Architectural drawing tools make the work of architects much easier. Thanks to them, we can complete assignments that used to take months, just in a few hours. Moreover, the margin of error in architectural drawings is drastically reduced thanks to those tools. Despite all these advantages, we sometimes misuse architectural drawing tools. Most of these mistakes are coming from habits that were not developed correctly during school years. But now is the time to face our mistakes! We have listed the most common mistakes made in architectural CAD drawings to stay away from the new architecture students easily!
1-Not Saving the File
The last mistake that can come to mind in a complex architectural drawing is not saving the file. But be sure, many students or architects who are working on them can forget saving. When you focus on a specific thing or project for a very long time, you can even forget to click on the Save button. The simplest way to avoid this situation is to get into the habit of Ctrl+S. It’s a habit that takes time to win. Nevertheless, it is necessary to ensure that the hours you showed an effort do not suddenly become garbage.
2-Archiving Errors
You have to deal with more files than you can imagine during peak work periods. You regularly copy things, change the file type, rescale, and keep using it. Moreover, all these processes are usually done in a hurry. In short, you are in the middle of the chaos. Naturally, it becomes difficult to name the files you are continually working on.
In this period, you may encounter extending file names such as ‘End,’ ‘END1’, ‘FINALLLLL.’ These files’ names have no apparent problem. The real problem arises when you need any of them sometime after you finish working with them. You find yourself in a big mess. Record dates with only minutes between and files with incomprehensible names prevent you from seeing what you are searching for in the files. The solution to finding your way in architectural program files is to regularly archive in the first place.
Develop a convenient, simple, and understandable filing system for you. An example would be saving files with the current date. So you can find out which file you are working with and when without opening them all one by one.
3-No Backup
If you have the opportunity, be sure to buy a hard disk to back up your files. Over the years, your files will accumulate, and your archive will begin to form. It is an excellent thing. At the same time, however, your equipment will also age, and your computer will often fail. You will even have to format it many times. It is a bad thing. It’s best to ensure that all of them are backed up and secured in such cases as not to lose your entire archive.
4-Not Activating the Recovery File
Architectural digital drawing tools are intense software that is very difficult for both graphics cards and processors. That’s why it’s normal for them to fail occasionally. Because the files inside can be huge, in this case, the architectural tools will suddenly close themselves and send you an error report. It is every architect’s nightmare. More precisely, it WAS. Because many architectural tools now automatically create recovery files, even if you don’t want them to do.
However, the working principle of each tool is different. While the recovery file settings come active in some tools, you may need to activate them yourself in the others. You can also specify details such as how many minutes the architectural tool will automatically record or in which cases it will create a recovery file. Still, all this is the next step.
When you start using an architectural drawing program, the first thing you should do is to check whether the automatic recovery feature is active or not. Thus, you can avoid unwanted surprises.
5-The Transition Between Versions
Like every computer program, architectural drawing tools release a new version every year. However, it may not be possible to purchase and install the latest version every year. Most architects do not prefer to do this. Each has a version that works without trouble. Even if it is a bit old version, they can continue to create architectural designs with it.
Unless the versions are old, they will not harm the design process. Anyway, each architectural tool allows saving files in different versions and quickly opens the files of old versions.
So, does this work like that in real life? Of course not! If a file created in an older version is opened in the new version, some file settings may be lost. When settings such as brightness and material texture that can only be seen during rendering are deleted, it is necessary to check the whole file one by one and reload them. It is a time-consuming process for the designer. For this reason, it is best to try not to switch between versions released in different years while drawing.
Of course, if you have to, you can switch between versions. Files can be saved in different versions of the same tool. However, it’s best to know ahead of time that some errors may occur while performing these procedures.