Does anyone still draw by hand

[notevensquare]

Most of my "plans" are usually of the back-of-a-fag-packet quick sketch with rough measurements, I keep a large children's drawing book on my bench for this.

However; at school in the UK I studied Geometric & Technical drawing. I still have my drawing board and tee-square that I started using at the age of 13 and these are what I pull out when I properly need to design stuff. With every dimension to scale it provides me with an accurate cutting list and double checks the initial back-of-fag-packet calculated dimensions!

I usually first draw it to scale as an isometric projection to see how it looks and to make sure the design is as requested; then I do a proper set of 1st angle projection technical drawings including whatever joinery methods I'm using. Following the 7 P's principle in this way massively reduces the opportunities for Mr Cock-Up to pay a visit. Reduces...

So I am not the only one with my Grade 7 TD board and tee square hanging on the wall of the shed

[damian]

Mine is in the back room of the house.

I learned autocad in the late 80's hated it. Slow and frustrating. In 05 I got a job as a design draftsman using NX. Within a few months I could build a model so much faster than I could draw, and it allowed me to check every clearance. No more calculations.

So that's how I do it now and if I need a drawing the modelling packages allow those to be built fast.

More recently I've been using the free autodesk package fusion 360, but I haven't fired it up in months as I'm busy doing other things.

The trick with modelling packages is you use them like you were making something for real. You create a primitive (say a block) then cut bits off it and stick bits on until it's the right shape. Make the next part then make an assembly and stick them all together. I could model up a table in about 10 minutes and a chair in maybe 20. You can view every fit and correct mistakes instantly, try pretty things like flutes and see how they look.

But I still have my drafting gear for when that solar flare hits

[RossM]

So I am not the only one with my Grade 7 TD board and tee square hanging on the wall of the shed

I usually rough out designs on scraps of paper. I do use CAD (Fusion360) for some things, but only when its complex or I want an accurate idea of parts placement.

I have often pondered if the "3D Drawing Board" would be worth-while replacement for a TD board - Its quite a cleaver system. (If you can't be bothered watching the whole thing, check out the first 60 seconds & the section from about 3:35 to 3:45 to get an idea on its functions)


The price has come WAY down over the years.
3D Drawing Board | Designability Group

[verawood]

I start on scrap paper, then go to an A3 graph paper pad.
For smaller drawings I use half a page at a time.

[elanjacobs]

I still draw by hand as well, for rough plans it's just easier than CAD

[RSD]

My boat builder still draws by hand - and he can't use a ruler either - its enormously frustrating because it means that we often aren't quite sure what we are going to get... other than a $100,000+ boat

[auscab]

Yeah I draw everything on the drawing board . Email pictures to clients and go from there .
Clients like the paper and pencil drawings. Here's a few I did last week .

Some bedside tables . I had to draw these about six times to get to where the decorator was happy . It started with the left one and ended with the right. They don't take long to do.

I don't need to do perspective drawings at all. I was shown at trade school but find its only of use when drawing a room with furniture placed in the room . Something I never need to do . Face side and Plan view is all that's needed mostly, and sometimes detailed internal construction is needed for me not the client.

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I'm building a tower scaffold atm. So I can build my dust extraction . Ive got to hang pipes off a roof 4.7 meters off the ground. I Did lots of rough sketches on scrap at the computer then went to the drawing board. Should have it assembled today I hope. Its roughly 2.4 x 1.640 x 4.2 high . I changed some dimensions as I was making it .
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Once I know whats being made exactly a cutting list is made and the build happens from that .

Drawing on computer or paper , cutting list . Double checking . Its the only way to go to avoid mistakes .

Rob

[Old Croc]

I don't own a computer so the tablet is quite limiting so it's CAD for me, that's Cardboard Aided Drawing. Loved tech drawing at high school and have never changed.
Rgds,
Crocy.

[Treecycle]

I also enjoyed Tech Drawing when at school and did very well at it. My teacher was disappointed when I got an apprenticeship and left before the end of that year.
Since then I have learnt how to use Acad for 2D and then moved on to Solidworks and now trying to learn Fusion 360 as one of my versions of Solidworks has decided to stop working (maybe mr Microsoft caught up with me). All of these have been self taught as I just like being able to produce something in print that matches the accuracy that I try to achieve when making it. I often design up a project for my wood club for members to make and it's good to be able to show them a 3d model on paper as they can visualise the end product better and I am not good at hand sketching. When drawing on the computer, changes are easily done without making a mess on paper rubbing out etc. I normally just jot down a bit of a sketch on paper and then go to the computer at night and draw it up.
Having said that, I do admire people who can produce a good conceptual sketch on paper, but that's not me.

[Bstrom]

My circumstances as well - work with what you’ve got and plan accordingly. I love graph paper for all planning, including the two-story single rooms addition ongoing now. Great for determining materials lists from the home center. Most woodworking is ‘measure as we go’ with a reference to book plans for direction.

