When seeking a qualified drafter for your home design project you may find the best qualified person at the best price is, actually, a few states away. In today’s digital world the phrase “drafters near me” no longer means within ten or twenty miles of you geographically. It is better to think of “near me” to be within the United States or Canada when dealing with designing a home in North America. Think of the pleasure you get when you call an 800 number for your bank and you get to speak to someone within the United States whose first language is English. Architectural design is often an entirely new world of experience for a future homeowner and conveying ideas is hard enough without a language barrier.
CAD Draftsperson For Residential Construction
Sometimes customers request a “CAD draftsperson” or a “CAD draftsman”. What this means is that they are seeking a person who is not only familiar with drawings in CAD but also has expertise in designing homes. By using the acronym “CAD” they are implying that they are seeking a drafter with computer expertise vs. hand drafting. CAD is a shortened form of AutoCAD, and CAD stands for Computer-Aided Drafting. In the early 1980s, some computer guys developed the dynamic program they named CAD which allowed 2-dimensional drawings to be made instead of being limited to hand drawing. This allowed much quicker changes and adjustments to the plans. This elevation rendering of a modern farmhouse we designed in 2023 is 2D, like CAD is able to provide.
AutoDesk is the company that owns the AutoCAD software today. As time marched forward and software improved, 3D modeling, referred to as Building Information Modeling (BIM), became the industry standard. Programs like Revit, 3DsMax, and others became the most popular and dynamic way to render both structural elements and perspective views bringing the homes and commercial projects to virtual life. Here is the same house but displayed with a slight angle, sun and cast shadows, materials, and full color. It is much easier to gain a feel of how the house will look from the 3D model vs. the 2D CAD drawing.
Architectural Draftsman Classically Trained or Computer Savvy?
Over the years computer-aided design and drafting (CADD) gained momentum and became so popular that it almost erased hand drafting and physical model building from the face of architecture. The colleges and universities with architecture programs saw this danger and required their students to continue to do a lot of handwork, feeling that designs were better thought out, less generic, and entirely richer with the investment of the hours and hours necessary for hand drafting and precise model building. Our son is graduating from the Academy of Art University in Architectural Design. Over the last five years, he has done an equal amount of physical model building/hand drafting and computer-generated drafting.
We have identified an interesting parallel between classically trained architects and the designs we provide. Instead of model building with tweezers, we have invested the last 25+ years in building the real thing – custom homes – in a wide variety of locations, topography, and climates. Our hand drafting, which we did a lot of in our early days, was drawn and then built to completion. There is nothing like personal hands-on experience in both the building and the maintenance phases to help sharpen our skills in home design.
Residential Draftsman Near Me
So don’t limit yourself by falling into the “near me” trap. Today’s digital world makes it easy to meet through live computer Zoom sessions instead of driving miles for a sit-down meeting. We are able to share our screen and allow you to see the house as we discuss changes, walk through rooms, and choose materials. Emailed PDF files can be opened with either a computer or a smartphone. And the ever-faithful phone conversation can also solve design dilemmas as they arise. So when you find yourself seeking “drafters near me” remember that we aren’t far away.