Can anyone still use a pencil?

[Terry Bites]

Whats going on people? So few people include a diagram or schematic in their post.
Great thanks to those who do.
You cant do CAD or photoshop or any real work if you're stuck with a phone. But you can draw out your idea or problem on anything and take a photo to illustrate your post:
A post it note (TM) To which Dave claims no patent rights. Clay tablets, wet sand before the turn of the tide, charcoal on the cave wall, a tatoo, bog roll even?
Isnt drawing is an prerequisite skill for any serious endevour.
Tell me why this is untrue. Again I'm asking this!
The first 100000 responders can have a hand knitted 2THz oscillosope schematic. Delivered one stitch at a time via chatting.

[Benta]

Terry, the problem is, that you're a dinosaur... and so am I.
My most important tools are A4 paper, pencil and rubber. There, I sketch out the overall structure/architecture of my idea/design.
Then, I use more A4 sheets to go deeper into details on the different elements.
And then (not earlier), I might think about starting up a schematic editor.

Greenhorns start the simulator on the smartphone right away instead. It results in lousy designs, but who cares? It can be posted on Facebook!!!. YEEAAHH!

[CaptDon]

I once told the lab guys I use P.C. Draw   PenCil that is!!! I did most of my idea / rough drafts with pencil and paper. But then again, I still own and use a Post 1460 Versalog!!! (Wish it had the magnified cursor) Well, at least it has red, green, blue and black scales to keep me on track. I even have the belt holster!!! Of course the super nerds had a Versalog in one hip holster and a Versatrig on the other hip!!  "Stick 'em up or I'll resolve that phase angle to the fourth digit!!"

[armandine2]

Whats going on people? So few people include a diagram or schematic in their post.

I don't mind a narrative explanation, generally - but from an engineer a sketch is "a thing of beauty ..."

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44469/endymion-56d2239287ca5

ed for a poem

[T3sl4co1l]

Well, for my part, it's just slightly annoying enough to draw a schematic and post it somewhere, than to use a verbal description.  Which inevitably fails as I forget how poorly understood such descriptions are...

Ahah, turning this thread around from complaining about the youngins to critiquing the oldie's teaching methods!

Tim

[rvalente]

I call my notebook of thinking paper, always in the good company of my 0.5mm pentel mechanical pencil

[admiralk]

So few people include a diagram or schematic in their post.

When talking about a specific situation, they should.

On the other hand, for a general question it is not always needed, even when it pertains to a specific use case.

The phrase "Can't see the forest through the trees" comes to mind.

[Ed.Kloonk]

I too will use a pencil and paper before I'll ever sketch something out on a electronic device. :puke:

[CatalinaWOW]

Virtually all my initial design and lab modification work is done pencil and paper.  But in spite of gradual improvement over six decades of practice my drawing skills are so poor that those initial drawings and analysis are rarely comprehensible to those around me.

CAD tools have been a tremendous gift to those who need to understand my work.

[SiliconWizard]

Well, for my part, it's just slightly annoying enough to draw a schematic and post it somewhere, than to use a verbal description.  Which inevitably fails as I forget how poorly understood such descriptions are...

Ditto, if I don't do it, it's usually out of lazyness! And yes that sometimes ends up failing, as a clear schematic is often easier to understand for anyone else than ourselves than a written description.

As to using a pencil specifically, I think unfortunately, many of us tend to use handwriting/drawing less and less in favor of computer tools. I've a lot more often launched LTspice or similar to draw a quick schematic and share it than drawing with a pen and scanning it...

But for work, I still usually prefer hand drawing first.

[Cerebus]

I call my notebook of thinking paper, always in the good company of my 0.5mm pentel mechanical pencil

Heretic! The only proper writing device under those circumstances is a 2B, or possibly a B, cedarwood pencil, preferably a Staedler Lumograph.

[sleemanj]

Young people seem to not quite grasp the concept that the information inside their head is not visible outside their head, it can take a lot of work to get information out of them.

I really don't know why that is.  I'm sure I we weren't like that in the good old days.  Were we?

Have I become my grandfather, "kids these days".  Next I'll be complaining about their loud music and helter skelter ways.

[themadhippy]

After over 40 years of sterling service im looking for a suitable replacement for fag cad.it was always to hand,fitted in your pocket and also doubled up as an emergency container for small parts.Unfortunately the cost of ownership has priced it out of the market.

