Before the uprising of CAD, a drafting office was
a pretty good investment. Standard office, tables, chairs, a desk for the
chief.
This golden age ended roughly in the end of the 80's. To keep working with
their clients, small companies had to shift to computers.
A main server as big as a cupboard in a separate cooled area, several workstations made of a solid desk, a huge monitor, a huge keyboard, a button box and a magnetic desktop with a wired pen.
Welcome in the COMPUTERVISION's world.
Shifting from hand drafting hasn t been easy.
In the early 90s, computers weren't as common as today.
Suddenly, simple actions, such like drawing a line parallel to another line,
so easy by hand, become tricky...
After a while, we understand how to work with this new tool. We get new habits,
and recover efficiency.
echo layer 10; return
insert point X 250 Y 0 Z 525; return
insert line ...
Each command is entered explicitely. Typed with the keyboard or using shortcuts on the desktop.
In this time, for the draftsman, the advantage of CAD is not
massive. We gain a little on working time. We loose in term of working
pleasure and conviviality with colleagues. Everyone is alone with
his computer. Moreover, as your work is no longuer openly exposed on the
table, if you make a mistake, nobody can advise you.
In term of skill transmission too. I've learnt a lot in watching old
draftsmen working.
No more ink stain on the shirt. No more coffee spilled on the drawing...