Tools to Draw Plans

Traditional Drafting Tools

• Traditional drafting tools are often the best way for a novice draftsman to begin creating drawings. The drafting table, T square, lead pencil, adjustable triangle and scale are the most basic and universal drafting tools, and even architects using computers use these tools regularly. Use the T square and adjustable triangle to construct a straight line at any angle and use French curves, ships curves and compasses for curvilinear lines. Other tools for drafting include the drafting brush, drafting powder, lead holders, a lead sharpener and fixture templates.

Computer Aided Design

• Beginning in the '70s and '80s, programmers, engineers and architects developed Computer Aided Design (CAD) to produce architectural drawings faster and more accurately than traditional drafting tools. CAD produces architectural drawings in the traditional way, but it is easier to edit, update and organize drawings because the drawing sheets are handled electronically before being printed for submission to building departments and clients. If you have experience with traditional drafting, CAD is easy to use; the tools on any CAD application, such as AutoCAD, are analogous to traditional drafting tools.

Building Information Modeling

• Building Information Modeling (BIM) was created in the '90s and is continuously being developed to allow architects, engineers, contractors and building owners to develop, edit and query three-dimensional computer models of buildings. Slowly, BIM is replacing CAD, and BIM is much faster than CAD because draftspeople create three-dimensional models of spaces, instead of individual, two-dimensional drawings of those spaces. The models can then be translated into two-dimensional drawings. The three-dimensional BIM model is much more time efficient than drafting or CAD, and it contains data and parametric elements for integration among the various disciplines, such as architecture, engineering and building construction. Additionally, BIM allows anyone to view and spatially understand a structure, whereas traditional architectural drawings are hard for many people to understand.

3D Modeling

• Some people adept with three-dimensional modeling programs besides BIM, such as 3DS Max or SketchUp, might prefer to develop the two-dimensional drawings with three-dimensional models. This is similar to using BIM, but the information and parametric elements of BIM construction are not present with traditional, three-dimensional computer modeling. Nevertheless, SketchUp and similar programs are user-friendly computer programs that allow people to draw plans without having to pay the high prices associated with CAD and BIM programs.