I think as long as you do SOME sort of planning your success rate will be higher. I do nothing without a plan of some sort...

[Rudyvm]

Spent 5 years at uni studying engineering and this is how I still work at home, am replacing a roller shutter door with some second hand timber doors which apparantly came from a monastery in Bendigo Vic...intersesting storey but I digress, this is my framing plan.

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[Spyro]

I'm primitive probably. I don't draw at all and I don't use plans, and I avoid measuring as much as possible. By not measuring I mean if I have to cut a piece to fit it somewhere I prefer, if I can, to lay it where it has to go, mark it, and cut to the mark. And god forbid I never use a computer for woodworking, I mean I'm sitting in front of a computer all day for work, when I finally get some shed time last thing I want to do is sit on the damn thing again.

What I usually do is try to find which is the main piece that will determine the dimensions of all the other pieces. I take a basic measurement for that and I cut that first. Then I find the next most important piece and make a decision on the dimensions of that, and cut. And so on. I try to think what else each piece affects and what I'm trying to achieve with this project, and think as many steps ahead as I can, and I make design decisions as I go. I'm basically in a creative trance at that point, and being in that state is exactly what I love about woodworking and any other craft I might delve into. it's a free flowing process and having plans kinda hurts it for me, and having to use a computer or deal with numbers kills it entirely.

Of course all this is possible because I never make the same thing twice. I'm only in this game for the creativity, that's the only thing that matters to me.
And, to be clear, I don't really make anything super complex.

[Robson Valley]

I carve what I see in the wood. Might be 10 minutes, might be several years to see.
I make some hand drawings to consolidate my thoughts. I enjoy the drawing part.
Common paper size is 11" x 17" copy paper.
For larger pole-type carvings, I have a "banquet roll" of white paper. 36" wide x 100' long ( maybe 60 cm x 30m?)

If I have added any innovation, it is this:
I erase nothing. Never. I refuse to hesitate and back up.
Instead, I make alterations on the drawings with different color pencils so I can compare possibilities.

[Stewie D]

Cad all the way except for initial sketches but that is dependent on what I'm drawing and for whom. It's easy to get a model up and then view it from any angle but I have the advantage of first being a chippy and then having had 15 years of drawing plans fulltime. For someone who is just starting to draw using Cad for the first time it could be a steep leaning curve depending on what package you are using.
The app I use is an old version of Vectorworks and is geared more to architectural than 3D but it suffices for what I want it to do. Some of the other apps are very good for 3D. Later versions of VW are more in tune with this as well as BIM takes over.

Stewie

[ubeaut]

Could never get my head around CAD.

As a woodcarver, turner and restorer (mostly). All my work was hand drawn. initial sketches rough draft and full size finished drawings complete with full 3D shading as most people have difficulty visualising a 3D object from a flat line drawing. Used to get end rolls of paper from The Book Printer in Maryborough Vic. Bolts were usually around 8 - 10 meters long and approx 1mt wide. Used pencils from 6H - 5B, rubber(s), French curve, set squares, compass sets (variety of sizes) and other drawing paraphernalia. Had to be a bit of an artist back then.

Final drawings of many items were then transferred to heavy cardboard for light use patterns or 3 ply and made into patterns for multiple use. eg: cabriole legs, C scrolls, S scrolls, shells, etc.

Single or low use drawings were often photocopied or traced onto sheet(s) of paper and glued onto the work piece for carving. Still have a big cadboard drum with lots of drawings in tubes along with folders somewhere that weren't lost or destroyed when we moved from Newstead to Welshmans Reef to Geelong South to Newtown and finally to Moolap.

Had a friend years ago spent months on a very complex CAD drawing for tramline in (from memory) San Francisco his last day of working on very complex part of a curved section the program froze and nothing he couldn't get it to work. So after waiting a few hours until someone was up in USA rang CAD manufacturer and spoke to their troubleshooting dept. Whereupon he was old it was a known problem and they had a fix for it but it would cost (Memory again) US$60 plus postage and they would send a floppy disc with the fix on it. Bear in mind that this was around 25 or so years ago and CAD cost many thousands of dollars and was sort-of in its infancy.

My friend went right off the brain because there was nothing ever mentioned about this known problem and what had a locked up even with the fix would be lost, etc.... Anyhow, long story short he turned the air blue and the person on the other end of the phone said, "I'm sorry sir but I'm a Christian and can't listen to this." then hung-up.

My friend, still in a fit of rage and looking for blood, rang back and screamed "put that Christian bastard back in the line"..... and was promptly hung up on again.

He went off CAD for a while after that. Strangely enough he ended up with a couple of govt contracts to design stuff and also taught CAD to budding designers, etc.

Sorry for the rant. In our 15th week of lockdown and needed a bit of a release. Hehehe.