As I have grown-up in the engineering and design business I have seen many levels of sophistication applied to the simple act of drawing a picture. We all start-out with a box of Crayons and pencils, and the occasional paintbrush and felt-marker, too. At first we can’t stay inside the predetermined lines, then later we can. Our theatre design is similar, but reversed: First we are told to do things a certain way and we learn our basic set design skills, and later, we are told to “think outside the box”, “be creative”, “do something different”. Darned if we do. Darned if we don’t.

Computers and Computer Aided Drafting (CAD), it is similar. You have to learn the basic functions of a program before you can ‘cut loose’ and make it really useful. I receive a lot of CAD files for projects from architects, engineers, and sales people. And it never ceases to amaze me the variety of drawing skills that went into constructing the drawing files. Some files are neat and compact, well organized, and tell me everything I need to know about the building or device; while other files I get are bloated, messy constructs with awkward relationships between the drawing entities. The latter takes more time to work with and convert into something that I can use. As we all know: Time = Money. You save me time, and you save me money.

As you learn to use a CAD program, try to think about more than just the individual lines. What are those lines doing? What do they represent? How will the other people that use this drawing be able to utilize the entities that you have created? There is no reason to reinvent the wheel each time you need it.

Something as simple as a rectangle has down-stream implications:

• If it is composed of four separate lines, then every time it is moved, rotated, assigned to a layer, copied, etc., the user has to grab four pieces to effect the changes. Messy & Error-prone. In contrast, if the rectangle is drawn as a continuous polyline where all four parts create a single structure (entity), then a single item has to be managed.
• If it you use this rectangle for different things, it can be easier to manage if each general use of the rectangle is given a name. Use a rectangle for a Scenic Flat, call it a ‘Flat-048x144’ and put it on a drawing layer called ‘Flats’. If it is used for a Platform, call it a ‘Platform-048x096” and put it on a drawing layer called ‘Platforms’. Don’t just dump everything on layer ‘0’.
• If you are making a Block from a set of lines, leave all the line attributes (color, line type, line weight) set to ‘By Layer’ so the next person that uses the block doesn’t have to explode it to change these aspects of the item. (I’ll get architectural drawings that have thousands of chairs, sinks, doors, and other items that are each ‘hard-wired’ to colors and line types – this makes it almost impossible to ‘fix’).
• Where you have information that might be useful for the next person (maybe weight, special screws that should be used, or other data), add attributes to the block so that the information can be found and (optionally) edited. Rediscovery of know information should not be necessary.

Be aware in your design process that some things are just not suited for CAD. Flowing fluid shapes, particularly in 3D, may be better described by a hand sketch, or even a small clay model. If there is some explicit reason that this odd shape has to be defined in CAD, ask yourself, and the other design team members, if it is necessary to have all the detail represented, or if maybe a simple rough outline will suffice. A good example of this is when I place a Video Projector in a 3D drawing of a room. The architect and engineers don’t care about where the screw heads are located or the manufacturer’s logo is on the box – they just want to know the physical envelope (length, width, height) and the infrastructure load (weight, power, and heat). I can download a 3D CAD drawing of the projector that is about a 6MB file, or I can create a rectangle (width & height) and extrude it to the length of the chassis, then add some attributes for the projector model, lens, and infrastructure load information, and it will be maybe make a 10KB file.

This can add-up real fast: If I have six video projectors, and each is a separate entity, my file becomes 36MB if I use the manufacturer’s drawing. If I use the manufacturer’s drawing as a block, now the file size is reduce to about 6.1MB, and if it use my simplified envelope as a block, the file size shrinks to about 11KB. That affects how long it takes to email the file to someone, how much of their data plan on their cell phone I just chewed-up if they are on the road, and it even affects the rendering time on the computer. And despite file space being close 10 cents per terabyte, bigger files do clutter my hard-drive more. This takes more time to back-up, and more time to defragment, and more time to save and load.

Now, think about a drawing block that represents a stage lighting instrument. You might have a hundred PAR Cans, a hundred S4’s, and fifty LED strips you are trying to model into your show. Which might be more efficient to utilize in your drawing? A bunch of 15KB blocks? Or a bunch of 5MB blocks? Simple is good. I don’t need to see the lens-tube set-bolts to know that I can place 15 lights on a 20 foot batten.

Learn how to use your tools. Be it a hammer or a computer program, you can finesse the solution to be artful and efficient.