I always used to think that my drawing technique sucked, but now I suspect that I was just trying too hard.
A routine has settled into place: I sketch an idea by hand and then later refine it in 3d on screen: the design proceeds apace.
While I'm waiting for my structural engineer to get back to me with a preliminary sizing estimate of all the structural bits, I’ve been looking at how I’m gonna handle all the documentation required:
- council submission drawings
- prototype / model preparation drawings
- tender/costing drawings
- board cutting schedules and fabrication drawings
- component assembly drawings
Ouch. Thats some set of requirements — my documentation technique needs to kick ass.
Hand-drawing just seems crazy (as much as it appeals) – way too difficult to keep up with the myriad changes that are always required. Problem is, I have not done any 2D CAD since ‘94, and so I’m kind-of rusty in my knowledge of what is available.
I spent yesterday in considering my options:
- Vectorworks 11
I know and loved the software from its earlier days – I did my first 3d model using Minicad 1 back in the late eighties in London. After playing with a recent version (Vectorworks Architect) I feel that it is no longer for me: it feels very much like a port of old Mac OS 9 software – which it is. I was annoyed to see old rendering bugs from the early nineties still showing up (artefacts when you are assigning records to text fields whilst within a symbol entity).I want something that is of the new generation of software designed to take advantage of Mac OS X – all that Cocoa and Quartz Extreme goodness.
- MacDraft looks interesting but is also a port from Mac OS 9, and their Demo version sucked: you can’t save or print or export your tests.
- PowerCad also looks interesting, but also has a kludgy old interface.
- Vellum: yummy interface, but still OS 9 based.
This was getting boring. I was beginning to think that there is no Mac OS X- native software for doing CAD-type 2d. I was looking for something like Sketchup, but in 2D. Something like Omnigraffle, but for CAD.
Maybe something like HighDesign.