Quote - I do not agree, Autocad is the tool to make paper drawings, like a wordprocessor is used to make paper documents. 

 

In my opinion, if your not designing on the computer; your wasting time.

Quote - I'm an Autocad engineer for 18 years so I know where I'm talking about. You don't sent an E-mail to client to sign the drawing which isn't possible by the way, 

 

I've been a tech for 14 yrs, the Autocad i started with was a word processor for technical drawings. The companies i have worked for have always stayed with the current versions and there have been alot of changes and advances in those years.

Quote - you don't check drawings on you computer, you make a plot of it and check it on a table, if you use a monitor, you're missing too many points. 

 

havent had any complaints so far. I do have to make prints for some of my engneers but only because they barly know how to open autocad. Others are making their designs in Autocad and i'm cleaning up the results (checking and correcting drafting standards.) granted not all checks are done on the computer, neither are all checks done on plots

Quote - You don't give a floppydisk to a carpenter to build your buildings, cause he don't has a laptop on the site to see you drawings. 

 

pffft.. who uses floppydisks anymore ;-)
We have contractors that download plan sets from our website in order to submit their bids. currently only pdf scans of the drawings. I doubt they use that set for anything more than making bids currently (i'm not really involved in that side of the process) but they do recieve electronic files.

Quote - If a Cad-program doesn't has a possibility to make paper copies (plots in this case) it's useless. I've seen and used other very advanced 3D-design-programs, like solid edge and AD-inventor, but I don't use them anymore because of the crappy plot-interface, perhaps they improved that but 4 years it was worthless. I agree that autocad and other cad-programs can be used as way of communication between engineers and designers, but that's only true during the design process. 

More and more our clients are asking for electronic drawings. Some want downloads others CD or DVD. As mentioned before, contractors download sets for bidding. Autodesk's Civil package has made huge leaps in the last 3 years and continues to improve.

Quote - When you have to realize your design, you have to deal with laymen who can only read paper drawings, including your clients. You don't make a set of digital contract drawings, people don't trust that, me including, even if it's completely secured.

 

People don't trust them because they are not secure, the security has to be established before it could be acceptable. It may never happen.

Not all my clients need me to print drawings for them. many are capable of doing it themselves, and some can have someone elese print files for them.

My Homepage - Free stuff and Galleries