Re: [PipingDesign] CAD History and Engineers

> "We've lost a little of the art of the drawing, which is a shame to some
> extent," Baker said. "We've lost a little bit of the apprenticeship
> aspect, where you work with a master. But when the typewriter replaced
> the written word, the advantage was being able to read typed writing
> rather than cursive writing—the unambiguity of that. You lose some
> skills, but the value of the end product has improved."

Re-reading this part reminded me that many automatically-generated, software-created drawings are actually quite often much worse in readability than hand drawn (or drawn by a human with an "electronic pencil"). Still, the technology is pretty impressive when it's done right.

The analogy to typing vs. cursive doesn't seem to apply to engineering drawings since draftsmen's skills always included legibility as a necessary "feature" (compare to today when vendor drawings sometimes get issued in a poor state - i.e., digital file saved at a resolution too small to read, revisions not explicitly stated, basic drafting errors causing confusion, etc.).

I suppose a natural comparison might be draftsman vs. typist but that's a bit of a stretch.

Paul Received on Thu Sep 27 23:56:00 2007