What Can Be Learnt From AutoCAD Colour Coding?

For those of you over a certain age, you might have noticed that old school thinking is still embedded into new technology. When I began drafting the 70’s our pens used to be 0.18 = red, 0.25 = white, 0.35 = yellow etc. What I noticed in the early days of AutoCAD, was the older generation carried on this tradition and set their line-type thicknesses to represent these colours.

So, by analysing the colour codes adopted on drawings you can see if the company is a traditional company with roots back into traditional engineering and pre-AutoCAD, or is a new company post AutoCAD. When working on a drawing if these colours are used the drawing comes alive to me and I can see the line thickness, if the modern multi coloured layering systems are used drawings look flat and uninteresting and I cannot see any drawing definition.

What may seem like an unimportant, if interesting, fact can offer a great deal of insight into the age, mindset and style of the designer. Designers who opt to keep the original rotoring pen colours are often 'old school' in their design work. Noticing such a key detail as AutoCAD colour coding, in AutoCAD drawings, indicates the ability to recognise and analyse even the smallest of details in development software and can sometimes leave clues on its origin.

What I don’t miss about the old drawing board days is not having to wash my pens out at the end of each day to stop them blocking, having to buy a new nib when I accidently knocked my pen off the board and I especially don’t miss having to scratch off the ink with a razor blade when I made a mistake.

AutoCAD (computer aided design) is a commercial design and drafting software. Popularly used by architects, engineers and graphic designers, to name a few, for 2D and 3D drafting. The use of AutoCAD software has replaced drawing boards and instead offers a digital platform for drafting and designing.

Released on the market in 1982, AutoCAD was originally used with microcomputers as a desktop internal graphics controller. Over the years AutoCAD has seen many upgrades and is now available in desktop, Mac and mobile formats. Used globally, AutoCAD has become a popular tool for multiple design projects.

I wonder what the generation bought up on Autocad will say in 20 – 30 years about the new Revit and BIM 3D software.

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