Topic: POLL :: Who has the hardest drafting job?

[SMadsen]

Have any of you engineering types out there ever tried to explain to an Archie-type that his beatiful sweeping facade can not be structurally supported and stay in budget?

Of course it can .. pheww  

[Keith™]

Ok...here is another reason why I think the achitectural types have the hardest job ...

Today, I received yet another change order from a client, not that I am not renumerated for making the changes, BUT....this set of changes was 15 pages long as typed in MS Office ... there have been at least 5 other change orders in the last 30 days that have been 9, 24, 21, 7, and 16 pages respectfully..... many of the changes are simply changes of the previous changes changing the changes of a previous change....it gets so damned confusing at times ...

"So which change did you want to eliminate"
"Item 17 on page 4, of the revisions dated 10/13/04"
"Sir that item modifies a change from a previous change from 9/29/04, what portion of the change do you want to remove?"
"Only the portion from 9/29/04 that was not changed on 10/13/04"
"So you want to completely change the change dated 9/29/04 to a compilation of the ones dated 10/13/04 and 10/23/04"
"No, I want to include these changes, but not change the changes of 10/13/04, ony the changes of 9/29/04"
"Ok, so if I understand you correctly then, the changes dated 9/29/04 are to be used as the base when determining how the changes of today (10/23/04) apply?"
"Yes, except don't change the changes dated 10/13/04"
"Sir, the changes dated 10/13/04, completely redesigns the second floor and portions of the basement, do you want the floor plan to be the same as the 10/13/04 revisions?"
"NO!!, I told you to use the revisions from 9/29/04, not 10/13/04... I DON"T WANT THOSE CHANGED!!!"
"But sir, these changes will change the plans as dated 10/13/04, because the changes of today (10/23/04) only apply to the floor plan as it was presented on 9/29/04"
"Just make it look like it did on 9/29/04"
"So you want to do away with the changes on 10/13/04 completely?"
"No, only the changes that affect the floorplan as dated 10/13/04"
"Sir, the whole floorplan changed"
"No, only the second floor and basement changed, we didn't change the first floor"
"Correct, but since we didn't change the first floor plan either time, then I presumed we were not talking about changing the first floor plan anyway?
"Oh, ok, but I have changes for the first floor plan that we'll need to look at, because when I make the changes to the first floor plan that I am thinking about, it will require that I rearrange the second floor and basement plans."
"Oh, I see, so you are really not settled on a second floor plan, except that it has to work with the first floor plan"
"Oh no, I have an idea how I want the second floor to look, sort of like the changes we talked about on 9/29/04, but you might have to change them later when I change the first floor"

ARGHHHHHHH and so the saga continues .....

Sometimes I hate dealing with people ....

[BREZI]

They are all easy, it's just which one you like doing!

Ive done them all and like them all in differnet ways, I hate doing RC though.

So maybe RC is the most difficult, there are so many lines and notes, it does my head in like!!

I am specialised in m&e, and prefer doing ductwork drawings, the finished product can look nice, and plant room drawings look complex when finished makes you feel liek you've achieved somthin!

[BREZI]

Kieth I totally understand, we then get the knock on from your client, to you then to the other services!!

nightmare!!!

[CADaver]

Have any of you engineering types out there ever tried to explain to an Archie-type that his beatiful sweeping facade can not be structurally supported and stay in budget?

Of course it can .. pheww  

[jumping-up-n-down-shaking-pointer-finger]
SEE, SEE, SEE!!!!
[/jumping-up-n-down-shaking-pointer-finger]
 
(had to be specific about which finger)

[AVCAD]

This is so obvious that it hardly needs explaining. But, not having that ever stop me before, I'll explain:

Who gets the drawings/plans last everytime? Electrical

Who gets the drawings/plans changed after 95% of their work is complete everytime? Electrical

Who gets left with the tiniest bit of the budget because they got the project last and, when they charge half of the time needed to do the job, end up blowing the budget everytime then have to face the wratch of managers and the pointy-headed geeks in the accounting department because 'You guys are always blowin' the budget!' even though they have no control whatsoever over the rest of the budget which every other department/field of engineering has squandered away leaving them with peanuts and are still expected to come in under budget which is enough stress to cause them to start using run-on sentences all of the time? Electrical

Who has to face the constant 'joke' which not only happens to be so old that it has dinosaur poop on it but it also suffers from an immense lack of creativity and originality on the tellers part about how they 'don't draw to scale' even though much of what is drawn happens to be perfectly to scale when the rest is not, only because it's done schematically? Electrical



Drafting is easy. It doesn't matter if you're drawing projects the size of the world trade center or projects so small you almost feel ashamed to be wasting an entire sheet of 8-1/2 X 11 paper on it.

