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Rant: My garage studio plan took me back to pencil and paper days | Drafters - Talk Freely

Rant: My garage studio plan took me back to pencil and paper days

I'm drawing up plans to turn my garage into a small studio space. It hit me how I used to do this all by hand with a drafting board and lead holders. Now, I just click through CAD tools on my screen. Don't get me wrong, the software is great for quick changes and clean lines. But I miss the quiet focus of shading a section with a pencil, and the smell of eraser crumbs. Back then, a mistake meant starting that sheet over sometimes. These days, I can copy and paste whole walls in seconds. It's just a different way of thinking about the same job.

3 comments

3 Comments

olivia4397mo ago

Wait, see I have the total opposite take. That undo button is what lets me try crazy ideas I'd never risk on paper. Remember how you'd avoid sketching a wild roof line because erasing would wreck the whole sheet? Now I can flip through ten versions before lunch. Sure, the feel is different, but my brain is free to play more. The tool didn't change the job, it changed how brave I can be with it.

terry_wood517mo ago

Tbh, your point about undo makes me think of when I started writing stories on a laptop instead of in notebooks. I used to hate crossing out big chunks of text in pen because it ruined the page. Having an undo let me try out wild endings or weird characters without any stress. It was like I could play around with ideas that I would have tossed aside before. Honestly, that little button changed how I approach writing more than any class did. Now I bounce between versions so fast that my first draft is barely recognizable.

wrenh656mo ago

Oh man, the UNDO button is a total double-edged sword! I get what @terry_wood51 means about it letting you play, but now I'll spend an hour tweaking a single line in my drawing, just nudging it back and forth. I never did that with a pencil. I'd think about it for five minutes, commit, and just draw the dang line. Now I make fifty copies of a file called "Studio_FINAL_v12_reallyfinal.psd". The tools are faster, but sometimes they just let you spin your wheels in a whole new way.