My drawings take too long!

By day I work as a carpenter for a small construction company that builds mostly residential houses. By night, I draw their blueprints. It makes for a lot of work but I really love doing it, except I feel that it takes me more time than is necessary. I've never had the chance to work with a more experienced drafter than myself (other than in school) therefore I'm sure I'm missing out on many tricks of the trade.

It usually takes me about 30 - 40 hrs to complete a full set of plans for a 1500 to 2500 sq.ft home. This includes floor plans, basement plan, and all four elevations. Luckily, I'm paid by the hour but I always feel like I'm stickin' it to my boss. Also, I want to be able to give other contractors a good price without losing my shirt.

Basically I was hoping for any tips or tricks any one might have to make the process of creating 2D blueprints more efficient without cutting corners.

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

It is really hard to say if it takes too long without knowing how you work and exactly what you do. Do you mind putting up an example of your work? A JPEG with a waterstamp woudl work just to get a feel of your work, I know there are others here in the the same business that can help you.

A few tiips off the top of my head:

- you should be able to make great use out of blocks. Dynamic blocks for windows/doors that always look the same but vary in width. Ordinary blocks for everything that you always draw for every house.

- A good template with the Layout (with borders, stamps, necessary texts, measuring bar and so on) already done, saves time when printing.

- ehm....use Polylines?

Troll mfg websites for downloadable autocad block and/or dwg sets of their appliances, sinks, tubs and the like.

Kholer, for instance has this library - http://www.us.kohler.com/tech/cadsymbol/cadsymbol.jsp?nsection=1&nsubsection=1&nitem=link8

EDIT: If I could turn around a set of plans that will get a building permit in 30 hours, I'd be patting myself on the back and hoisting a big frosty mug of Sam Adams.

Door and Window schedules can be created in Excel and DataLinked in your drawing. The data can be changed in either program and the changes will be reflected in the other.

Standard details can be saved as blocks and used in other drawings.

Make sure your template includes all the linetypes you use and preload it with your standard layers and text styles.

Reuse whatever you can.

You've done the drawings for a house already.. there should never be the need to start from absolute zero every time. Creating Blocks is a great solid step towards this end, but the further you can take this, the better.

Every drawing I've done over the past 7 years is listed on a huge Excel spreadsheet. Each row starts with the Job name, a hyperlink to the folder that contains it (on the server), and then goes onto details like State codes (a column for Florida, one for Georgia, etc.) With an "X" in each applicable column. The columns are broken into groupings like that, to make it easier to navigate, and the last column is "defining notes".

I would never be able to print out that spreadsheet.. it's HUGE, with about a hundred columns involved. However, every element I add to it means that I can find any detail I've ever drawn, and new projects can take advantage of any similar construction I drawn before.

It's not 100%, but it grows, and more columns are added as I tackle new design concepts.(I don't go back to update old entries.. there's no need, unless I use one of those old jobs to handle a new one).

Then when a new job hits, I put in the entry and fill-in the X's.. Then I scroll around to select the best match for the latest job.

Then, once I've found the best "starting match", I skim the options to find some of the missing details in other drawings.. I load-up the starting match, save-as the new drawing in a new job folder on the server, and then finish entering the data (and the hyperlink) into the chart. I also go to that last column "Defining notes" and I enter in the info that will make this job different from preceeding jobs.

It takes a little getting used to, and requires some self discipline, but the time I waste in playing around with that chart is MORE than made up for. It's success rests on whether I faithfully update it all the time or not.

So then I'm in the new job, and open-up various drawings I need details from (even if they aren't "right" for the current job.. just "close"), and paste them across.

Then once it's all in one drawing file, I adjust everything, element by element, to update the drawings to the current job. I usually use a Fat Red Pline to indicate what I've updated. Anything above the Line has been checked and adjusted.. everything below the line hasn't been checked/adjusted yet. I just slide the line down as my work progresses. This also helps keep my place if I run out for lunch or something.

I only use approval drawings, so I know they're accurately drawn up. They're my drawings, and any "cheated" dims are clearly marked whenever I have to use them. Mostly, I use the crap outta' the stretch command, and since my dims are in Modelspace, I stretch those at the same time.

My rule of thumb is that if I can save 15 minutes by not drawing something, (and verifying it's accuracy) by spending 1 minute to find it and 4 minutes to update it... I've cut my time by two-thirds.

My job is such that the expected drawing turnaround is 1 week, but that's based on starting from scratch. Now I'm at a point where I can often put out 3-4 jobs a day, hang-out and post here (and subsequntly learn stuff), run renderings on a 2nd computer at the same time, etc.

