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Hand Drawn

The earliest known construction drawings date back to Neolithic times in Saudi Arabia and Jordan, where humans etched hunting trap plans—known as “desert kites”—onto stone walls and tablets. Over time, hand drawing evolved from Egyptian plans on papyrus for structures like the Great Pyramid of Giza, to parchment used in the Middle Ages for projects such as the St. Gall Monastery in Switzerland.

In 1796, German playwright Alois Senefelder invented the technique of lithography —a printing process where designs are drawn on flat stone or metal plates and fixed chemically. Adopted in the U.S. by the early 1800s, this method enabled architects to produce large-scale drawings with greater detail and precision.

Digital

Computer-aided design (CAD) emerged after World War II, with major breakthroughs from pioneers like Dr. Ivan Sutherland, whose PhD work at MIT led to the creation of Sketchpad. This was a revolutionary system that let users draw directly on a Cathode Ray Tube using a light pen. Around the same time, Patrick Hanratty developed Pronto at General Electric, the first commercial numerical control programming system.

The launch of AutoCAD by Autodesk brought CAD to a wider audience, extending its use beyond engineering into architecture and other industries. By the 1990s, CAD/CAM was widely used for designing tools and streamlining manufacturing. Today, CAD has largely replaced manual drafting, and the next evolution is Building Information Modeling (BIM) —a process that uses intelligent 3D models to detect design clashes, manage timelines, and track costs.

The transition from hand drawn construction plans to digital renderings has brought significant benefits across all levels of the industry. According to Autodesk, switching from manual drafting to CAD increases drafting productivity by 50%–70%. They’ve also reported

that BIM and cloud-based collaboration tools can cut coordination meeting times by up to 50%. Additional advantages of digital plans include enhanced accuracy and clearer visualization, with reports showing that BIM software detects design conflicts before construction begins. This early detection reduces delay-related costs by up to 15%.

From stone to screen, construction drawings have come a long way. As digital tools continue to grow, they offer new ways to plan, manage, and bring projects to life with greater accuracy and efficiency. We’re honored to witness the continued advancement of drafting techniques at the forefront of the industry.

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