Post #2682770

2026-05-18 04:21 UTC

Engineering Graphics is a great read. My first year of college, we were required to do all drafting by hand (on vellum, the whole nine yards), and even having CAD on our computers would be considered cheating. Having to do that work by hand really develops one’s sense of 3-dimensional space and how to convey information effectively in a way that CAD doesn’t require since it sort of nust does that on one’s behalf. When I’m reviewing design drawings at work, it’s usually immediately obvious if the engineer who drew them ever drafted by hand (usually it’s an age thing, younger engineers started in CAD programs). That’s not necessarily a knock on the CAD natives, they just convey information differently (the effort it once took to develop certain views defined where and how things were drawn) and don’t have the same sense of economy (again, a lot less effort to add information in CAD compared to by hand) in their layouts.

Replies (1)

@kivihiili@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2026-05-18 04:48

our start was a bit more convoluted. we have been working with various CAD softwares over time, and often still do for CNC machines, notably 3d printers. but due to circumstances, we also basically have access to an entire (architectural) drafting classroom that sees no use! so so much cool stuff. nice drafting desks, hand implements ranging in age from very contemporary to being war reparations from germany—stuff that has “Made in Germany - U.S. Zone” printed on it—lots and lots of books, boxes of ames lettering guides, and this is just the stuff in the classroom itself! we didn’t want all this stuff to just sit abandoned, so we decided to learn to make use of some of it. there is so much cool technique, and given this opportunity we felt obligated to ensure it wouldn’t just be lost to time. again, it is an architectural teaching room, so we did have to procure our own engineering scales and such. still, hand drawings are so so so satisfying. there is truly nothing like sketching out an idea, putting some dimensions to it, laying it out on a nice, big sheet of paper, lettering out all those accompanying dimensions etc., and then bringing it into reality with the lathes and vertical mills and welders and other facets of the fabrication shop. near all the fab and design stuff we do is personal hobby, so we do stuff however we feel really. again we do use CAD not infrequently! but by hand is far more gratifying.

Open ##2682910