architectural practice and CAD system mid-1990s

Siri Kirpal said:

Sat Nam! (literally "Truth Name"--a Sikh greeting)

Okay, so I've got an architect working out of a restored carriage house in a small town adjacent to a county seat. He's been working solo doing mostly historic preservation on Victorian buildings and has just hired a receptionist/CAD system operator. It's mid-1990s, western Oregon. You might want to check into requirements/laws about using a residential space for commercial purposes. Also check into any possible special requirements needed to do historic preservation work. This should give you a starting point, although it's more current: http://www.aia.org/aiaucmp/groups/aia/documents/pdf/aiab089252.pdf

First, I guess I should ask if the combination of CAD operator and receptionist is even doable. Technically, yes. But usually CAD operators are paid much higher than a receptionist would be.

Second, what sorts of spaces/rooms would he need for his practice? And are the filing cabinets like art paper storage, large and shallow? At a minimum a room that would have a surface large enough to lay out the drawings. Filing cabinets can be those wide and shallow multi-drawered cabinets for flat sheets, or as simple as a box to hold rolled up drawings.

Third, I'm the sort of person who does most things all by myself, so I'm wondering how a creative person delegates work. So, if he's designing a new "Victorian" house, what would the CAD operator be doing? Delegation can be done by either whole project or by phase of the project. A CAD operator would only be drafting. He/she would be given the sketches/redlined plans and just input it into the computer.

Fourth, anything I ought to ask but haven't. You might want to check to see if CAD was even used at that point. Programs have come out by that point already, but it was still relatively new (and very expensive). Architects may have still been manually drafting. Computer drafted drawings would also mean it needed a plotter, which is also very expensive and if it's a one-man show, he probably did not have a personal plotter. Plotting was probably expensive at that point too at a printer, and probably blueprints were made instead.

Thanks.

Blessings,

Siri Kirpal

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See above answers in red.

Siri Kirpal said:

Sat Nam! (literally "Truth Name"--a Sikh greeting)

Okay, so I've got an architect working out of a restored carriage house in a small town adjacent to a county seat. He's been working solo doing mostly historic preservation on Victorian buildings and has just hired a receptionist/CAD system operator. It's mid-1990s, western Oregon.

First, I guess I should ask if the combination of CAD operator and receptionist is even doable.

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Usually the person doing CAD work is the designer, and architects were well along the way to becoming fully computerized by that time; they started switching in the early 1980's. He probably took a couple of courses and decided to take on an assistant/computer operator/receptionist.

Second, what sorts of spaces/rooms would he need for his practice? And are the filing cabinets like art paper storage, large and shallow?

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The office would be as large or small as he wanted, and the file cabinets would be plan files of whatever size he found convenient, probably four feet wide or wider.

Third, I'm the sort of person who does most things all by myself, so I'm wondering how a creative person delegates work. So, if he's designing a new "Victorian" house, what would the CAD operator be doing?

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This is why I think he would have t\aken a couple of courses and taken to using the CAD program himself. Whether one is drawing a design on paper or on a computer, the same work is being done, but it's easier on a computer, because you can have a few different versions, and if you decide to make it two feet wider you don't have to erase most of your work; you just cut and paste to a new file putting the extended sections in between the pasted sections.

Fourth, anything I ought to ask but haven't.

Thanks.

Blessings,

Siri Kirpal

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You might want to stop in at an architect's office some time and explain what ou are doing. If the architect isn't busy, then you'll hear more than you want about the switch over from paper to computers. There's one design company know of that had a 50,000 SF building that used to be full of people, but the last time I was there it was about 40% occupied.

My father had an electrical engineering firm from the '80s up until a few years back. I spent a fair amount of time in his office and a bit in Architects offices (he did engineering for buildings) and the offices were nearly identical in the broad strokes.

Siri Kirpal said:

Okay, so I've got an architect working out of a restored carriage house in a small town adjacent to a county seat. He's been working solo doing mostly historic preservation on Victorian buildings and has just hired a receptionist/CAD system operator. It's mid-1990s, western Oregon.

First, I guess I should ask if the combination of CAD operator and receptionist is even doable. No, not really. Theoretically possible, but they're two entirely different skillsets and CAD operators were in pretty high demand.

Second, what sorts of spaces/rooms would he need for his practice? And are the filing cabinets like art paper storage, large and shallow? Huge deep trays to store drawings flat. Lots of paper/plastic tubes around for transport. Any rooms with enough space will do. It doesn't have to be anything, but most Architects still had drafting tables in those days (I think many of them still do), and those take up space. You also need big tables for laying the documents out.

Third, I'm the sort of person who does most things all by myself, so I'm wondering how a creative person delegates work. So, if he's designing a new "Victorian" house, what would the CAD operator be doing? If the Architect doesn't do CAD, he'd probably draft up the roughs on a drafting table and give them to the CAD operator. The CAD operator would just follow directions, and then make changes under the eye of the Architect. Of course it all depends on the nature of the people involved.

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They also need a 'plotter' which is part of the reason they need space. Physical drawings are still used and that's the only way to practically make them from a CAD platform.

And Drachen is right. Architects still use drafting tables, and the plotters, printers, and diazos (blueprint copiers) take up much too much space.

If you're a small company, you're not likely to have a plotter. It costs thousands of dollars (I believe $10k+, at early 2000, so it was likely much more in the '90s). Your production is not enough to warrant that cost. You'll likely take drawings to the print shop.


And I agree, back then they probably still used drafting tables (again, due to the high cost of the CAD program), but if this architect is switching to Cad, they probably got rid of the drafting table. The only time I've worked at a company with a drafting table in the office was when the company's drawings were completely manual. Otherwise there wasn't even a drafting table at all. And when I was in school, halfway through the program the school got rid of all the drafting tables, because CAD was becoming more common. The students had to buy portable drafting tables to do the assignments that were to be manually completed.

Just to clarify, a CAD operator could double as a receptionist, but a receptionist can't double as a CAD operator (unless they had that training). But again, it's not likely someone would be wearing the two hats.

King Neptune said:

Usually the person doing CAD work is the designer.

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No, there are plenty of architects who do the CAD work too and plenty of designers who do little CAD work. It's usually the principals who don't do CAD work. It all just depends on their rank and experience.

chompers said:

No, there are plenty of architects who do the CAD work too and plenty of designers who do little CAD work. It's usually the principals who don't do CAD work. It all just depends on their rank and experience.

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I've never met them (or I may have met them but didn't know what they were doing.), but it doesn't surprise me that some designers wouldn't have gotten into CAD, because they were in management instead.