Cleaning out my old desk and found a blueprint from 1998.

It was for a simple residential job, and the title block said 'drawn by hand, checked by hand'. I looked it up and a drafting textbook from that year said a full set of house plans took about 80 hours manually. Now the same thing takes maybe 15 in CAD. I still have my old lead holder in the drawer. Does anyone else keep any of their old manual tools around, or is it all digital now?

2 comments

2 Comments

caleb_thomas858d ago

Ever think about how the physical work of drafting might have changed the actual designs? Like, if you know erasing a whole wall line is a huge pain, maybe you think harder before you draw it. Now with CAD you can just undo anything in a second. I wonder if that made old plans more careful or just more of a headache.

lindaowens8d ago

Oh wow, that's a real piece of history! I keep my old parallel bar and a few lead holders too, just for the nostalgia. It's amazing how much the tools have changed.