[Cerebus]

After over 40 years of sterling service im looking for a suitable replacement for fag cad.it was always to hand,fitted in your pocket and also doubled up as an emergency container for small parts.Unfortunately the cost of ownership has priced it out of the market.

Fag CAD has been no good since the disappearance of Senior Service, Woodbine, and Capstan Full Strength. Good aspect ratio, plenty of white space and no coating, foil or other muck to get in the way of making a good pencil impression. Their disappearance was the end of Fad CAD. Still it's not as bad of the disappearance of the 80 column Hollerith CAD device/shopping list/bookmark.

[EPAIII]

People do still use pencils. And pens. And rulers and even things like templates and other manual drawing aids. And paper is everywhere.

It is not the pencil and paper or the sketching process that is neglected. Once a pencil sketch has been made, it then must be either scanned or photographed to include it in a post. Yes, many of us have cell phones with great cameras. But that does not mean that those cell phones are being used to post. I find it a lot easier and faster to use a real keyboard instead of those tiny, tiny ones on a cell phone. And my keyboard does not have a camera.

As for scanning, I do have a scanner in my printer. It is about two feet to my left. And it almost always has a stack of papers and other objects on the cover that must be moved if I am going to scan anything. Too much like work. The makers of that printer did include a feed slot for scans, but it too is covered by that stack of papers, etc.

When I do decide to include a sketch, I open either a CAD program or a drawing program, like Paint or Paint.net.

I think this is more like the real reason why you do not see many sketches.

[EPAIII]

All right, I give up. What is FAG CAD?

When I try to search for it, I keep getting a site that wants me to accept cookies. No way.

After over 40 years of sterling service im looking for a suitable replacement for fag cad.it was always to hand,fitted in your pocket and also doubled up as an emergency container for small parts.Unfortunately the cost of ownership has priced it out of the market.

[gcewing]

What we really want is drawing tools built into the forum post editor. I don't understand why that hasn't happened yet.

[gcewing]

All right, I give up. What is FAG CAD?

Speakers of American may have a bit of a language problem with this. Hint: To a British person, fag = cigarette.

[Nominal Animal]

What we really want is drawing tools built into the forum post editor. I don't understand why that hasn't happened yet.

For the same reason why we type our responses in a box, instead of as a WYSIWYG post.

It has nothing to do with technical capabilities or possibilities, and everything to do with what and how humans are. 

Right now, I myself have three sketchpads lying around.  They get filled with ideas and stuff quite fast.  Nice pens or pencils are a must.

[beanflying]

As a CAD wonk my workstation still has my rough notes/workbook/shopping book. Then my slightly more formal project pad and an isometric graph book are within arms reach along with an assortment of Pencils.

When I have that idea roughed out to a concept that my mind can see a path forward then its off to CAD as with practice it is faster to then see if the bits fit together than a properly/accurately scaled drawing.

Even if I had a digital sketchpad unlikely I would lose the paper from my workflow.

[Renate]

I haven't used pencils in so long that it's a search when I need one for carpentry.
Dollar store notebooks and a Pilot gel ink pen are my thinking instrument.
Despite being an Android/ebook/desktop/CAD fan I don't see these notebooks ever being supplanted.
I try to remember to write a title on the top of the page so when I look back I have some idea what I was writing about.

[Nominal Animal]

Now, gel ink pen on aquarelle/watercolor paper, that's luxury.

I've mentioned before that on the pencil sketches and notes I make, the paper is more like cache for my mind.  After I've found a solution/design, I make a cleaned up version (often on the computer, using Inkscape, Dia, or EasyEDA).  (I don't waste the paper much, though: I often use whatever small area is still free of scribblings for smaller details.)

For similar reasons why the Rubber Duck method helps software developers, the sketching helps me design and understand algorithms and complex structures and interconnected systems.

[HB9EVI]

ink pen and a 2 buck sketchbook from the super market are doing fine service to take notes; but most of the time I just build out of my head from my mental chalkboard
I hate doing schematics on the computer, no patience for that, so I'd rather take a pic with the phone from my hand drawn schematics than doing so fully digitally.

[nali]

For me, it's one of those small A3-ish sized whiteboards intended for household use along with a set of Sharpie-sized fine point markers. Great for quick sketching or jotting down ideas, notes, values, dimensions etc and anything needing "saving" gets snapped with the phone camera.

[themadhippy]

What is FAG CAD?

The grandfather of dave cad and the father of napkin cad, using you fag (cigarette)packet to scribal down  ideas or brief notes