Hand Drafting Vs. Autocad

Crystal Rogers

Cathy Rodriguez

English & Composition

September 5, 2007

Hand-Drafting vs. AutoCAD

Over the years, there has been little technological advancement in architecture and interior design methods of creating drafted plans. The most significant improvement has been the development of computer aided drafting and design, or CADD. There are many notable advantages and disadvantages when comparing the use of hand-drafting and CADD drafting for creating completed design plans.

When hand-drafting, speed is a time consuming issue. Drafting by hand requires a great deal of time, even for skilled drafters. Each line in the drawing must be extremely accurate. Creating each line with this kind of accuracy takes time because the drafter must measure each line using a drafting scale to the finest point of measurement. Any flaw in this area can be catastrophic to the completed project. Every letter and dimension placed in the plan must be legible, and appropriately placed so that every user of the document can refer to their particular section of the project.

AutoCAD, a popular CADD computer software, has almost eliminated many of the problems with speed. Using a few simple mouse-clicks or commands, lines that are no longer needed can be easily erased. Objects such as windows and doors can be copied and placed elsewhere in the drawings quickly and efficiently. Using an offset command, parallel lines used for walls and other architectural items are created automatically. There are many other commands that can greatly reduce the time it takes to draft a design plan. AutoCAD uses an automatic ruler that displays line dimensions while drawing, eliminating the need to measure and re-measure while drawing.

Accuracy within a drawing is very important when creating plans. Hand-drafting leaves much room for error. If the drafter's pencil slips by even a millimeter, the entire plan could be inaccurate. If the mistake goes unnoticed, the finished project could be dangerous for future inhabitants. When mistakes are noticed, the drafter must then erase the error and draw a new line to correct it, leaving more opportunities to make mistakes.

The AutoCAD program has a system in place that can locate these types of errors. Again, with a few simple commands, mistakes can be found and corrected with ease. With the automatic dimension display mentioned earlier, the user can see the exact measurement of each line placed in the drawing. When a mistake is found, correction is just a click away.

Drafting by hand leaves few options for convenience. Many projects require plans using multiple scales for use by several different people such as contractors, local governments, and the actual design team. When drafting by hand, each drawing must be rendered at each scale. This requires copying the same drawing over and over again at a different scale. Again, this is a time consuming process and not very convenient for the person drafting the plan. Any time a change needs to be made due to client preference, material availability, or any other of a multitude of reasons, each drawing must be hand corrected. Manual drafting also requires a great deal of space. There must be room for plenty of desk space as some drawings can be quite large. There must also be ample space to use and store the many drafting tools required to complete a hand-drafted plan.

Using AutoCAD, many of these problems have again been eliminated. When in the drawing phase of a plan, the drawing is in a "real time/space" setting. This means that the drawing itself can be as large or small as necessary. Once this phase is complete, the user can then move into a paper space, where he or she can then set the scale of each individual drawing on the page. Each sheet can have multiple plans set at multiple scales. When changes or reproductions need to be made, they can be created from the previously saved drawing file. This allows