Author Topic: Brain Dead Drawing only?  (Read 20063 times)

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craigr

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Brain Dead Drawing only?
« on: September 25, 2007, 02:14:55 PM »
I wasn't sure what to put for a 'Topic', but..

Here at our company, all of us, that use AutoCad, MUST understand and be able to do some part of engineering to do our jobs. We have no one that just 'draws'. In other words, everyone must know electrical circuits, how HVAC systems work, etc..

I was discussing the 'AutoCad world' at lunch with a coworker and the question came up - Are there AutoCad jobs out there that you could simply hire someone straight out of an AutoCad class and they could do the job?

(I hope you understand what I am trying to ask.)

craigr

Josh Nieman

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Re: Brain Dead Drawing only?
« Reply #1 on: September 25, 2007, 02:17:53 PM »
The electrical guy down the hall hires people for just that.

All they do is redlines.  He doesn't care they know what they are typing, they just have to do it.  He writes up the design and they do the power plan on top of a floor plan, the lighting plan...

I've talked with his main, full time, drafter... and... he's very very clueless about anything electrical.  He has no idea what he's drawing, he just knows the habits he is in.

The engineer says it works for him and is all he needs for drafters.

deegeecees

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Re: Brain Dead Drawing only?
« Reply #2 on: September 25, 2007, 02:21:10 PM »
Cad Monkeys.

I've worked for lots of companies that do just that. Enjuneers that have little to no drafting experience that red-line drawings, then give it to Cad Monkey, who in turn does the corrections, then highlights the redlines (this a good way to keep track) with yellow highlighter, then plots the drawings, and gives back to E$njuneer with original redlines. I used to be a Cad Monkey, now I'm more of a Cad Gorilla.

kindra

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Re: Brain Dead Drawing only?
« Reply #3 on: September 25, 2007, 02:35:50 PM »
Craig,

That's about what I am, or what I started out as. I took two ACAD classes at the local junior college and got hired on at a civil/structural firm to work with MicroStation and Geopak. I didn't know doodly-squat about anything we engineer here and still have a hard time with stuff - right now I'm working on a roadway plan, my next task is some bridges/culverts, I've been known to dabble in some electrical, HVAC, and process plumbing as well (although most of my work is in the roadway/structural world). It's been a bumpy road - I've had to learn quite a few new 'languages' since I started here 18 months ago. But I (think I) learn fast, and I'm not afraid to ask questions. With the help of some construction site visits, I'm understanding more and more of the 'whys' of what I'm depicting.

There are certain parts of the roadway plans that engineers do (attempt to) draft, so we have quite a few MS users that don't understand a thing about how the program works or how to fix (or finesse) its quirks. That's where I come in  8-)

uncoolperson

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Re: Brain Dead Drawing only?
« Reply #4 on: September 25, 2007, 02:44:40 PM »
that's what i started doing here, taking the action (change diagrams) and incorporating the changes into the wire diagram manuals.... don't have to know anything about anything except how to draft.

craigr

  • Guest
Re: Brain Dead Drawing only?
« Reply #5 on: September 25, 2007, 02:48:19 PM »
So far, I am VERY surprised by the answers.

Doing 'CAD Monkey' work, doesn't it get very boring after awhile?

What I love about my job is that I often have to figure things out, then draw them. It makes the day challenging.

craigr

Josh Nieman

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Re: Brain Dead Drawing only?
« Reply #6 on: September 25, 2007, 02:51:19 PM »
I don't think I would survive as a CAD Monkey... or at least if I didn't think it would eventually lead me to explore my creative/design/problem-solving side more.

The people I run in to that are mindless CAD Monkey's are doing so to work their way up.... or they are just the types that work to live, not live to work, and just want to maintain a paycheck.

M-dub

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Re: Brain Dead Drawing only?
« Reply #7 on: September 25, 2007, 03:03:59 PM »
Zombie CAD, as I call it.  We often do a lot of that, but we also get some of the jobs where we'll get a bill of materials and are told "build me a panel with that stuff in it".

