Had to pick between manual drafting and CAD for a tight deadline job in Detroit last week

I got this rush job for a small warehouse reno and the client's old drawings were all hand-done on vellum. I had maybe 6 hours to update them and could either scan and trace in CAD or just lay new vellum over the originals and draft by hand. I went with hand drafting since the scale was already set and I'm faster with a pencil on simple stuff. Turns out the client's contractor wanted a digital file so I ended up scanning it anyway and half the day was wasted. Has anyone else had a client assume you work one way and then change their mind after you deliver?

3 comments

3 Comments

seanlee2d ago

Huh, that contractor really put you in a tough spot. But isn't scanning a hand-drawn vellum and vectorizing it in CAD usually faster than redrawing the whole thing from scratch?

lucashart2d ago

Yeah I read somewhere that vectorizing scanned drawings can be hit or miss depending on the quality of the vellum. Sometimes it's faster to just trace it manually in CAD than fix all the errors.

derek6561d ago

Man, that reminds me of the time I tried to vectorize a napkin sketch of a bike frame I did at a bar. The scanner picked up every single coffee ring and crumb line, and it took longer to clean that up than if I just drew it from scratch in SolidWorks. Sometimes the old ways really are the fastest.