Eden Road in Marrakesh world
In the past, Engineers and Architects relied heavily on the skills and expertise that we as Draftsman provide. When everything was being drawn on the "boards", Draftsman were called upon to produce clear easy to follow plans that the contractor could build from. There is an art to producing these type of drawings, regardless of whether or not they were drawn by hand or using a CAD program. Understanding the use of line weights, layout, text placement, scale, etc. all play a crucial role in a finished product that is informative and easy to look at. This is our job and it takes a certain vision to produce this quality of work.I'm not taking anything away from Engineers and Architects, they have the more important job, at least in my opinion. They are accepting the risk for calculations and designs that will literally impact peoples' lives. One simple mistake could result in a catastrophic failure. This is were we as Draftsmen come in, and why our position is important as well. We take the design ideas and put them on paper to determine if the theory can be turned into reality. I see it as kind of a sounding board of sorts. We can find conflicts and issues that weren't thought of during initial design, and work with the A/E's to resolve the problems. Our job as Draftsmen is to call out the A/E's for design flaws and issues that may impact the overall project. We are a critical cog in the overall machine of our industry. Without our input, issues that used to be caught during the drawing process slip through the cracks only to be discovered during construction costing the client more money, time, and problems with change orders and revisions. I am seeing this problem first hand as the A/E - Draftsman line is blurring. Colleges don't teach the concepts of drawing layout, line weights, scales, etc. They plop people down in front of their computers and show them how to draw lines. Pretty little pictures and pretty little colors on the computer screen, no direction as to why one line is thicker than another, and why this line is dashed and that one is not, why one drawing is 1/8"= 1'-0" and another is 1"=20'. This creates a disconnect on how to produce quality finished plans. Young people come out of college thinking they have the skills necessary to do this, but the truth is they don't. Companies have the A/E's run with the plans from concept to finished plans, opening the door to mistakes and conflicts that someone "building" the finished model could have caught during the layout process.The gradual change from basic drawing to BIM (Building Information Modeling) has made a significant shift is this as well. Producing plans is easier than ever before with real-time modeling, section cuts, elevations, etc. That being said, you still have to have the skills to produce a good set of drawings. I fear that I am part of a dying breed in our industry. I enjoy producing high quality plans that are both easy to read and understand. Making the decision of when to create an enlarged detail and when it's not necessary. This skill is imperative to doing this job, however we as an industry continue to produce plans that are difficult to follow, understand, read, etc. I chalk this up to A/E's doing the job that once was the responsibility of the Draftsman, people that know how to do their job, but not necessarily mine. Companies need to take stock in what they are producing these days. With society being connected 24/7 and the instantaneous transfer of information, clients in today's world expect the impossible. Phasing out a crucial part of the team will only hurt the end result.
I'm sure that we're not all gone yet, but I'm afraid that the position of Draftsman will cease to exist in the next 10 years, and that's a sad thought.
Eden Road in Marrakesh world
In the past, Engineers and Architects relied heavily on the skills and expertise that we as Draftsman provide. When everything was being drawn on the "boards", Draftsman were called upon to produce clear easy to follow plans that the contractor could build from. There is an art to producing these type of drawings, regardless of whether or not they were drawn by hand or using a CAD program. Understanding the use of line weights, layout, text placement, scale, etc. all play a crucial role in a finished product that is informative and easy to look at. This is our job and it takes a certain vision to produce this quality of work.I'm not taking anything away from Engineers and Architects, they have the more important job, at least in my opinion. They are accepting the risk for calculations and designs that will literally impact peoples' lives. One simple mistake could result in a catastrophic failure. This is were we as Draftsmen come in, and why our position is important as well. We take the design ideas and put them on paper to determine if the theory can be turned into reality. I see it as kind of a sounding board of sorts. We can find conflicts and issues that weren't thought of during initial design, and work with the A/E's to resolve the problems. Our job as Draftsmen is to call out the A/E's for design flaws and issues that may impact the overall project. We are a critical cog in the overall machine of our industry. Without our input, issues that used to be caught during the drawing process slip through the cracks only to be discovered during construction costing the client more money, time, and problems with change orders and revisions. I am seeing this problem first hand as the A/E - Draftsman line is blurring. Colleges don't teach the concepts of drawing layout, line weights, scales, etc. They plop people down in front of their computers and show them how to draw lines. Pretty little pictures and pretty little colors on the computer screen, no direction as to why one line is thicker than another, and why this line is dashed and that one is not, why one drawing is 1/8"= 1'-0" and another is 1"=20'. This creates a disconnect on how to produce quality finished plans. Young people come out of college thinking they have the skills necessary to do this, but the truth is they don't. Companies have the A/E's run with the plans from concept to finished plans, opening the door to mistakes and conflicts that someone "building" the finished model could have caught during the layout process.The gradual change from basic drawing to BIM (Building Information Modeling) has made a significant shift is this as well. Producing plans is easier than ever before with real-time modeling, section cuts, elevations, etc. That being said, you still have to have the skills to produce a good set of drawings. I fear that I am part of a dying breed in our industry. I enjoy producing high quality plans that are both easy to read and understand. Making the decision of when to create an enlarged detail and when it's not necessary. This skill is imperative to doing this job, however we as an industry continue to produce plans that are difficult to follow, understand, read, etc. I chalk this up to A/E's doing the job that once was the responsibility of the Draftsman, people that know how to do their job, but not necessarily mine. Companies need to take stock in what they are producing these days. With society being connected 24/7 and the instantaneous transfer of information, clients in today's world expect the impossible. Phasing out a crucial part of the team will only hurt the end result.
I'm sure that we're not all gone yet, but I'm afraid that the position of Draftsman will cease to exist in the next 10 years, and that's a sad thought.