Hot take: Hand drafting taught me things CAD never could

I was digging through old files last weekend and found a set of plans I drew on vellum back in 2003 for a small retail buildout in Wichita. Everything was done with a 0.5mm lead holder, an ames lettering guide, and a whole lot of patience. Comparing that to what I can whip up in Revit in 2 hours today is pretty wild. But honestly, I think I learned spatial reasoning better when I had to physically draw every line and figure out what it meant before putting pencil to paper. These newer drafters I work with can click their way through a model but sometimes can't tell me why a certain wall type makes sense on a foundation. Has anyone else felt like starting on the board gave you a deeper understanding of construction than just jumping into software?

2 comments

2 Comments

theaw655d ago

Better spatial reasoning" is a stretch. You just had to be more careful because erasing ink is a pain.

the_nancy5d ago

Oh man, I totally get where you're coming from but I had the exact opposite experience lol. When I switched from pencil to pen in math class I actually got way more careful with my steps because I couldn't just erase and guess. I started visualizing the whole problem before writing anything down and that forced me to think about the spatial layout first. Like I'd mentally map out where the numbers and shapes needed to go so I wouldn't mess up. It definitely improved my spatial reasoning over time because I had to plan ahead instead of just scribbling and fixing it later. So for me the "no erasing" thing actually trained my brain to be more careful from the start if that makes sense.