rule. We could buy either a Post Versalog or a K&E Decilon, bamboo or plastic, your choice. I got the plastic K&E because it had a nicer leather case. Still have it. I'm only up to 2 of those medications though.  

Mac

[John Roberts {JR}]

One of my early coop jobs was as a draftsman using pencil and paper... I don't miss those days.

Probably the most powerful thing about modern computer aided design is the literal accuracy of the drawings and portability of scale accurate representations between cad systems.

Fitting circuit boards from hand taped artwork into chassis fabricated from hand drawings was often a trial and error experience.

These days I can confidently design components in multiple different cad systems and know the parts will fit together.

This improved productivity is rarely acknowledged but one of several ways computers improve our life.

JR

[Ivan Beaver]

Part of learning your way around a program depends on how much you actually use it.

In most of my work I just barely scratch the surface of most of the programs I use.  This is because  of the wide variety of stuff that I do, I do not spend much time in any one area.

I suspect this applies to most contractors-designers-consultants and so forth also.

If I was doing the same stuff everyday, I am sure I would "dig deeper" into a program.

Many offer all sorts of "features" and tricks, that can be handy-if you have the time to learn/find them    And remember "where" they were .

[Silas Pradetto]

AutoCAD, with its myriad specialized sections, can do just about everything. There's the architectural for doing rooms, the electrical for doing schematics, the mechanical for doing...mechanical things like speaker prints, and the base AutoCAD for everything else.

But be prepared to spend lots of $.