My drawings are always improving too.. because I can justify spending a little extra time to improve specific details, that I'll either load into my tool pallete to re-use on subsequent jobs, or at least note it on my spreadsheet to find it later if/when I need a similar detail.

The way I work means that I don't have to sacrifice overall speed, to bring up the quality level. It's not likely to work for everyone the same way.. but it sure works for me. I also now draw with the thought process of "How can I make this detail apply to more than just this configuration?"

For some designs I have really strong coverage, in terms of drawing options, which means I sometimes can just change the titleblock and a few minor details and I'm done. Compare THAT to a week's work.

Also, I want to be able to give other contractors a good price without losing my shirt.

When you are starting out with new clients other than your boss, consider pricing side jobs by the square foot. Then give the client a turn-around time estimate that is expedient for you, instead of one based on drawing hours. That will relieve (most of) your concern with how long it takes you to draw a set of plans, (Well, Mrs. finklenurb. I am very busy but I think I can squeeze you in) and you will not be put in the position of arguing over drawing hours later.

Learn to love dynamic blocks. I have a lot of them and I use them often, especially for electrical layouts. Windows are another one that would be great for a DB.

It takes a couple of weeks, at full time, to develop a good set of blueprints. This will depend on the complexity of the house, but I don't think 40 hours is too far off the mark. Most architects will take a lot longer than that to get a set of plans out.

As far as charging, hourly works well if you can keep track of and prove how many hours you spend on the drawing. However, you may run into a customer who refuses to believe that it took you "that long" to finish the plans. A better way is to average how long it takes you to complete a set, and find an average number of sheets included in a set, and come up with a per sheet price. This way, there is no question about how much the plans cost, and even if it goes over by a sheet you can look like a hero by not charging them for it.

Also, check out the CAD hardware thread in the Chat section. There are a lot of great suggestions for what kind of mouse you can use, or other tools that would help.

Great suggestions!

Here is one elevation that we never used. The original bid included tearing off the old flat roof and adding the more traditional gable roof shown below. Thereby adding second floor space.

While I work I usually jot down things that seem to take a lot of time. Planning, positioning, and overall design seem to be the biggest time consumers and I think the only way to become more efficient in these areas is to gain experience. However, I think that better organization overall could really make me more efficient. For example, I now have most of the blocks I need but I seem to spend a lot of time looking for and modifying them. Also, because we usually use Anderson windows I use the Anderson website to get window blocks. This takes some time and I'm starting to think it might be better to create my own dynamic blocks for the windows and other items. Right now I only have two dynamic blocks; one for doors (plan view) and one for a tub. As suggested I think using excel to organize my plans and blocks would definitely help with organization.

Thanks for all the suggestions. I really appreciate it and I'm sure my boss will too.

Do you use tool palettes? That is a great way to organize your blocks. You can set up each tab to be specific to a discipline (i.e. electrical, plumbing, annotations, etc.) so it will be easier to find what you're looking for.

Yeah, I was going to say palletes too.

He's right, and in your case, you could set-up a tab called "anderson windows" and whenever you want one, in any drawing, you click-on the tab, scroll down and drag it out of there.

Takes a little while to set that up correctly, and I advise "forward thinking" when you do it. I suggest using one file per tab.. put the blocks you want into the file, and then make sure it's seen by any computer that might need it.

Next, save and export the tab to the same directory, with a clear name (in case you, or another computer ever need to mess with it). Taking these two steps can help with making adjustments down the road, set you up to share with other computers even years from now, or help you if/when you upgrade your CAD later.

As noted, dynamic blocks are king.

ANYTHING you can reuse means that if you spend 10 minutes on it, and it can be accessed and reused within a minute or two, and if it would take 5 minutes to recreate from scratch, then by the 3rd use it's paid for itself in terms of time spent. Anything beyond that use is time saved, and over the years, that's gotta' be a big savings.

Anyone NOT doing that, is throwing away their work. I was amazed when I figured out how many things I could recycle from previous jobs, the biggest problem is making it easily accessible. The excel and tool palletes handle that for me.

I spent an hour setting-up tool palletes, and likely earned that time back within my next 2 projects alone, and that was years ago.

The other little time saver, for me, is keyboarding with one hand, and avoiding the use of buttons where a keyboard shortcut exists. It takes practice, but it pays off. I still use some buttons, but for the most part I turn off the toolbars aside from 2 custom ones.

It also helps to have the command options ready instead of waiting for prompts.. for example I type:

"ZE"

as though it were a single word, even though it's Zoom-->Extents.

That also helps for when/if you get into writing scripts (though you shouldn't use abbreviations in scripts because they can change "slightly" between AutoCAD releases).

