Ideas in CAD
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That's quite possible, but the fact remains that using a pencil (or a byro, ...) can be great fun. At least, I think so.
We mustn't forget either that a tablet doesn't fit in your back pocket. Or behind your ear.
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Very good points, especially concerning portability. There isnt exactly a napkin equivalent in the computing world.
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well (maybe this is a personal thing) i find that i can design better on paper than on a piece of software. i use the software to display my ideas more accurately afterwards, but initial ideas are always always always sketched (or a quick sketch model).
i find that if i use software to design, then i sometimes slip into designing what i know i can achieve with that piece of software, and not designing what is in my imagination.
there is no medium i can think of which is as free as pen an paper. the only boundaries are your imagination and obv. the size of the paper!also when i'm talking to a client (during any stage of the design process) it's always infinitely easier to do a quick sketch for them to convery my ideas than to get the computer fired up. i find that they relate to it better as well.
like i said though, this is just my opinion.
i'd like to hear what others have to say on the matter, maybe i am totally wrong. (i don't think i am though! he he)
pav
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This is an interesting article if you hav not already read it.
http://www.aecbytes.com/tipsandtricks/2008/issue30-sketchbook.htmlI tried the Sketchbook software and used my Wacom, but I just cannot get a drawing done as neatly as with pen and paper. Maybe this is down to practice and lack of experience with a tablet, but for me it feels pretty awkward. I guess if I kept at it, then I would improve, but I did think to myself, do I really need this? Why not just stick with sketching on paper?
The main thing interesting me was the fact I would have instant electronically stored files. -
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I think this anecdote adds another perspective ...
An architect had a friend who was a whiz at producing photo realistic models of interiors. After a quick lunch with a client to receive the brief for a chic new restaurant, the architect visited the premises and within two days they had come up with what seemed like photographs of the finished interior. The architect next met the client and proudly presented the images. The client's face dropped. "I thought you would bring along some rough sketches, so that we could go through the ideas together."
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Chris, surely that problem would be easily solved by talking to the client
pav and dylan, im still pondering on your posts...
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lets face it remus, pen an paper is here to stay.
and i find it hard to believe that you don't think the same way he hepav
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Of course its here to stay, theres no arguing that. Whta im trying to work out/discuss is wether UIs and software will ever reach the point where they are a viable alternative. (thats actualyl pretty different from what i wrote in the OP, but it raises pretty similar issues.)
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@remus said:
Chris, surely that problem would be easily solved by talking to the client
This took place at least ten years ago in Hong Kong, at a time and in a place where the newest technology and speed would surely caress the client. It failed. From this it seems understanding what others expect can be as significant as the tools that suit the way you work.
... and so on
Chris
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@remus said:
Of course its here to stay, theres no arguing that. Whta im trying to work out/discuss is wether UIs and software will ever reach the point where they are a viable alternative. (thats actualyl pretty different from what i wrote in the OP, but it raises pretty similar issues.)
hmm,
laptop computer: £1000
mouse: £10
skecthup pro: $495drawing on the back of an old letter using a pencil you found on a colleagues desk: priceless.
there are some techniques in design you can buy, for everything else there's sketching.
he he
pav
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CHris, none the less it is the designers fault more than anything else, he chose the wrong method of presentation for the client, that doesnt mean that there is something at fault with the technology. In the same way as if you tried to present a quick sketch for the final realisation of a project.
Pav, do you have a computer? id say its a fairly standard peice of equipment these days. Not so much with swanky interfaces (tablets, tablet PCs etc.) but give it 10 years or so, im sure there will be some new interface device we could have never lived without.
