Any draftsman here? Don't really know which other board to post this on. What's the job like, and is it a stable way in terms of income? I mostly want to specialize in electrical and electronic drafting, though I don't know how it will turn out. I need some advice.
>>309734
I had to take drafting as a civil engineer. Your best bet is to try to get into electrical for buildings. There are some very specialized AutoCAD packages for it. You're probably going to need to learn electrician stuff/building codes. I also had to do some electronics drafting. I imagine most electrical engineers do that themselves because the drafting software is also design/logic testing/prototyping software so it alll gets rolled together.
>>309739
Is the job outlook ok? Or is drafting becoming obsolete?
>>309734
well it varies in architecture firms. Small offices, pretty much everyone but the principals drafts one way or the other, due to the lack of manpower. On the plus side, for juniors out of school, it allows you to do other tasks other than just drafting.
On medium size offices, you can start out drafting and have the opportunity to move up if you so choose, but many people don't want to be stuck as draftsmen.
In corporate offices, juniors for the most part are stuck as draftsmen, or pigeon-holed. You rarely will get the opportunity to move up the corporate ladder unless you like drafting or you move on to a different firm.
Drafting is still going on strong but you will hit a ceiling quickly if you want to make a full living. At the basic, you must know Autocad, but Revit is already coming on strong as an industry standard. It is easy to learn but the learning curve shoots straight up really fast once you actually work on a project, since they are rarely simple boxes.
>>309734
Start learning Autocad. Engineers use that but if you ever want to go work for an architecture firm, knowing Revit and Autocad will be a plus. Most Architects I worked for uses Autocad. All of the firms I worked for are small firms and did not need all the BIM and 3d that is included with Revit. Depending on the firm, if they do a lot of interior designing, Revit is the way to go with them. Long story short, learn them both