paul_ramirez•8h agoProlific Poster

Everyone raves about CAD over pencil but I swear my hand-drawn blueprints get fewer RFIs

Was on a site in Austin last week and the GC pointed out my hand-drawn detail saved them from a ductwork clash the CAD model missed. Anyone else find the old way sometimes beats the new tools on actual buildability?

2 comments

2 Comments

laura_black6h ago

And actually its not really CAD vs hand drafting thats the issue lmao. The problem is people treat CAD like its magic and stop thinking about how things go together. Had a job last year where the CAD model showed a perfect 6 inch clearance above a duct but nobody checked if the hanger rods could actually fit in that space. My hand sketch on site showed the issue in 2 minutes. The computer just gives you what you ask for, not what you need lol.

corah756h ago

Nothing makes me feel like a wizard quite like rolling up to a job site with a wrinkled napkin sketch and having the foreman say "now that actually makes sense." CAD is great for impressing clients with pretty 3D fly-throughs, but it won't tell you that your beautiful engineered beam clashes with the existing cast iron vent pipe that wasn't on any survey. The computer only knows what it's told, not what Aunt Martha's 1960s renovation left behind.