What would you say is better CAD drafting or hand drafting? Why?

Question

Please answer in detail. Also state which one you prefer more.
Thank you.

Please also state your experience with drafting.

Answer 1

I first began drafting by hand in shop class in 1948. I have continued to used drafting to aid in the design and construction of things since then. I got my first CAD program in 1993. I would never go back to doing any hand drafting.

With CAD you get consistent line width and clear lettering.

You have the capability to quickly erase portions of the drawing and redraw. You can also save one version of the drawing and make modifications to see if you can improve on the presentation of the information.

You can build (or have items from a library) that are reused without having to draw them every time.

You can add color.

You can have multi-levels that can be used as templates or to add or remove selected items or groups of information from the drawing.

You can transmit the drawing electronically or store a whole set of drawings on one CD for ease of transportation or storage.

The time to make a finished drawing is greatly reduced.

I'm sure that a professional designer that uses one of the very complex CAD systems can add much more reasons to use CAD.

Answer 2

CAD in its entirety is much easier then drafing by board, especially if you have a tendency for being not so good with freestyle sketching. one of the most importants things to consider is precision, and CAD is able to make accuracys to 1000's of an inch, and since your using your hands and eyes for board drafting their is an extreme room for error, which when dealing with engineering could lead to catastrophic mistakes on a job site. another thing that makes CAD so much easier is your ability to make 3 dimensional drawings. this allows you to view your drawing in a detailed viewing in 3d space, which comes in handy especially when doing architecture (houses, buildings, etc.). the worst thing about hand drafting is if your make a big enough mistake, you pretty much have to start all over again. with CAD however you have the ability to erase lines, or undo a recent command you have just done. Hand drafting also can be somewhat messy (one of the things I personally hate most about it) since if u make a small mistake your erase, which leads to eraser marks, as well as possible smears. CAD is all around much easier then hand drafting by a long shot, though some of the older drafters still swear by the board and pencil. But, in the working world boards are completley oppsolete. Personally i will always go with CAD, but i am experianced with both and when learning drafting i do believe that all beginner students should learn the board in order to be able to appreciate the quickness and precision offered by AutoCAD or another Computer Aided Drafting program.

Answer 3

It's CAD. I design machinery and as I complete one set of components I can build on previous designs by copying components into later designs.

I've started doing most of it in 3-D which means I only have to build one model and can produce all the drawing and views needed for fabrication from that one model. Which makes it a lot faster than hand drafting.

Answer 4

Ditto to oilfield trash.

I am a civil engineer, since 1985, and learned hand drafting in high school. I was terrible at the neatness and my lettering stank. That is one reason i pursued engineering instead of drafting.

Since I started Cad, 1986, I only hand draft on surveying notes, that's it. There is no comparison, why do you think acad gets so much for their software? IT IS WORTH IT !!!

Answer 5

For sure CAD is much easier and faster then drawing by hand as well that way you don't have your hand smuging the pencil