Dealing with the pointy-headed management types is another thing altogether. Add to that having to deal with the rest of your 'brethren' using you as a constant butt of their poor 'jokes' and the constant target of their finger pointing when it comes to budgets and it's easy to see who has the hardest job.

Electrical
















I'm not bitter though...

Wow..your nuts...sorry...I use to work for an MEP firm as CAD Manager and let me tell you Electrical was the Easiest thing I have ever done in my life.

I would have to say Mechanical just becasue of, the complexity of their drawings all that ductwork.

OH ya Electrical is not the last to get the drawings....I work for a Audio Video Telecommunications design firm in Chicago...Ya we get the drawings after the Electrical engineer...

Ya Good Luck trying to make the same deadline as the Arch for a 95% CD set or any set for that matter...when you dont even have the 95% backgrounds and they expect you to be able to finish it the same day they post them....

Now, with that said we should probably change the Poll to Who is the worst Field to work with....my answer..

ARCHITECTS....by a LONG LONG LONG SHOT


I am bitter...very Bitter...damn Architects!  

[AVCAD]

OK I was just reading through more of the posts....

ARCHITECTS DO NOT HAVE THE HARDEST JOB.....They make it hard because half the time they dont know what the hell they want, but they expect everyone else to know what they want!!

I need to go back to Electrical drafting!

[Keith™]

Ok, just so you lot know that in my field I do everyting ...

site plans
foundation plans
floor plans
electrical plans
hvac plans
dwv plans
water supply plans
framing plans
truss plans
fire suppression plans

I recently gave up cabinet design

If you think your job is the hardest try doing EVERY aspect of a million dollar residential project or a 98,000 SF low rise commercial retail center.

Walk in my shoes a few days, you will have sore feet and/or be bald

[CADaver]

Who gets the drawings/plans last everytime? Electrical

That's cuz they sit around waiting for the other disciplines to do all thier background work for them.  Then they add a handful of bubbles and squares with numbers in 'em and wipe thier brow like they really did something.... sheesh, spark-chasers.

[Davez]

As far as drafting I havent done them all.
But I got to say when all other fields are contracted
UNDER the Architectural office there's alot of stress
because ANY error falls on our heads, its our job to coordinate
the entire set, not to mention contruction admin.  

If a site fence is to high call the architect,
if the pool pumps arnt working call the architect,
if the firelane access is to small call the architect,
if the freakin parking stripe is the wrong color call the architect,
if the site floods yep you guessed it call the architect.

geeez

[pmvliet]

Ok I did not read all the pages, only 1 and 5. I will add to the choices of "Shop Drawings" Those who do shop drawings I feel have the hardest job. They always get the drawings late because all the other fields are running late with issues or bulletins. Then when they do get the drawings, they need to get them done yesterday. Steel detailers get good money but it is a very stressful job. Oh yeah, and when all they other disciplines change there mind or realize that something doesn't work, the shop drawing person gets to redo all there work.

Plus they get to decifer these crappy drawings that all the other disciplines put together. let alone different companies doing different work on one building. It can turn into a big mess of trying to understand what is going on.

Pieter

[PDJ]

How about the as-built drafter?? He's working with your pretty drawings, that some electrician or HVAC guy has taken a carpenters pencil and marked up in between bites of his Quizno's Black Angus steak sandwich (Ask me how I know that's what he was eating).  Then after trying to redraw everything, he gets the idea of just turning the print over and drawing a crude schematic that looks like something you'd put on your fridge that your 3 year old drew in Pre-School.  Then you find out the drawing he's been redlining, is actually version 6 of the drawings which were actually modified three times AFTER award of the contract and AFTER this set was printed...

I'm SOOO happy to be working in the telecom industry now..

[David Bethel]

http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/pac/doc/general/#drawing

http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/pac/doc/general/#drawing

I think that they still have some of the most complicated specifcations.  -David

[Dinosaur]

As-Builts . . . maybe, there is one tough place for them around here.  The as-built requirements for the Johnson County, Kansas Wastewater District are the most absurd I've found.  All drawings must be cad generated with all of the original design screened.  The locations of structures must be in a completely different format than they demand for the design documents.  The real clinker is their theory that NOTHING can possibly be built exactly as designed so ALL locations, lengths and angles must be shown to be different from the original design, but also maintaing a final result that meets their design criteria.  One often has to get creative and place false information on what is supposed to be the exact way it was built.  It is also the only place I know of that routinely issues at least two rounds of comments before accepting the final as-builts.

[BREZI]

As builts can be difficult to read, with footprints, dirt, oil, tea etc etc.. stains all over the print!

but the CAD work is easy!