Another big thing for me is my custom tool bar and my custom right click commands. Instead of searching for a button, or looking through the drop downs, or typing the command in, I have a majority of my "heavy use" commands available to me when I right click on the screen.

Just type CUI in the command line and have fun making your own tool bar.

Reuse whatever you can.

 

You've done the drawings for a house already.. there should never be the need to start from absolute zero every time. Creating Blocks is a great solid step towards this end, but the further you can take this, the better.

Exactly! I have a huge library of past tank, pipe 'n valve jobs done over the years. I frequently rework 'em for new projects.

As the library gets larger, work gets quicker, zoom, zoom, zoom.

Does anyone have a suggestion regarding work flow for creating shop drawings? What order do you draw elevations, key plan, details, door schedule, etc.?

It seems like I spend too much time flipping back and forth in the architecturals to get the information I need to get on my shop drawings. Any suggestions.

This question seems familiar.

Buy a good architectural drafting and design book to start with and use it. Try thinking logically too. How can one create elevations if they have no idea what the floor plan looks like? Same goes for the foundation. And one would not be creating door and window schedules at the very beginning of a job now would they? It sounds like you could use some help working on your organizational skills as well. When confusion slows you down you waste your time and the client's money.

Make yourself a checklist...foundation plan, floor plan(s), roof plan, door schedule, window schedule, hardware schedule, etc... Build your checklist in more or less the same order the house goes up and follow it. You'll have to deviate at times, but if you use it as a guideline, things will progress in a logical order.

When it comes to indexing your plans, use the same scheme every time. For instance, I use sheets 0-99 for the lead sheet, hardware schedule, door and window schedules, revisions summaries, etc. Rarely are there more than 5 or 6 pages but it doesn't matter. Sheets 100-199 are foundation plans, floor plans, reflected ceiling plans and so forth. 200-299 are elevations, cross sections and such, 300-399 are details and so on and so forth. Sheets 0-99 are in one drawing file, 100-199 are another drawing, etc. The point is, come up with a plan makes sense, you'll know every time which section to turn to or which drawing to open.

Everyone here will tell you a different way to do it, and they all work. You need to pick or create a method that makes sense to you, that fits the way you work and the stuff you work on. Do the same for block libraries. When you've only got a dozen to choose from, a folder that says "windows" may be enough, but as your library grows, and you have hundreds of windows to choose from, you're going to wish you'd broken them down some way to narrow the choices. Same for doors and all the other stuff. Under "doors" you might have "sliders", "entry", "passage", etc. When you get a new type of door or whatever add the category then, and you won't have to go back and change things so much later.

The most important thing you can do is to be consistant with how you name your blocks and how you arrange your files. Write the procedure down on a note pad and refer to it from time to time. IF you've done it the same way every time, when change becomes necessary (and it will, I assure you), you can then easily convert your old system to the new one and still be able to find thngs.

Dynamic blocks are wonderful things, if you don't put too many choices in them. Someone above mentioned windows as being a good candidate for DB's, and that it true, but don't get carried away and try to put every window a particular manufacturer makes in one block. Keep it simple. You can do this with wood and metal studs, fasteners, anything that are variations on the same thing.

Tool pallets are a great way to organize all that stuff and keep it easily at hand. You can turn them on and off as needed, and I even put the commonly used hatches and fills on a pallet. That way if I need to hatch something with "concrete", I drag the concrete hatch off the pallet and drop it where I want it. Layer, color, linetype and scale are already set. It's "click, drag, drop, done". If there is more than one spot, I hit the right click button and pick the next spot, and so on.

Avoid cryptic file names. Back in the old DOS days when you were limited to 8 characters, you had to do stuff like that. Now, you can name things in a way that will tell you what they are. I have a customer that has thousands of standard details for his products. Every product (and there are dozens) has a detail called VJ01.DWG which means "vertical jamb 01". Neither of those means anything to anybody. All his in house drafters have bookshelves with 3 ring binders filled with paper printouts of all those details, and they sit and page through them looking for what they need because there's no way to index this stuff that helps. Most of the drafters there have made pallets on thier own with the most commonly used ones named in ways that allow them to know what they are using, but there's no consensus on how that should be done, and the IT department there actually discourages this practice. It's a giant dinosaur of a company, spread out all over the world, and they have thier own ways of doing things. If you sort them logically as you go along, you won't have these problems later.

Use Xrefs and lock them. This way you can easely select things.

Layer filters are quite handy to hide/unhide parts of a drawing at ones.

Another trick is when you have used a block in a drawing on many places(like doors,windows,stairs,...) and suddenly they need to be replaced(client wants new model).

You can rename the block in your drawing with the "rename" Command, and then insert the new block with that name.

Acad will then redefine the existing block in place. This way you don't have to delete and replace all blocks.