2D drawing nearly dead?

[321GO]

Hello Guys,

so what do you think? Is there still a future for (mechanical) 2D drawings and subsequently for the associated industries?

Are businesses today not elliminating this "in between step", and directly transferring 3D to there machines? Since i'm still doing a lot off these 2D's, i'm wondering if i'm working on steam train technology?

So what do you guys think? How many of you still use these and will continue to use these? Is there something that makes 2D drawing somehow "supperior"?

BTW i'm purely talking about the mechanical sector.

Thank you all in advance!

 

[cranky108]

I don't work much with mechinical drawings, but electrical schematics don't work well in 3D. I think our civil engineer still uses 2D drawings also.

 

[SteveMartin]

While there are a lot of shops out there that have moved partially or wholly to 3D, there are also a large number with little to no 3D. Various people & entities have been pushing the idea that 'paper is dead' or '2D is dead' since I started learning to draft. That was only 15 years ago, but I haven't seen any evidence that 2D will disappear any time soon.

I can envision a time when 3D nigh-completely replaces 2D in the mechanical sector, but I'd put it at least a good 50 years out. The technology is here or nearly so, but the adoption and standardization is going a lot slower.

 

[MiketheEngineer]

I can see the use of 3D more in the mechanical world than the building industry. But even there we are starting to feel the "pressure" - mostly from the sales and manager types who like to hear customers say "oooo" and "ahhhhh".

So - we are too are heading in that direction.

 

[TheTick]

Sooo... how does one document a part's requirements? Perhaps with a bunch of tags on a 3D model? Fine. How does one show all the tags in a way that can be followed? Perhaps with a set of views from given directions LIKE THOSE FOUND ON 2D DRAWINGS?

 

[KENAT]

321GO, this subject, though perhaps by other titles, has been done to death.

The 2D drawing will be around for a long time yet.

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[cksh]

I have been hearing this for my entire career and at one time thought that 2D prints were going away.

However, there are too many machine shops that use prints, and even some that can't even look at the 3D data. Heck, some can even read GD&T.

Some of our toolmakers use 3D to create our tools and don't use the drawings or even see them. The drawings are strictly for layout.

We can link data to our models, and in time I imagine this info will be easy to use. It probably is already, but it seems in this business everyone needs to be dragged kicking and screaming into the future. Not that i'm complaining. Drawings keep me busy!

 

[SAITAETGrad]

On the design side, there will always be the place for a 2D sketch of an installation, modification, etc. And then there are 2D parts- some industries and applications are dominated by them. Are you really going to send out 3D models for placards? Man has been drawing in 2D for thousands of years. Where simplification can be found in 3D, there will come a time. For everything else, why would we change?

 

[ajack1]

2D is virtually already dead in certain sectors and will live on for a long time in others, it really depends on what you are trying to achieve.

It is interesting to see the comment from Steve Martin that 2D will still be around in fifty years time. As someone in their early 50’s I was thinking of the changes I have seen during my working career.

From rows and rows of designers on drawing boards and being amazed the first time I saw a fax, to owning a phone that probably has more power than just about any computer at the time and sticking a file on an ftp site and someone machining to it minutes later on the other side of the world.

I have no idea what will be going on in fifty years time other than I will be resting in a box.

 

[TheTick]

I fanything replaced 2D drawings, I doubt it will resemble any of the near-solutions in circulation today.

 

[PEDARRIN2]

While the building construction field is becoming more and more 3d with models and BIM - I cannot imagine there ever being a time in the near future when 2d drawings will not be used.

I just picture the plumbing contractor installing his underground piping on a muddy excavated site with his laptop on his lap in the backhoe - that being the only computer equipment he can get the 3d drawing on without a long extension chord - trying to read the invert he has to lay his pipe.

 

[Twoballcane]

Thinking progressively, we can live in that CSI NY life with 3D projection of the body but instead for the engineer we can have a 3D projection of the part. With the advent of the 3D TV, I'm sure PTC will come up with a version in the future.

Speaking of other ways of documenting parts, I remember seeing an old black and white film documentary of a company that used to do their drawings on black boards and then take a picture of it and then use the picture as the drawing. I don’t know who it was, but that was some forward thinking.


Tobalcane
"If you avoid failure, you also avoid success."

 

[cotelecom]

2D is a long long way from being dead. It all comes down to economics. 3D cad work is slower and more expensive to produce. And it isn't entirely necessary for many industries. So why would companies spend more money on 3D drawings when 2D drawings are quicker and easier to produce? However, many 3D cad programs can easily generate 2D of the same model after the 3D drawing has been created. So, until the next generation of engineers starts creating drawing strictly in 3D from the onset, and only uses 2D as an afterthought, most 2D work is here to stay for quite some time. With that being said, many employers are now requiring potential employees to have 3D cad experience, so the death of '2D only' cad may be coming sooner that we think. Or maybe we should say that the careers of '2D only' cad people are dying an almost certain death, rather than it being 2D cad itself that will disappear......

 

[KENAT]

"3D cad work is slower and more expensive to produce"

Not always, though 3D is seldom as much faster as the CAD companies try to tell you.

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[btrueblood]

Sometimes you need to do it in 2D just to figure out how it might work, or might be made, in 3D. Sometimes the 3D cad system just can't generate the curves. Sometimes knowing how the projection is drawn in 2D allows you to figure out where the 3D modeller is choking, and how you might rearrange things to make it work.

But, those are fairly esoteric problems.

In the long run, Tick has the right answer: it's quite easy to put a 2D paper drawing into the back of a stack of legal contractual documents. Not so simple, nor easily checked, when the drawing is a 3D electronic data file.

 

[dgallup]

While we model everything in 3D CAD, we also produce fully detailed 2D drawings from those 3D models. I think 3D CAD is much faster & more reliable than any 2D system. Especially when it comes to assembly drawings. Every purchase order goes out with 2D drawing(s) (might all be PDF files) and every incoming part is checked against a 2D drawing. I don't see it changing any time soon.

 

[aafuni]

A big thing about 2D drawings is that it lets you show someone what is important about a part. You decide what views they will be looking at, and which features to dimension off of. Giving someone who is not familiar with a part just a stp file with the solid geometry and a CS, where would they even start? By providing 2D prints with your model you can convey your design much more directly.

Although I believe now-a-days 3D is the only way to design, production and QC will always need 2D.

 

[SnTMan]

No issues with backward or forward compatiblity, or formats or platforms disappearing either.

Plus they "open" instantly

Regards,

Mike

 

[KENAT]

I don't know, changes from linen to mylar to tracing paper... weren't entirely painless;-).

I've also heard stories of draws full of prints where the ink has lost adherence and started to fall off etc.

While pure MBD has a lot of issues, pure 2D wasn't/isn't perfect either.

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[SnTMan]

Yeah, true, I guess you don't see diazo much anymore.

My company had to pay a service to scan umpteen thousands of old drawings because....they were declared a health hazard by the state of (name omitted, but fairly obvious).

No one said they were perfect

Mike