Ten years ago, I was hired at a firm where the only computer was shared by everyone. At the time, the firm consisted of the two founding principals, the part-time office manager, one other entry level landscape architecture graduate, and me. There was no AutoCAD.
I was brought in to help lead the firm’s efforts to begin incorporating AutoCAD into the daily operations of the firm and keep us evolving with ever-changing and advancing technology. My only AutoCAD experience was a course that was offered in college when I was there. It was a general overview course that touched briefly on many different topics but not too deeply into any one thing.
Up to this point, our firm had done all of its work by hand and had actually developed quite a reputation for doing so. The principals have excellent hand-drawing techniques that they taught us to do effectively. Our clients liked and appreciated the sort of old-world, hand-crafted style in our drawings. Our construction sets had a warmth in its graphic character that was unique to our firm. There was a professional charm in the documents we produced that we wanted to be apparent in our AutoCAD documents as well. This was my challenge.
When we began using AutoCAD, the two of us using it were so inexperienced that the night we loaded the program, we had to put our heads together to figure out how to draw a “polyline”. We installed the software one night because during the day, the computer was for accounting. We persevered. We worked hard and we worked late to figure it out. After a while, we thought we had it under control. We were mistaken. After sharing our first AutoCAD files with other consultants, we were quickly flooded with “tips” and “advice” on AutoCAD concepts that, embarrassingly, we had never heard of. The idea of “external referencing” was completely foreign to us, though useful. One irrigation consultant, after receiving another apparently bad AutoCAD file from us, drove to our office to straighten us out. We learned how to setup and use blocks “correctly” and he showed us the idea of paper space and how to use it “properly”. He did not want to have to “clean up” any more of our AutoCAD files. From then on, we were able to communicate efficiently with consultants through AutoCAD. This was one of our main goals. Our second goal, however, to produce AutoCAD drawings with the same professional charm as our hand graphics, was yet to be realized.
To accomplish this, we had to determine what it was about the hand-drawn graphics that was so appealing. What we realized is that it was the basic elements of design; balance, texture, contrast, etc. that made the hand drawings read so strongly. Was it possible to bring those elements into AutoCAD drawings? It is possible. There are techniques that can make a mundane structural detail read strongly and with graphic quality and character. We use variations in line weight, screens, and hatches along with logical ordering of dimensions and labels to produce drawings that do have that “professional charm”. It has taken some time to perfect this graphic technique but we have discovered that contractors really appreciate it because the drawings are clear and concise and very easy to read.
Today, our firm has grown to a size where more than twenty people produce drawings in AutoCAD. Fortunately, we have a strong team of designers, who are experts at using AutoCAD and realize the importance of producing a high-quality product. They are willing to put in that extra bit of effort into their drawings and share among each other new and/or better ways of doing things. We have come so far in these ten years and are very proud of what we have accomplished. We have far surpassed our expectations and are continually setting new goals that drive us to be innovative and find better and more efficient ways of doing things.
As production manager in our firm, I review most of the drawings that go out the door. I look at technical accuracy and I look at the graphic quality. It is very important to me that the drawings are correct, that they convey exactly what is intended, and they look professional with good graphic character. Most of what I mark-up in a set of plans has to do strictly with graphics. We will draw things again and again until they look good. In the end, you just want your designs to go from concepts to construction correctly. A great-looking, correct, and logical set of plans is critical for this to happen. That is why we put so much effort into it.