Originally Posted by
OldDrafter
Hey Steve, Yes mostly done surveying and mapping early on, started with drafting machines and vellum, and began CAD on an Apple IIe (I think it was RoboCAD), moving on to AutoCAD 11 and Microstation. Did some mapping with KDMS and Eagle Point , and these days I mostly do mechanical drawing using Autodesk Inventor and Onshape. I've never heard of Vectorworks but any CAD is like magic when moving from pencils and triangles. The increase in productivity is amazing, as I'm sure you've experienced. AI is our next big jump but I hope to watch most of it from the sidelines. I have 28 years in the classroom so getting close.
Yes the Appalachians are a large range! I don't know if anybody is quite as "hillbilly" as we are here in Southwest Virginia.
Vectorworks is a Euro company, it started as MiniCAD or something, got brought out and a name change. The popularity of it was it worked on a MAC, when AutoCAD did not. Thus got very popular in the theater and entertainment business where a lot of the scenic and lighting designers used Mac's. It also has terrific data interface with the spreadsheet/database software used to keep track of lighting equipment, power loads, etc... and can export the fixture info directly into the computers that control the stage lighting. AuotCAD was never interested in this market so really only gets used by the folks building the scenery.