# Do you do your own CAD work?



## niffur (Jan 8, 2008)

Thought this might be an interesting poll - do you do your own CAD?


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## Flyer_PE (Jan 8, 2008)

I do most of my own schematics and wiring diagrams. We have a couple of designers in our group that take care of physical layouts etc.


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## ODB_PE (Jan 8, 2008)

We need more options, such as:

I get it close and the CAD guy cleans it up.

or

The CAD guy eventually gets it after a dozen markups


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## Guest (Jan 8, 2008)

^^^ I agree ... we need more options like:

I don't use AutoCAD - I piece my drawings together in MS Paint. B)

JR


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## SteveR (Jan 9, 2008)

I do some single line diagrams, and some layouts where I'm trying to optimize a layout and need to adjust dimensions a lot. Probably less than 10% of our CAD. I feel like it is a waste of my time to lay out receptacles, lighting, etc., I just give guidelines to the CAD guy or a Jr. Engineer, then mark-up the drawing after they get it started.


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## Capt Worley PE (Jan 9, 2008)

I used to teach AutoCad and Inventor, but have just dabbled a few times with AutoCadLT since mid 205.


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## TXengrChickPE (Jan 9, 2008)

I'm better at AutoCAD than the drafters/designers are... so I do most of my own. But, if it has to be done in Microstation... fuhgetaboutit! I hand it off to the designer and mark it up as needed.


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## Vishal (Jan 9, 2008)

I used to work with ACAD a lot but now I am a Microstation guy.. I can still work with any, but MS is the forte.. Do all my design work on my own. Our group doesn't really have any drafter.. and i like it this way.


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## Jennifer Price (Jan 9, 2008)

I did all my CAD work when I worked with as a structural designer. I still wished I did most of my work b/c I am faster than our CAD guys we have now. But instead, I have to draw it out on paper, give it to them, then they give it back to me for markups and we repeat the process. It would be much easier for me to put my ideas into CAD in the first place (I can draw it faster in CAD than on paper).

Plus, it has come to my attention that they don't know any of the short-cut commands which makes them really slow. And, I have had to teach my CAD guy stuff that he should already know.

Can you tell I am frustrated with our CAD dept???


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## snickerd3 (Jan 9, 2008)

jregieng said:


> ^^^ I agree ... we need more options like:
> I don't use AutoCAD - I piece my drawings together in MS Paint. B)
> 
> JR


I usually hand draw with colored pencils.markers and piece together with tape. B)


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## Sschell (Jan 9, 2008)

Depends on the project, I do anywhere from 0-100% of the design/modeling/drafting... I guess over all at my current job I've done probably 70-80% Usually one of the full time designers has to come along behind me and clean it up and put those finishing touches on it.


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## Tina (Jan 9, 2008)

I do most of my drafting myself, sometimes I have an intern help me if it gets too much.

We use Microstation and I love it. Actually my boss is trying to get us to switch to AutoCAD, but good luck with that. I'm not going to switch.


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## jfusilloPE (Jan 9, 2008)

That's a touchy situation...

I am one of the few engineers who has CAD on my laptop. I get away with it because I teach it at the local college.

We have a designer/drafter who does the majority of the CAD work, but if he's on vacation, I hone my skills and draft for my fellow engineers .

We do sub some of the work out to a local firm (who is very cheap and very detail oriented) because some municipality rates are too low to afford our in-house designer.

Sometimes stuff goes to India, but the is just scanned copies that have been vectorized and it is cheaper for us to have their people do it instead of ours.


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## NSEARCH (Jan 9, 2008)

Just depends on the job. Couple years ago I use to do practically all of it, now I hand most of it off once the design has been completed. Then I mark it up once or twice and it's done. I'll tell you one thing, most Cad guys really appreciate me knowing how long it takes to make that "one little change" that ripples through the project and it's always laid on them.


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## Dleg (Jan 9, 2008)

Does Word CAD count? I had AutoCAD lite shipped to my office but it was stolen from the procurement office before it ever got to me. So, the limited drafting that I do (usually just for regulations or design guidance manuals) I have to do in MS Word. I've got anohter order for AC lite coming, so it will be interesting to see if it makes it to me this time.


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## What!! (Jan 9, 2008)

I setup the cad standards in the office. I teach everybody else including the drafters, the shortcuts and the efficient way to create the CAD drawings. Before any project starts, i prepare at least one drawing for each category, set up the plot styles to use, or create new plot styles. Now, we have microstation too, but i have delegated responsibility to somebody else. Even then, they come and ask me for microstation help even though they have been using it for a long time and i dont have lots of hands-on training. Given that, i still like to do CAD work because i just dont trust other people to dabble on my drawings because of the lack of precision and finesse provided by them.

It is faster for me to do my own drawings rather than someone else doing it and then me having to go back and correct the drawings.


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## DVINNY (Jan 10, 2008)

I used to do CAD until about 3 years ago, I miss it sometimes. I am still good with it, because our CAD guys still have me set up multiple surfaces extractions in Land Development for them, and they always need help in AutoCAD map when it comes to importing/exporting shape files, XML, and shit like that.

Other than those times, I'm using my red pen and making not-so pretty pictures.


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## StructuralPoke (Jan 10, 2008)

ol said:


> I get it close and the CAD guy cleans it up.


Here's another vote for this one. I voted that the CAD guy does all the work, because that's the way the office _wants_ it to work, but since I'm just a young'un, my stuff always goes to the bottom of the pile it seems.


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## JoeBoone82 (Jan 10, 2008)

Great Poll....

I've always told Cadd Tech's here that as the younger generation of engineers come up through the industry, that their job will become more and more obselete. I'm not sure if that is 100% true, but it is looking pretty close from these poll results. I usually have brought that up when a Cadd Tech picks on me, and says "you do not know how to do that" and I say... "if i did, then why would we need you?".

I personally think it is easier for the designer to do the cadd work, because you can do it on the computer while designing, instead of drawing it or trying to explain it all to a cadd tech. Also, I think a lot of EIT's start off doing quite a bit of cadd work these days, so as they become PE's and move up, they can do their own drafting.


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