The Mote Method

This gem is dated 2001 and is more relevant today as Civil Designers realize the writing was on the wall. It is the same crisis engineers have been walking through blindly. We are a profession in crisis where our expertise is being sacrificed on the altar of economics. Construction takes the bullet for delays, questions, bad details and confusion. Project engineers promises to do better with better technology. The truth is all problems start in engineering and quality checkers are worth their weight in gold. Don’t invest in technology, invest in experience.

This time, like no other time is an opportunity for engineers to find a way to collaborate with designers and checkers, rebuild the team around engineering goals first. These goals stretch all the way through construction to a successful turnover. You will need to build your team around lessons learned, consistent details, conceptual designs, more frequent checking and a whole host of other goals. Productivity will follow from this if the engineering is impeccable and everybody is on the same page. To drive productivity ahead of this is a loser for everybody including the client in wasted construction time, delays and costs.

Does CAD Degrade Drawing Quality?
(Reprinted with permission from upFront.eZine)

Replies from Readers React: Does CAD Degrade Drawing Quality (10 July 2001)?

Leo Schlosberg, founder of Heavyware.com, last week asked in a guest  editorial if CAD software is the cause behind the worsening quality of construction drawings. The readership disagrees; rather, you feel that  economic pressure and a software-oriented education are the cause for the decline in drafting knowledge. Here are just a few of the many  letters I [Ralph Grabowski] received;

“Mr. Schlosberg’s editorial asks an interesting question, but fails to recognize that CAD is not the only thing which has changed in the design industries over the last two decades. The economics of design has changed dramatically in the corporate environment; driven by billability, profitability, and the price of the stock.

“The lack of qualified detailers and other people ‘who understand what  they draw’ is a direct result of neglect in the development of these resources in favor of the next annual report. When the current  generation of design talent retires, what then will pass for ‘design’?

“Fear not, for those jobs will not disappear. They will have moved  offshore. Think how cheaply you can get the drawings done!”
- Calvin Smith, CAE Software Analyst

“While I believe the root of this trend is complex and not easy to pin  on even a handful of trends, let me highlight two:
“First, as a longtime instructor in technical graphics, I’ve seen overly  -complex, user-hostile CAD software crowd out the instruction of core technical graphics content. Instead of teaching the language of  technical graphics, many technical graphics courses have evolved into nothing more than glorified software-training sessions. “Second, I’d like to point to the larger social trend of the ’software era.’ This era is represented by economic buyers and sellers that  consistently value cost-speed over quality; and the acceptability of shipping ‘beta’ product in fulfillment of economic contracts. In such an  environment, it follows that it is also acceptable to use ‘beta’ drawings to fulfill contracts in the A/E/C and manufacturing industries.” - Eric Wiebe, North Carolina State University

“Let’s look at three other issues that arise:
“First, CAD has increased the productivity level in the number of  drawings people can do over time, but is that the goal? I sometimes wonder if CAD isn’t plagued with the same problem as e-mail — very  quick and sometimes writing off-the-cuff without any true thought process placed in the writing or drawing. But that is not the fault of  the software; it’s the people using it.

“Second, with CAD comes other areas that designers need to consider when  drawing, ie. CAM, CIM, and DM. No longer does the CAD person deal with  just working drawings, but other areas linked to the drawing with a  holistic understanding of the entire production process.

“Finally, from what I see in the newspapers and dealing with  professionals in industry, most CAD operators are either engineers with limited training in engineering graphics, or someone trained on just one  specific software, and not visualization as related to engineering design graphics.”
- Aaron Clark, North Carolina State University

“CAD doesn’t degrade the quality of drawing. On its own CAD, does  nothing without an operator — neither does a drawing board.

“We are devaluing the skills of tradespeople and skilled professionals, not only within countries  but globally. Long gone are the development growth paths that allowed good tradespeople or professionals to progress up the ladder and be valued. Today we send  our young people to college to teach them the theory about CAD and its  applications. When they graduate, they want the earth (well, heaven and  soul anyway) for their services.

“It all boils down to $$$ and how cheaply we can produce drawings  because they are seen to be a unnecessary overhead. Little do we realize that cutting corners in the design / drafting phase costs many hours in  the manufacturing/ construction phase.

Everyone is out to screw the best price for a project, at the expense of quality of the whole process. I live in hope that some will appreciate the implications, however I doubt that I will see it in my lifetime.”
- Chris Ainsworth The CAD Centre, Australia