Old CAD Drafters:

[kentauros]

You remember how to control line weights by rolling the pencil as you draw.



You remember that a spline is something you rest weights (ducks) on, to draw a curve.

You know how to dress a ruling pen.



You are asked why there is sandpaper on a stick in your drawer.



You think you should own stock in the plastics industry because of all the templates you own.

You rue the day they quit making drafting linen.



A compass was for drawing arcs and circles and not finding the North pole.



You know that some pencil sharpeners only remove the wood and don't sharpen the lead.



You know that the little piece of thin metal with all of the holes is called an erasing shield.

Your drafting table still has drafting powder in the seams.

You still have a drafting table!

You keep your electric eraser out and visible just because it's been such a good friend.

You can start out with a completely blacked out sheet of negative paper and scratch out a drawing with a razor blade or scalpel.



You have a set of railroad curves and a beam compass.

You remember filling your inking pen with an eyedropper, after first adjusting the line width by turning a knurled wheel on the side of the pen and "measuring" the width of the pen points.

Your back has formed the perfect curve for the Leroy lettering position.

You remember when blueprints were blue and sepias were erased with a chemical.



You consider the electric eraser to be a new-fangled gadget invented by the Devil himself

You went to happy hour on Friday nights with drafting tape stuck to the elbows of your sleeves!

You remember that the best drawing boards were made with balsa wood, to "heal" after the thumb tacks.

When a "file" was something that predates the sandpaper on a stick. You find you have a fond collection of 8" flat files in your drawer.

You still have a large box of single edged razor blades (from before Exacto). Scalpels were too expensive.



You know what an Adjustable Triangle is.



You know what a Parallel Guide is and how to use it with a set of Triangles.



Your son is going through some of your old drafting stuff and asks you what this plastic trapezoid shaped item, with a rotating circular piece with a bunch of small holes in it was used for, and you can just barely read the name 'Ames' on it.

You remember finishing a day’s work on the drawing board and look down to see your hands, wrists and cuffs are all blackened by the graphite.

You kept a roll of toilet paper close to the drawing board as an absorbent for cleaning of the exceeding ink of your Leroy pens.



When you know why someone would need a chisel point on their pencil.

When you are still looking for that error in Smoley's for which the publisher would award you a $1000.00 if you could find one.

When you remember taking vellum tracing fabric home and boiling it in water to make white handkerchiefs.

When you remember having GUM BAG FIGHTS in the office.



When you were first introduced to Rotring and wondered, "What will they think of next?"

You can remember when you could tell whose work it was by the style of the lettering.

You know what blue pencils were used for.
(making marks that wouldn't reproduce on the dyelines.)

You know that vellum isn't tracing paper and that Mylar wasn't always used just for toy balloons.

You know what an eraser tastes like and why you'd want to lick it in the first place.

Inkwells holding a bottle of India ink had a "pedal" allowing you to fill your ruling pen using only one hand.

You know how to rub down a scratched erasure on drafting linen with a piece of soapstone.

You know how to extract square roots on a 100-key rotary calculator by the "ding method".


1/64=0.0156
1/32=0.0312
3/64=0.0468
1/16=0.0625
5/64=0.0781
3/32=0.0937
7/64=0.1093
1/8=0.125
9/64=0.1406
5/32=0.1562
The decimal equivalents for fractions are pasted to the outside of your slide rule case.

Draughting was a design skill - Drafting was what law clerks did.

When you shaded areas of drawings by flipping them over and rubbing pencil shavings on them with a tissue.

Your tongue is permanently tattooed with black dots from tapping the pen nibs against them.

You can write legibly and people comment on the cool writing style you have.

