Tried switching from manual to digital drafting for a residential project and it backfired hard

I decided to go fully digital on a house plan last month after 10 years of doing everything by hand. Used a basic AutoCAD setup and spent almost 40 hours on a set of drawings that usually takes me 20 hours with a drafting board. The problem was I kept getting lost in the layers and had to redo the electrical layout twice because I missed a reference. Learned that I need to stick with what I know for tight deadlines, maybe ease into the software on smaller jobs first. Has anyone else had a rough time jumping into digital drafting after doing it manually for years?

2 comments

2 Comments

stella_roberts6d ago

Did you set your layers up first or just jump straight into drawing like I did?

lisa_ross166d ago

Did you have your layers set up before you started drawing? That's the mistake I made when I first switched over. I just jumped in and started drawing without organizing anything first. After redoing a whole floor plan because I couldn't find where I put the wall details I learned the hard way. Now I take 15 minutes at the start to name and color code my layers before I even draw a line. It saves hours of headache later. You should try that on a small project first, like a garage or a shed.