CAD Vs The Pencil

Q: For those who do their own design work, wondering who prefers CAD and who still uses a pencil? For over a decade of architectural consulting (lighting, sound, and staging systems design) I used AutoCAD and CADKey with great success and enjoyment, but for woodworking projects I found I still prefer a pencil and bumwad. For those interested in 'the old stuff' I've got a Hamilton 50" table with a Vemco V-Track drafting machine

A: -I learned mechanical drafting and architectural drafting 30 years ago. 17 years ago I started learning several CAD programs and am self taught on CAD. Today I use AutoCAD LT. . When in school I won several awards in competition drafting. That said, I would not go back to the pencil. I am 47 and retired and now design and build custom furniture for fun. It is much easier to make modifications with CAD when a customer changes his mind. -pencil and paper every time. Don't recall ever actually using a CAD program, although I've played about with a couple, trying to convince myself they are better. -Well its all relative...

I do initial sketches on paper. But for real layout I do it on the Cad system. I use Autodesk Inventor 5, slick as &%$#! All my stuff is 3d. The way Cad outperforms "spreading the lead" is in its editing, its far easier and quicker. Also you can parametrically link parts, so that if you change the length of something any other part that is in relation to that length dimension will update automatically with there associated detail drawings. You can even create and store "common details" like mortise and tennons, or anything like that... Posibilities are endless... The inventor program I use even has animation features with collision detection, so i see interferences....