The first mouse you had was a white cloth bag filled with powdered eraser.

~~~***~~~
I can remember most of these! :D

[madinmaryland]

1. "Error: You can't recommend threads from this forum"

Dammit! x(

Bookmarked.

I had a German professor (retired) in my drafting class in college who would smack your hand if it was not holding the pencil properly.

Now I just use AutoCAD. No writing utensils involved.

:hi:

[kentauros]

2. Thanks! AutoCAD here, too.

Or rather, "AutoCAD Civil 3D 2010" :7 :hi:

Our drafting teachers were never like that, but they were perfectionists. Lettering was always my weakest point, yet it was still good enough for class. Thankfully, we had Koh-i-noor pens to use instead of the old adjustable quill pens. My father's draughting set has the metal quill-type, even a compass just for inking. He's an engineer, but back in the mid-20th he had to know draughting, too.

[madinmaryland]

4. Arggghhh! I'm stuck with 2006. But then us telecom guys always

get screwn. We can't even get a decent sized telco room or data center built. "just stuff it in there and it'll work" is what we are stuck with.

:grr:

[kentauros]

8. Worked for a surveyor that was like that.

Family-owned business. The guy spent more for his wife and sons (the sons were also surveyors) than he did for the office, including us drafters. I think we were using version 2000 in 2005 (or was that ACAD 14?) We couldn't listen to music or use the phone, unless we were off the clock or he wasn't in the office. Need I add that he was a Republican, too? Why are they so cheap?!

I don't know if it will be any help to you other than to drool over it, but here's a great blog for Civil 3D users:

http://www.civil3d.com

And if you want to play around with GIS, the free (and open-source) program to use is Quantum GIS :)

[Tuesday Afternoon]

3. I loved my drafting classes

should never have changed majors. One of my biggest regrets (which there are many) in my life. bkmrkng, thanks.

[kentauros]

10. You could still learn it again.

You'd be surprised how many women are getting into it now, especially GIS. It's so encouraging to see more women in this field. It really was a "man's world" for far too long...

[Tuesday Afternoon]

34. now if only I can find some way to finance my education and pay my bills

:D :thumbsup:

[pokerfan]

5. Old drafters never die, they just lose their perspective

I had to take a drafting class in college and got exposed to all that stuff but fortunately the type of drawing I'm required to do has never involved straight lines. Stuff like this:

[kentauros]

7. You see, that's an "engineer's sketch",

often handed to drafting at 4:59pm on a Friday with the instructions "I need this by 8am Monday morning! I'm off to have free time with my family. Don't work too hard, y'all!" :eyes: :P

Thanks for the forwardable pun, too :hi:

[madinmaryland]

11. Nice law, Ohm!

:D

[pokerfan]

13. We Sparkies are a very spiritual bunch

I can put myself into a trance-like state staring at a schematic chanting "Ohmmmmmmm" over and over.

[Kali]

6. dated an architecture student in college

and the fact that I recognize most of that stuff probably "dates" me as well

[kentauros]

9. So you dated a dated architect and got dated yourself?

Was it "Approved for Bid"? :P

[madinmaryland]

15. I think he is waiting to get stamped!

[Brother Buzz]

12. I still have eighty pounds of ducks

My ducks have a brass hooks on the nose and you pushed or pulled the duck to adjust a batten stood on edge, I never placed them on top. I used them for lofting boats. These days, most sit parked under the fig tree in the back yard while one dedicated duck hold a swinging kitchen door open.

[kentauros]

19. They're basically just big dead weights, right?

Good uses for them after their primary use :)

Big curves like that were never a part of the drafting I learned or did later on. That's mostly for automotive and ship design, if I recall correctly. Although I suppose they could be used for topographics, but you usually rely on thousands of surveyor points to find the curves and then just fudge it. These days, Civil 3D does the interpolation of the surface curve ;)

[Brother Buzz]

21. Yes, five pound lead weights

My ducks were actually baby whales, because the tails was turned up like whale flukes. This was a design improvement from conventional duck heads because one could easily pick-up a pair in each hand by the tails. It was terribly ironic that one boat lofted with them was destroyed by a Blue whale.

I cast them when I was a teenager after an old salt gave me the plug and enough information on how to go about making them. I made a ton of them (well, maybe 300 lbs) but traded most to my buddy who operated a sail loft. I believe others simply walked away to become glorified paperweights.

[old mark]

14. I still have a set of Dietzgen instruments in the basement - made in France,

in a leather case lined with blue velvet.
What release is AutoCad up to now - if it still exists...When I learned it, it was still in single digits...3, I think...

I used to do ink on mylar, isometric renderings of several new trucks, back when Renault owned Mack...
IIRC, Mack lost its shirt on those trucks.


mark

[kentauros]

17. The set I inherited from my father was made by Charvos (#877)

and I still have it handy :)

Did you ever take pictures or keep a blueprint or two of the work you did? It'd be cool to have and look at again later. I'd have to dig through my old stuff to see if any of my drawings have survived. Most work was on oilfield applications (pipelines, refineries, etc.) But the weirdest job I had was some freelance work drawing up exploded views of nuclear washing machines (they washed radioactive clothing for that industry.)

Oh, here's a software site that sells OEM copies of the various AutoDesk products. Most are the 2011 series, though the site goes back to 2006 it looks like. I think AutoDesk dropped the sequential numbering of their product after AutoCAD-14 and went with year-numbering. They do have stand-alone AutoCAD, but that's a normal part of most of the packages, like Civil 3D. I don't know anything about AutoCAD Inventor, so it might not allow you to "load as AutoCAD" like the rest.

