What You Must Know About The Pencil Drawing In Architectural Design

Ultimately, the pencil drawing in architectural design is artistic preference and process. An artist of some kind must develop an idea for a new structure. This idea must be translated to a visual representation that others can see. For some architects, pencil drawings convey detail in a very personal way. Pencil drawings are uniquely tied to the artistic vision of the person who draws them. But, pencil drawings come with a price. They take too much time and cost too much money for most clients. An accomplished architect must be a skilled artist, and computer literate.

In the past, conventional architectural drawings were completed by hand, using pencil, pen and ink. The drawings were required to include certain views of a structure, such as a floor plan and a cross section. Also included were measurements and scales, cross references and notations that allowed understanding of the way the many drawings presented the entirety of any plan.

Any changes made to an architectural plan of the past would require redrawing many things by hand. Pencil drawings allowed for erasures to be made. But copying such detail was time consuming. Many copies were necessary as the client worked with the architect to develop a final version of the desired structure.

With computer programs, the entire process of pencil drawing has become almost obsolete. It is not that pencil drawing skills are not necessary. In fact, architects must be consummate and precise artists. Rather, it is the process of working through change with clients that has been completely improved. Architects with computer drafting skills are able to have a foot in both worlds, the ancient traditional skills of pencil drawing added to computer aided drawings.

Computer aided design, or CAD, uses computer technology to prepare the same images previously only possible with considerable traditional artistic skills. In the area of architecture, computers play a significant role. They are able to be programmed with specific and precise information in order to develop designs.

As clients seek to be involved in the architectural design processes, the speed that computers allow for change is a desirable thing. Speed means less money for project completion. And though it is true that some of the best architects owe their skills to years of traditional pencil drawings, they must be able to use a variety of CAD architectural software in order to remain commercially competitive today.