Hit 2,000 sheets of shop drawings in 8 years and I still think the redline is the real skill | Drafters - Freelance Forum - The Community for Independent Professionals
Hit 2,000 sheets of shop drawings in 8 years and I still think the redline is the real skill
Everyone on here brags about how fast they can model. I counted my sheets from 2015 to now. Just passed 2,000. That's a lot of stairs, door schedules, and detail blowups. But the number that surprised me was 300. That's how many of those sheets had a redline on them from a PM or a field guy. Here's my hot take: clicking fast in Revit is not the job. Reading a marked up page and fixing it right the first time is the job. The modelers who never learn to read redlines just keep making the same mistake on every job. Am I wrong here or does anyone else think the redline pile teaches you more than any class?
How many of those 2,000 sheets would you say you actually learned something on? I heard a guy on a podcast say the best drafters are the ones who ask the PM why the redline is there instead of just fixing it and moving on. That stuck with me because it's the difference between getting fast and getting good. Clicking speed just makes bad drawings wrong faster, and the redline pile is basically free school if you read it right. What's the worst repeat mistake you kept seeing on those 300 sheets?