http://topdigitalonlineone.com/topic/19-Autodesk.html

[old mark]

26. I used to do mainly factory planning and design, made a living of sorts at it

for about 15 years...One of my last long term jobs was helping to design a clean room to manufacture IC's...It was THE most efficient such room in the world at that time. We got it working and de-bugged, photographed and documented it all, packed it up and sent it to Singapore, then proceeded to get laid off as manufacturing jobs went overseas. The year after that I worked almost 7 months, and the year after that, 6 weeks. The year after that, I went back to college for a degree in social work.

mark

[kentauros]

28. That's the biggest problem with a drafting career.

You're the first to be laid-off and the last to be re-hired when things pick up again.

[KG]

16. never drafted on a board. always AutoCAD.

2006 is latest I used before being laid off. use 2004LT at home. good enough for what i do - residential custom houses and additions.

[kentauros]

18. AutoCAD excels in architectural formats.

Most of the books out there, too, are all too often geared toward the architectural CAD-drafter than any of the other disciplines.

A drafting table also has the use of being perfect for doing watercolors and airbrush art :)
Of course, I've heard of architects and drafters using Corel Painter to do watercolor or ink-wash renderings of building layouts. Have you ever done that for your clients or it is mostly just the detail-drawings?

[bluedigger]

20. I know some of this.

I really regret not taking drafting in HS, but I wasn't allowed to, as I was in the "college prep" track and it was a "vo-tech" class.:grr:

Then in college I took an archaeology field school where I was taught to survey. We mapped an island off the Maine coast in 20cm contours (!) using a plane table and alidade in the field.

Last spring I worked on a site map using pencil and paper, etc. My younger colleagues would come by my desk to observe - they had never seen it done! I guess I have become my work.:rofl:

[kentauros]

22. Your younger colleagues probably haven't seen or used

most of the graph papers represented on this page (free to download and reprint), either:

http://incompetech.com/graphpaper

I wonder how many know how to use log-paper anymore (I used to, but don't have applications for it.)
Roleplay gamers should like that site, too :)

Oh, you'll really become your work when you pull out a set of USGS Topo Quads instead of turning on a GPS unit :P

[bluedigger]

23. I don't even know what "log-paper" is, but it sounds redundant.

:rofl:

Thanks for the link! Bookmarked.

I let them run the GPS - I can never read the damn screens...:shrug:

[kentauros]

24. How would you have reacted to "semi-log" paper then?

:P

http://incompetech.com/graphpaper/logarithmic

I don't own a GPS unit, but would guess the screens are pretty tiny. Might as well just carry a laptop with GIS loaded or call up any number of online GIS-maps for topo-reference, the USGS being one of them :)

[bluedigger]

25. I usually use client supplied maps in the field.

Or print them out from on line sources if I need to. Laptops stay in the vehicle. The biggest problem I have with the GPS's is sun glare, actually. Plus learning the programming as I never seem to get the same model or even brand when my employer supplies me with one. Same with electronic transits. It's a good thing that I learned to survey "old school" so that I understand the basic principles and can usually get the machine to do what I want eventually. They were pretty impressed the last time I rented equipment and asked for a "Philly" rod.:rofl:

Have you printed out any graph paper from the site? I'm curious how accurately it scales, as that is critical, and I don't have access to a printer to check it out.:shrug:

[kentauros]

27. I'd probably have looked at you funny if asked for a Philly rod, too

;)

Never actually done any surveying, just taking their data and converting it to usable maps (when they haven't screwed up their field notes!)

I haven't tested that paper's accuracy. Most times, I'm only using graph paper for sketches where scale isn't that important. They do print well, and look right overall. Plus, you can vary the lineweight which is a nice feature. Maybe some of the other "old draughters" here can do a quick test of a page :D

Now, I'm about to go out to eat and do something unrelated to drawing: writing by word-processor

[DainBramaged]

29. My Dad was a draftsman. I grew up with all of that in 'the side room'

that Dad used for his work for a construction company. I have both of his slide rules at easy reach and look at them fondly quite often.


Fond memories watching him labor on his drawing table, which I gave away a few years ago to someone who I KNEW appreciated it because they did illustrations.


Thank you.

[kentauros]

31. Drafting tables are wonderful tools to have.

Wish I still had mine, especially that treadle-legged one I used at a gaming-software company as their graphic artist. Nice and big, perfect for old-style graphics use, i.e, no computers ;)

Thank you for sharing memories about your father and his work, too.

[NV Whino]

30. I rejoiced

the day vector graphics came of age , and I knew I would never, ever have to ink another damned line.

I still have a 1886 K&E drafting table with a parallel rule attached. I make fine art on it these days.

[kentauros]

32. I understand the sentiment,

especially as my lettering skills weren't the best. Typing is so much easier.
Still, it's nice to have these skills.

What kind of art do you do? :)

[NV Whino]

33. Graphic deign

But my checkered career has included drafting. Worked for a company that designed cabinets for electronics, some of which (my work) ended up in the Houston Space Center.