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@remus said:
Pav, do you have a computer? id say its a fairly standard peice of equipment these days. Not so much with swanky interfaces (tablets, tablet PCs etc.) but give it 10 years or so, im sure there will be some new interface device we could have never lived without.
i agree with you on computers being a standard piece of equipment, but like you say the "swanky interfaces" not so much (at this current moment in time). let's not forget though that these swanky interfaces, pretty much still rely on sketching techniques, graphics tablets, tablet PCs, are still fundamentally based on the good old pen and paper.
who knows, maybe there will be some kind of "computer paper" (there probably already is) but this is still essentially a development on sketching.
prehistoric man had cave walls and natural pigments, the egyptians had papyrus and ink, modern man a sketchbook and a pencil.
i'm not saying that we wont be drawing on tablet pc's in the furure, i'm almost certain we will be, but the question was about whether we would be designing in CAD, and as far as i am concerned this is just an evolution in sketching, not a change in the way ideas are put down.pav
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In the architecture firm I work at we always do sketches first. We've NEVER started a design on CAD! It seems absolutely pointless to try to design anything on CAD when it takes much longer to do then when using pen and paper. Once we get the go ahead on the design from the sketches... we then start to build models and technical documents! Sketchup can be fast but it is still not as fast as pen and paper!
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DO you think its ever going to reach the point where it is possible ot do ideas in CAD?
Pav, more pondering to do...
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OPEN LIST
feel free to edit and complete itPencil pros:
- doesn't need power supply
- no batteries
- cheap to buy
- few maintenance
- the weight is ludicrous and you can carry it everywhere without backpack or case
- no boot or startup time required, no reboot!!
- no software updates, no patches, no malware
- no snobbish win vs mac vs linux: it really just works
Pencil cons:
- doesn't work well in the darkness
- you can not copy and paste
- if you want to email a sketch, first you have to scan or take a picture of it
- no undo! (well, I remember the age when I had to erase ink lines with a blade)
- color fills and patterns are not so quick and easy to generate.
- ink color choice reduced if compared with a computer screen. Drawing in truecolor by hand kills the rendering time of your organic hardware.
- most of carbon units cannot easily generate shadows neither produce a decent perspective or even figure out how it works: the best trained units take a lot of time to operate such functions
Tablet pros and cons: just reverse the above list.
Future evolutions, not so far to come: oled diplays look very promising.
Take a look to MS Surface:
http://www.microsoft.com/surface/
Really intriguing/matteo
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@remus said:
CHris, none the less it is the designers fault more than anything else, he chose the wrong method of presentation for the client ...
Precisely the point. Well done!
Chris
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Well my workflow [in landscape design] hasn't included anything other than a keyboard for eight or nine years...I just never do preliminary sketches.
I find I can get concepts on screen as fast as I need to... with editing/drawing tools like delete, copy, mirror etc far quicker and more accurate than any pencil.I start in ACAD....quickly migrate to SU....where most of the creative work is done, and then export back to ACAD for the working drawings.
Something like a 9.1 EeePC would make all this truely portable and independant of the desk [top].
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ideas come from people. Getting those ideas out of your head and in front of other people is simply a user preference based on your capabilities with the medium.
Having said that I think we all employ some measure of hand drawing to visualize our thoughts but I have found that the quicker I get my thoughts into the computer the more flexibility I have to massage those thoughts and present them. What I love about computers is they are output "independent" IE: I can print out at 1/8" scale 1/4" scale 1/2" scale etc. I can print to my 11x17 laser printer, my epson 4000 color printer, or my large format plotter. So I can create something once and use it multiple times.
I agree that at times I just need to take a print and sketch ideas onto it. but within seconds of having an idea resolve on paper I jump back into the computer.
There is no going back now. I doubt seriously that students coming out of schools today have the manual drafting skills necessary to complete all the required drawings to convey an idea by hand. SO in that regard at some point all of us who were taught manual drafting and perspective drawing, and water color, etc. in school, at some point we are no longer in charge and the students who don't have or value those skills or for that matter need them will take over and just like any craft if the younger generation does not perpetuate it it will fade away.
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Well said Phil. I think it all depends on what you are comfortable with and task at hand. Although I am biased to hand drawing in some cases there is no way I could create some designs on paper vs computer especially when a lot of repetitive geomerty is involed. Think about the parametric high rise designs that are created these days. I'm sure by now there are some guy's out there that have quickly done some masterful works on the computer w/o touching pencil n paper.
Ive seen some sculptors create some master pcs w/o ever touching a drawing. It
has more to do with the individuals skill and comfort level and choosing the right tool for the job.
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