Switched from hand drafting to full CAD last quarter, still second guessing it

I picked up a used copy of DraftSight after 14 years of doing everything on the board with a parallel bar and triangles. My old mentor in Toledo always said digital drafting loses the feel of the line work, and honestly he had a point for the first week. But now I can send a revision to the fabricator in 20 minutes instead of redrawing the whole elevation by hand. The thing I miss is the physical trace of the pencil, but I can't argue with the speed. Any other drafters make the jump and regret giving up the manual process?

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craig.max4d ago

Read somewhere that a lot of old school drafters actually kept a sketchbook on the side for the "feel" part, just for themselves, while using CAD for the real work. Sounds like a decent middle ground if you miss the pencil. The speed thing is huge though, I bet your fabricator loves getting updates that fast now. Maybe keep a few hand drawn details for the stuff that's more about the design vibe, not the final shop drawings. Your mentor is right that the line work feels different but the end goal is the building, not the process.