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The Importance of 2D CAD
And the decline in standards and quality of information
provided in
computer generated drawings from both Architects and Engineers
alike!
Below is a letter I sent in to the
verulam pages of “the structural engineer” the journal of the Institution
of Structural Engineers. It was published in the 5th June
2002 : Volume 90 : Number 11 edition.
The response to this article was quite
staggering, Indeed it was an email from a member in France that alerted me
that it had been printed.
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Further to receiving the 5th February
Information technology special issue of The Structural Engineer and reading Mr
Buchanans letter on the Verulam column I have been inspired to put pen to
paper or fingertips to keyboard.
As always the Institution Journal covered the cutting edge 3D Models and
Object Based CAD. There was even the obligatory article on “Using Computer in
engineering calculations”.
However 2D CAD was in the main completely ignored as a subject matter, as was
the decline in standards and quality of information provided in computer
generated drawings from both Architects and Engineers alike.
I would like to promote the importance of 2D drawings. I have been using
computers and CAD Drafting packages of one kind or another since 1975. I have
not drawn on a drawing board at all for at least the last seven years.
In the 70’s schools in the UK taught Woodwork, Metalwork and TD (That’s
Technical Drawing to those younger Technicians, Graduates and Associate
Engineers reading this Article).
Today school children in the UK are not taught Technical Drawing. Graduates
come from three / four years of University with minimal CAD and Drawing
skills if any! They don’t even teach Technical Drawing at BTEC HNC or
HND Level anymore.
One of the skills that Technical Drawing lessons & manual drawing teaches
is the ability to visualise an item in 3D. I now hear the cry “we can draw in
3D these days”. True but most construction issue drawings are produced in 2D
and issued to site in paper format.
One needs to develop the ability to build the project in the mind from the
2Ddetails.
The Site Agent, Groundworks Ganger, Brick Layers, Electricians, Carpenters
etc. all need to understand what they are looking at. A picture saves a1000
words, but one line in the wrong place, is a disastrous as a badly written
specification.
Remember site operatives have to carry 2D paper copies around the site to the
location of the work. Until this process changes, Architects, Designers and
Engineers will always require the aid of 2D Cad software.
CAD Technicians obtain a city and guilds qualification in the use of AutoCAD,
and can display a wondrously drawn 3D windmill at an interview. However they
cannot detail a basic General Arrangement Drawing. We are teaching
technicians to use a CAD package but we are not teaching them about the
components they are detailing or even how to draw them properly.
If you are a Graduate Engineer it pays to have an understanding of the
workings of CAD and some basic CAD / drawing skills. If you are instructing
CAD Technicians, they must be able to understand your requirements and
sketches, plus you must have the ability to read and understand drawings.
What better way of gaining that skill than by producing a few drawings.
For Mr Buchanans and others like him, at a time when Autodesk and other
software companies , are trying to get you to part with your money on an
annual basis and upgrade your software with monthly patches which are only
available to subscribers. In addition Autodesk have just increased the R.R.P.
of its AutoCAD LT package, so let me inform you that there is an economic
alternative: IntelliCAD 2001 by Cadopia.
The product is AutoCAD Compatible and even runs LISP routines, which AutoCAD
LT can not do without a third party bolt-on, ( which on its own is more
expensive than the IntelliCAD Professional Edition) .
In many respects one should compare IntelliCAD Pro Edition with full blown
AutoCAD
I personally have used IntelliCAD to recover an AutoCAD drawing that was
corrupted so badly that AutoCAD could not recover the drawing, but IntelliCAD
did !
For more information on IntelliCAD investigate the UK resellers web site at http://www.astec-computing.co.uk
My own web site at http://www.cadalot.co.uk has been constructed to
assist all Draughtsmen, AutoCAD, IntelliCAD, Cadvance andGeneric CADD users.
It has a “How to Draw” area which is a work in progress.
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