Both have gotten old and are getting older as we speak.

jonesy

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Re: Brain Dead Drawing only?
« Reply #8 on: September 25, 2007, 03:25:17 PM »
I'm another of the "cad monkeys"

I've been doing it for more years than I care to remember. Even tho I have no formal engineering training, it doesnt take long to question/query things that an engineer brings over that "dont look quite right"

I wouldnt change the job I do for anything.
Oh, and one of the great things about being a cad monkey... when one discipline slows down, its easy to jump into another :-)
Thanks for explaining the word "many" to me, it means a lot.

Shinyhead

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Re: Brain Dead Drawing only?
« Reply #9 on: September 25, 2007, 03:29:33 PM »
Guess thats another reason to love my job.  We do custom millwork, paneling and the like, but there is no "engineer", a person has to be able to figure whats going on and make sure it works.  There is nothing mindless to any of our drawings. We have folks to QC, but that usually is for call out numbers, references and the like. Its considered a pretty bad thing to draw something that cannot be built, and thats all the way down to the entry level folks.  The only worse offense is overriding dimensions.  :pissed:

T.Willey

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Re: Brain Dead Drawing only?
« Reply #10 on: September 25, 2007, 03:49:53 PM »
I'm a Cad Monkey also.  I wouldn't want to do what the engineers have to do here, too much paper work.  One way I stimulate my gray matter is by coding.  That has been pretty much self taught, with help here and there by smart people wherever I can find them (like here @ theswamp!).  As long as you are willing to put in the time to learn, there are always ways to grow within your job, profession ... life in general.
Tim

I don't want to ' end-up ', I want to ' become '. - Me

Please think about donating if this post helped you.

deegeecees

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Re: Brain Dead Drawing only?
« Reply #11 on: September 25, 2007, 03:58:24 PM »
<snippety snip>...Doing 'CAD Monkey' work, doesn't it get very boring after awhile?

In my experience, this leads to other related careers, Cad/CAM, Cad Management, Data Management, Programming, just to name few, so it's a basic spring board for lanching into the wonderful world of creating things with technology.

If you get bored, that is.


craigr

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Re: Brain Dead Drawing only?
« Reply #12 on: September 25, 2007, 04:01:50 PM »
<snippety snip>...Doing 'CAD Monkey' work, doesn't it get very boring after awhile?

In my experience, this leads to other related careers, Cad/CAM, Cad Management, Data Management, Programming, just to name few, so it's a basic spring board for lanching into the wonderful world of creating things with technology.

If you get bored, that is.



In no way did I mean to offend anyone. Some people don't like to be challenged all day long and others do. Nothing wrong with either, it's just a matter of preference.

Again, I didn't mean to offend and apologize if I did.

craigr

Arizona

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Re: Brain Dead Drawing only?
« Reply #13 on: September 25, 2007, 04:07:00 PM »
I started out as a Cad Monkey right out of school, working for a contract company that did work for the local utility. All we did was create or fix drawings (both Cad and manual drafting). Every drawing was estimated with the least one 15 minutes. I soon became so fast and so accurate, that I could take as many breaks as I wanted and still be ahead of the game. When they decided I had reached the maximum they could pay, I applied at the utility that we did work for (after all I had experience now). I had automated everything (remember digitizers?) at this contract company specifically for this kind of work. The utility snapped me up very quickly, that was almost 13 years ago.

Besides everyone has to start somewhere. :-)

Josh Nieman

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Re: Brain Dead Drawing only?
« Reply #14 on: September 25, 2007, 04:09:59 PM »
<snippety snip>...Doing 'CAD Monkey' work, doesn't it get very boring after awhile?

In my experience, this leads to other related careers, Cad/CAM, Cad Management, Data Management, Programming, just to name few, so it's a basic spring board for lanching into the wonderful world of creating things with technology.

If you get bored, that is.

I had a good love for CAD/CAM work, but man... as much as programming is interesting to me (the results and ideas) I just can't bring myself to do it.  I'm just not the right kind of geek for that.  Which is odd, because I don't mind sitting and hand writing G-Code to get a machine to run a part.  You'd think one would be ok with the other, if they're good with one.

It's strange because:

Code: [Select]
G1,0,0,0,15
G13,6500
G60,13,0,0,25
G14
G0,13,0,5
G11

makes much more sense to me (though I feel like I botched some of the variable inputs, but I think I still remembered the Gxx commands right) than a LSP string does.