The story shows that hand-drawn drawings and drafting skills are necessary even if 3DCAD is widely used.

Here.Importance of mechanical drafting knowledge　The "I know what theHand drawing and drafting skills are necessary even if 3DCAD is widely used.The memo is called.

The other day I was on Twitter and saw a student muttering about a lecture on hand-drawn drawings, and I was so surprised that I made an outrageous tweet.

I read it back now.I may have been very rude and misleading.It is....I am so sorry.

Many people have commented on those musings, so I will summarize them and note the need for hand-drawn drawings (drafting techniques).The content is important even for those who have only touched CAD.Please check with us to see if this is the case.

Drawing and drafting by hand

Let me begin by telling you why I reacted the way I did this time.

We mechanical designers basically use CAD at our desks for modeling and creating drawings from the models, and I think that very few designers these days design by hand.

Therefore, in response to the student's mutterings, I thought that he was "now basically using CAD and studying something rather similar to advanced technology (e.g., how to make use of CAD data)".Why do we need hand-drafting technology now?" What's the agenda?" I wondered.At the same time, we also felt that "there are rare production engineers who do not (or cannot) handle CAD, so if they have the time, they should spend their time mastering CAD.

Supplement] What is mastering CAD?

Mastering CAD here does not mean mastering specific CAD commands, but rather knowing the characteristics of DXF for 2DCAD, STEP and iges for 3D intermediate files, etc., and being able to perform verification (checking), etc. using them. I think it is enough to learn specific CAD operations at the company you join.

An understanding of the need for hand-drawn drawings and drafting

I received a comment on that tweet. They were so rich in content that I want to quote all the comments!will be lengthy, so I will summarize them in bullet points.*This is a summary based on my brain conversion. If you have Twitter, please check it out.

Should hand drawings and drafting be studied (your opinion)?

• You should experience it at least once.
• I often notice things with hand-drawing that I wouldn't notice if I were just drawing with CAD.
• Even if you work with CAD, you need to feel like you are drawing the lines with your own hands.
• Designing with 3DCAD also requires training in the process of projecting an image once on paper and refining it, but the pencil is better suited for this process
• Experienced hand-drawer, able to quickly draw diagrams in freehand.
• Hand drawing skills are demonstrated in field sketches.
• The pontifications of those who used drafters are easy to see and understand what they want to do.
• A drawing by someone who can draw by hand is balanced and easy to understand, even if it is a punched drawing.
• Assembly drawings by designers with no experience in handwriting give the impression that lines are poorly handled and difficult to read.

Why are classes on hand-drawn drawings and drafting being offered (what I have been able to ascertain)?

• Because it is not easy to make copies when students submit them as assignments.
• There's a CAD class, but the number of computers is limited.
• Because hand-drawn drafting is still a subject for national certification.

Conclusion: Hand drawn drawings are "the fastest and most optimal way to communicate what you want to say.

If we were to sum up the necessity of handwritten drawings in a few words, we would say that "handwritten drawings are the fastest and most appropriate way to convey what you want to say.　And the most necessary place is "onsite, at the place where things are made.

As others have commented, the current situation is that education and practical work are far apart when it comes to design, but it seems to be true that the absence of this skill has a negative impact on actual manufacturing.

I am a humanities person by nature.I've only seen a covered drafter-like object in the corner of the first company I joined, and the actual work started with 2DCAD.I studied the JIS by looking at it, and there were many times when I had to create handwritten drawings in the field. Each time I did, I learned how to draw from my seniors. There were times (and still are sometimes) when I would make arrangements by drawing directly from a freehand sketch. (This still happens occasionally).

In short, I'm practicing my handwriting a lot!　That's what I'm saying.Therefore, I reaffirm from past experience and this muttering that experience and study of hand-drawn drawings are necessary in the field.

That's it.