Our designer engineer charged by the sq.ft and it was drawn by hand which i appreciated. He was also willing to make all layout #'s according to how i lay out framing details,(outside wall to center of openings as an example),and had a pretty straight forward and easy to follow design. No surprises. I dont know that you can get that w/ computer aided. Your builders recommendation more than likely are geared for him as he is appearently used to detailing off of this guy's work, which could mean a smoother project for you.

My architect draws his by hand and he is a very sought-after designer. Some of the most experienced architects draw by hand, I certainly don;t have a problem with that! I don;t think it necessarily takes more or less time than CAD.

I'm having custom kitchen cabinets made and the cabinet maker draws his plans on a piece of plywood. Hes been doing it 40 years and he worked for his father before that and has 2 brothers doing the same. His workmanship is head and shoulder above every other cabinet we looked at. His price is on par with average cabinets. He claims that using a computer waists too much time. He also had better ideas and provided many trim items I never would have though of included. All the shops that I interviewed that used cad had a separate person doing the cad so the guys in the shop could make them.

How in the world did architects exist before computers???

Our architect does his drawings by hand and requires his interns to do the same. I have mixed feelings - I appreciate the skill, but there were a couple of mismeasurements his interns made early on that would have been caught by a computer program. I don't think it makes him a less qualified or savvy architect, but my husband and I recognize that there's more oversight necessary when working with hand-drawn plans.

Many architects still work entirely by hand. In the overall scheme of things, I doubt that it has much impact on the final cost of the design. Different architects charge different fees, too. One working by hand may charge less than one working on a computer, or maybe more. It depends on how much demand there is for his or her work.

Over the years I've used architects that work both ways. Design fees still end up costing about the same percentage of the final project total, either way.

The one major advantage of working with an architect who uses computers, particularly if the project is complex or done from a distance, is that drawings or architectural details can be sent between the architect and the client via email, which simplifies the design process.

I am an Architectural draftsman and have been for the past 18 years. I started off drawing by hand and now everything I do is on computer. I do quick hand sketches in the field and transfer everything to computer. I would charge the same amount no matter what way I did the drafting. As one above poster mentioned, a wrong dimension, that can occur either way its drawn, there is no guarentee that the computer would catch the error, and you can manually change any dimension on the computer anyways.