What is a CAD drafter or CAD Designer?

Everything around us that is manufactured begins with an idea in a written plan. When these plans require illustrations or drawings to convey meaning, a CAD drafter is needed to prepare these ideas in graphic forms of communication. Drafters translate ideas and rough sketches of other professionals, such as architects and engineers, into scaled detail (or working) drawings. A CAD designer often prepares the plans and rough sketches for an architect or engineer. The designer has more education and thus more responsibility than the drafter but less than an architect or engineer.

What software do architects use?

Before computer-aided design software, architects relied solely on hand drawings and handmade architecture models to communicate their designs. With the evolution of technology and the architecture industry, architectural drafting software has changed the way architects plan and design buildings. Implementing 2D and 3D architecture software allows designers to draft at greater speed, test ideas and determine consistent project workflows. Advancements in rendering software provide architects and their clients with the ability to visually experience designs before a project is realized.

Is CAD 2D or 3D?

A common misconception surrounding CAD is that it is a 3D architecture software modeling tool only. However, CAD can be used as a 2D drawing tool as well. Construction designers might use a CAD tool that only works in 2D while architects might work in a 3D software architecture tools that has a 2D converter. It is highly dependent upon the actual platform used. This can be convenient because a company might only use a 2D tool and can pay for that tool alone. However, as construction centers around 3D modeling software for architecture and informational models, it will be harder for companies who only to use a 2D tool.

What is CAD used for in construction?

There are a lot of uses for CAD in construction. Subcontractor’s designers can take the drawings made by the architect and add in additional necessary details to ensure constructability. From there they have a plan that they can work off of and check their work against. Companies have already done this to a degree of success. Some companies were able to use a combination of drones and 3D models to notice issues with the construction. Specifically, a company can overlay their live drone footage with the model. They could note that the foundation would be off and make corrections.

Architecture planning software benefits contractors because the drawings and plans can be easily stored in the cloud. This allows for contractors to use their plans at any location. Also, if they are included in a shared file for the project, they can easily see changes to the plans. So, a subcontractor could quickly determine which changes were made, by who, and how it will impact construction.

Another benefit of professional architecture software is it is more accurate than manual drawings. It’s easier for construction design software than it is when it’s manual. And it’s easier for subcontractors to add details than it is in manual drawings.

What architects’ tools have been transformed by technology?

Working methods that previously resulted in only the documentation of an idea are now moving toward the realization of a full virtual copy of a building and all its complex components before a single nail is hammered. As such, architects’ tools that used to be physical, like pens and pencils, are now mere basics in a virtual toolbox with capabilities an analog architect couldn’t even fathom. The breakneck pace of this change is good reason to reflect on the history of these architect software virtual tools by comparing them to their physical forebears.

• Drafting Arm vs. Dynamic Input. Appearing like an alien appendage affixed to a drawing board, a drafting arm originally consolidated a variety of tasks completed with separate rulers, straightedges and protractors into a single versatile tool. AutoCAD’s crosshair reticle, for example, once relied on manual input with compass-style designations before it featured point-and-click functionality with real-time metrics following it around the screen.

• Tape Measure vs. Surveying App. Documenting an existing building in order to plan its transformation is likely one of the most frequent tasks architects complete. Until recently, the only way to correctly do this was by hand, with a tape measure, pen and paper. Since the advent of infrared scanners, depth-sensing cameras and software that can communicate with them, the time-intensive process of surveying an existing space has been cut to a fraction of what it once was.

• Drafting Template vs. Premade 3-D Models. In the days of hand-drafting, adding furniture to a drawing meant choosing an appropriately scaled object from a stencil and tracing it. Today’s sophisticated equivalent that architecture software programs offer allows an infinite number of premade models to be brought into a wide range of design software with a single click. Despite technological advances in this practice, the old method may actually be advantageous due to its reliance on abstraction because choosing realistically detailed furnishings for an early design scheme often prompts cosmetic decisions long before they need to be made.

• Electric Eraser vs. Undo. The most simple, and, for this reason, the most underappreciated, transformation an architect’s tools have undergone between physical and virtual methods is the ease with which one can now reverse the work they’ve done. Allowing what essentially amounts to time travel, the Undo function is universal to almost all software programs and as such is often taken for granted. Prior to this wonderful invention, the savviest architects wielded handheld electric erasers allowing them to salvage large drawing sets in the event of a drafting mistake or last-minute design change.

• Blueprint Machine vs. Inkjet Plotter. If you hang around an architecture firm long enough, you might hear older designers talk about using a blueprint machine. Originally the premier method for producing copies of drawings, blueprint machines involved rolling an original drawing through a chemical mixture that reproduced the image on a special type of paper. For some time now, digital plotters have removed manual labor from the equation, being fed information directly from a virtual drawing file.

• Digitizer Tablet vs. Touchscreen Workstation. Early iterations of digital drafting were often paired with a digitizer: a special keyboard that could choose commands or be directly drawn on. Software used in architecture eventually got better at incorporating a keyboard and mouse, but nowadays the tide might be turning back to a hands-on approach as devices like Microsoft’s Surface Studio are pushing an interface with touch-heavy tools just for architects. Though currently limited to apps for sketching and drawing review, the way architects work could be changed forever if a large influential company like Autodesk or Graphisoft were to fully embrace touchscreen capabilities.