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Technician, drafter or designer?


SuperCAD

Proper title for CAD users?  

106 members have voted

  1. 1. Proper title for CAD users?

    • CAD Technician
      58
    • CAD Designer
      75
    • CAD Drafter
      48
    • Other (specify)
      35


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I think CAD Designer sound silly.

 

Sounds like someone who designs CAD systems.

 

That title isn't silly here across the pond. Designing CAD systems or rather being a CAD programmer/manager is what that title entails in many cases.

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I've not read all these posts but here is a thought-

 

Cad is just a tool used to produce drawings.

 

Before Cad we used to use pencils (pens) and paper.

 

Nobody said that they were a pencil user, a pencil draughtsman, or a pencil designer.

 

Ok; in the early days of cad it could make sense to specify that you could use it as well as using pencils.

 

But nowadays I doubt you will find many (any) draughtsmen / designers / architects / engineers who dont use Cad so why do we still feel the need to tell people what tool we use at work?

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  • 1 month later...

The following is how I believe that the titles should be, bearing in mind that the end result is a drawing no matter what technique was used to produce it.

 

Trainee Draughtsman, Junior draughtsman, Draughtsman, Senior Draughtsman, Design Draughtsman, Section leader, Chief Draughtsman, Drawing/Design office Manager.

 

Descipline can be added - Eg Junior Piping Draughtsman, Senior Mechanical Draughtsman

 

Engineering Diploma Quals, - Draughting Technician

Engineering degree, - Draughting Engineer

 

CAD is a tool, just like the drawing board.

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Old habits die hard. When we were at that in-between point of some people still drafting manually while others had switched to CAD, we had to make the distinction. It just got into the vernacular and thus we still say or use the term CAD draftsman or CAD designer. Although I still here of people that have yet to put down the pencil/pen and switch to a computer and a CAD program. I suspect they are a lot like "Bigfoot". The rumors persist they are out there but sigthings are always rare and suspect.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Im late joining this debate, I know, but cant help pitching in with my opinion.

 

Cad designers - Desing cad software

Cad technicians - use cad in order to produce drawings

Draftsmen - technicians who worked on the drawing boards before cad was introduced.

 

There seems to be a degree of snobbery when it comes to the subject as people think that the term technician means your at the bottom of the food chain, in that case, call yourself a Cad Doctor, who the hell cares, its only a title!

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I agree - Although it can be a little bit of a grey area when companies are looking to employ, due to the use of different titles or job discriptions by different companies, more often than not, looking for a Draughtsman with design type capabilities.

 

:geek:

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Yes the thing that got me with finding a cad job was the employers had no idea what a cad tech or drafter done. Then you have the engineer jobs where they want tons of cad experience. Very big gray area as you say.

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Yes the thing that got me with finding a cad job was the employers had no idea what a cad tech or drafter done. Then you have the engineer jobs where they want tons of cad experience. Very big gray area as you say.

 

Im in the Civil / Structural Consultancy side of the game and I would say that Cad Technician is the more commonly used job title certainly in the Glasgow area. Engineering Technician would be someone who aswell as Cad could do some design work.

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In our office, your an 'Engineering Technician' or 'Engineering Technologist' as it seems more and more today, the job of 'just a draftsperson' is going out the wayside. I would assume most of us are more on the doing the 'design and drafting' together side of things and not specifically 'just drafting' anymore or so it seems.

 

I know there are people that just draw and don't 'design' but more and more you see people doing both, there for, if I had to choose between the ones above, I would choose CAD Technician (or Technologist).

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In our office, your an 'Engineering Technician' or 'Engineering Technologist' as it seems more and more today, the job of 'just a draftsperson' is going out the wayside. I would assume most of us are more on the doing the 'design and drafting' together side of things and not specifically 'just drafting' anymore or so it seems.

 

I know there are people that just draw and don't 'design' but more and more you see people doing both, there for, if I had to choose between the ones above, I would choose CAD Technician (or Technologist).

