Beginners Syndrome

[clare]

Properly programmed, the software between your ears can do every bit as accurate a job - and for the older ones of us it can even be done more quickly.

[dadiOH]

I pretty much get what you are saying as I did the same thing for years...make a rough sketch, add dimensions. If, eg, I wanted to make a box

24" x 10" x 3" it made no difference if the long side was 8x the shortest in my sketch, what counted were the dimensions.

I still do that sometimes but I also use SketchUp. It does, of course, give me an accurate drawing but just as importantly (to me, at least) is the fact that it gives me an accurate idea of how things are going to look. It also lets me easily play with variations or modify. And, using my drawing, I can do a material takeoff and and a cutting list. It's handy :)

[clare]

True that, too.

[J. Clarke]

I learned more engineering in my first month at United Technologies than I did in four years at Georgia Tech.

Academia has long since gone off in its own direction that has little to do with life outside of academia.

You haven't seen a new hire with a computer science degree from a highly regarded university struggling to write a simple program.

[-MIKE-]

Either way, if you graduated from GT in engineering, you have my respect. Not exactly a basket weaving school.

[J. Clarke]

I was an "expert" on one of those sites for a while. Didn't want to be, wasn't my idea, my boss got invited to be the "expert" and didn't have time to do it so he told me to do it. Aero engineering or programming I'd be fine with--been there, done that, got the tee-shirt. Art, antiques, and jewelry, not a clue, and that's what he had me doing. I told him I didn't have a clue, he didn't care, then he was surprised when they figured out that I didn't have a clue and pulled his account.

[Leon]

Being a little slow, I finally realized that BS did not mean BS. ;~)

I do get paid for the drawings and what I build from them. ;~)

[Leon]

And I will add, I don't do drawings to cut a board to length. ;~)

Simple stuff no need. Hundreds of parts with dado's that interlock in the x,y,z axis I better have detailed drawings to insure the dado's, rabbet, and half laps get cut correctly and in the right place.

[Leon]

I'll call you on using only your brain to keep up with hundreds of parts on a project.

[G. Ross]

I did some drafting when I thought I wanted to be an engineer. Back then it was SHARP pencil, t-square, triangles, and dividers to take a measurement off the ruler. For final we had to do it in India ink. Blueprints were really blue. Those were the days of slide rules with a carrying case that fastened to your belt. I still have my K&E drawing set.

[Leon]

Yeah! We were fancy though, we used the mechanical pencil with the rotary desk sharpener. We only used the India ink for the borders. Our drawings failed if the pencil lines did not shine.

I mentioned that I got a bad taste in my mouth with architectural drafting. We were graded on the blueprint, not the drawing for our final grade. The instructor sent a seating chart around to all of us, we drew lines or scribbled in the spot that represented where we sat. That was our only practice to see how a blueprint would come out from our drawings. Luckily I got a 99 on that blueprint but he subtracted 10 points because I did not turn the drawing in on time. The drawing was in the class room and completed 1 week before it was due. I had been out of school sick for 4 days. Still got an A. That was in the early 70's.

I still have everything too, except I have not seen the drawing board for a loooong time. ;!)

OH! I still have my electric eraser too!

[Bill]

Yes, I was thinking of you!

[krw]

For trivial projects, perhaps.

[krw]

Each with half a dozen cuts.

[woodchucker]

I just built, I had it in my head. Sometimes I would come up with a new idea while working on it.

I have never built to plans. Just my head. I do have rough drawings and sizes when working on big things, you need to, to avoid material loss. And also if something requires an operation before another.. I make those notes, so I don't wind up in a spot without a way to hold, or get to a feature.

[woodchucker]

You talking about the pencil sharpener that you put the pencil in, and move the pencil around and it sharpens it? I have one of those. I like the old style pencils for layouts When I can't see my knife lines, I'll switch to one of those and put a new point on my pencil.

[Puckdropper]

Leon wrote in news:X [e-mail]:

I does sorta work for BS, though. It's a common problem with track plan dreaming. A curve looks absolutely beautiful on the track plan, then you build it to scale and find out it's actually 12" radius and you need an absolute minimum of 18"!

Puckdropper

[Bill]

The "design phase" we're talking about is designed to keep just that (expensive thing) from occurring!

Yes, last time I did drywall work, I drew pencil lines on the walls and divided it up into 30 numbered parts, so I could keep track of how much mud I had on each part of the walls, my tape defects, etc. I recall how thankful I was in the spring when, I resumed my work, that I had my "list" (because, covered with mud, they all looked the same!)

[clare]

And exactly what did the craftsmen of yesteryear do, before computers and CAD??? They did the calculations in their heads, and drew "diagrams" showing how it was to go together. A lot looked like leonardo Davinci's drawings 0 dimensioned but not accurately scaled.

[krw]

Why didn't you just write the information on the walls? ;-)/2