I used to sketch everything by hand until a project in Phoenix last year.

We had to do a full site plan for a new warehouse, and my hand-drawn stuff just took too long to change when the client wanted a different dock location. I switched to using the basic CAD tools in the free version of DraftSight, and it cut my redraw time from about 2 hours to maybe 20 minutes. Now I only use paper for the first rough idea, then move straight to digital. Has anyone else found a specific point where they had to switch from paper to screen for good?

3 comments

3 Comments

carr.sarah24d ago

I was a total paper purist until a client needed ten layout changes in one day. The switch to digital just makes sense for revisions.

wendy62824d ago

My uncle ran a print shop for thirty years. He said the worst jobs were always the digital files sent over by people who kept tweaking things. They'd lose track of versions, the colors never printed right, and the client was never happy. A marked-up paper proof forces a final decision. You get one clean shot, and it's done right.

the_anthony24d ago

The real shift for me was when I started working with other people. A paper drawing is a single object. If I mail it to a consultant, my work stops until it comes back. With a digital file, we can both be looking at the latest version at the same time, even from different cities. It stopped being about speed for me and started being about sharing the work. The paper just can't do that.