 

The term Designer makes more sense than technician, you yourself use the word design to differentiate between drafting and something more.

 

Drafter

Designer (Mechanical Designer, Piping Designer, Electrical Designer, etc.)

 

There is nothing demeaning about the term Technician, it simply doesn't apply to what we do as well as Drafter and or Designer titles.

 

To me Technicians would be the ones that take what we design and actually build it, test it, etc.

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The term Designer makes more sense than technician.

 

 

Are you actually designing anything?? If your designing mechanical parts or pipes then fair doos. But, if someone is purely detailing parts/structures which someone else has designed then it makes no sense to be called a designer. I wouldnt call myself a structural designer cos i dont design structures, i detail structures that engineers design.

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Yeah I see what you are saying, I'm really on the fence with it to be honest, but here where I live, all the degrees/diplomas for our field are referenced as 'Technologists' from the colleges here. In the engineering offices I have worked in, a person does the design, the CAD work, the field supervision/on site surveying, etc. all together, not just specifically 'CAD' work and just that. In my experiences, if your 'only' doing CAD work, it's usually by direction of someone "an engineer for example" who actually did the 'Design' work, your just drawing it up, not really designing it.

 

I can see this as an ongoing battle back and forth when in reality, both titles fit to some degree. Anyone up for the 'CAD Design Technician' option? Here we go.......

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I can see this as an ongoing battle back and forth when in reality, both titles fit to some degree. Anyone up for the 'CAD Design Technician' option? Here we go.......

 

With the way the market is going at the moment, quite frankly Ill take any title thats going!!:)

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The term Designer makes more sense than technician.

 

 

Are you actually designing anything?? If your designing mechanical parts or pipes then fair doos. But, if someone is purely detailing parts/structures which someone else has designed then it makes no sense to be called a designer. I wouldnt call myself a structural designer cos i dont design structures, i detail structures that engineers design.

 

You make my point, if you aren't designing then you are a Drafter. If you are designing then you are a Designer.

 

I design solutions for various problems we encounter every week. They might be a machined part, a small gas panel, a layout of new process tools along with routing the associated piping, Bulk Chemical Delivery, etc. The company gave me the title of Engineer but I refuse to use that as I don't have an eng. degree and professional certification (both are required to call oneself an engineer, here at least) and call myself a Designer instead.

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  • 8 months later...

If you type the word technician into the dictionary you will find the following

 

1. a person skilled in mechanical or industrial techniques or in a particular technical field

2. a person employed in a laboratory, technical college, or scientific establishment to do practical work

3. a person having specific artistic or mechanical skill, esp if lacking original flair or genius

 

However AutoCAD is merely a tool such as a mechanics tool box, or an artists brush set etc the product of autocad is the drawing or if you like the set of instructions or the plan of events. The thoughts and ideas used to create the drawing come from the user.

 

Traditionaly a draughtsman would use a drawing board which has now been replaced with a CAD computer package so therefore someone who operates autocad converting the ideas and initial design of an engineer or architect will be a CAD Draughtsman and a CAD Designer will do a bit more than a draughtsman as he will also input design.

 

however you can clearly define a designer from a technician therefore CAD Technician and CAD Draughtsman are about the same. An Engineer who uses CAD is a cheap scate :lol: lol.

 

simples

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I put "other"... I'm a CAD Hater.

 

I consider a Draftsperson a "Redliner"

I consider a Cad Designer, one who Designs using CAD

I consider someone who designs CAD... a "programmer".

I don't know if I've ever thought what a CAD technician is.

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CAD operator sounds like if we were telemarketers or something of that sort. The truth is most of us use CAD as a tool to be able to do our jobs. Say you are a drafter for a windowmaker, you can say that you are more of a window designer than a drafter. I think CAD operators/drafters, etc, would really apply only if a company specializes in drafting services for different industries, within this company the employess can be called drafters because the company is not producing a particular object besides the drawing itself. It seems that CAD drafter itself is more of a skill than it is a name for a career.

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