Hot take: My drafting sped up after I quit redrawing common parts

Honestly, I used to sketch every bolt and flange from scratch on each new job. Tbh, it felt like the right way to keep things accurate. Ngl, I began saving those parts as reusable blocks in my CAD library last spring. Now, I just insert them and adjust the specs. It shaves off hours every project. Honestly, my error rate dropped because I'm not rushing through repetitive work.

4 comments

4 Comments

wade_wood1mo ago

Ever think it was lazy? Changed my mind fast.

knight.dylan1mo ago

Yeah, I went through the same thing with standard details (like, I was redrawing the same notes every time). Making a library of those was a total game changer for my speed. It really does free up brain space for the actual hard parts of a project.

lewis.finley25d ago

Actually, I'd call it smart, not lazy. That's just good practice.

knight.dylan1mo ago

Wait, you were actually drawing every single bolt again each time? That's wild to me. The time that must have wasted is crazy. I had a similar mental block about reusing old title blocks for way too long. It seems so obvious now, but back then it just felt like cutting corners.