> The engineer took three tries just to copy the plans correctly with correct dimensions onto the CAD program.

Ok, he is not very experienced or short on time.

> Then, today, as I'm doing the lumber take off I notice he has a
micro-lam and a post called out to support the basement ceiling/Main
floor joists about 8" away from a wall that is supposed to line up with
another bearing wall.

CAD software will not place lam's - engineer did. He probably did this plan in the hurry.

>All he had to do was move that wall over 8" and it line up with the bearing wall and no micro-lam.

Most packages have align wall: Chief Architect, Revit, Archicad - I think he did not have time to dedicate to your project.

>Also, every structural detail is just some canned detail they have on hand and most have no correlation with my plans.

These are trash. TYP details designed to impress the home owners and convince that the money they paid for drawing were not wasted. I see more and more of these. Detailing nailing schedule, Provide flashing typ for a window with lap siding exterior, when specs clearly call for brick.

===

Most cad software provide 0 engineering. [If you want 0.5" walls 50' tall have at it.] The engineer should look at the tables or StruCalc

Are they like spell-checkers, that check the spelling but not the right usage?

And since CAD became the industry standard about 25 years ago has anyone noticed how building design has not really improved? Same stuff...or worse.

I don't think it is a common sense issue but rather a skill level issue.

I cannot comment on CAD/Architecture so much, but I have personally seen it with the use of calculators and programs like MathCAD.

I am an ex-EE professor. I have seen so many times where students unwittingly believe whatever the calculator says without giving thought to what the number means.

Example: I give a question to calculate current through a diode on a circuit board. It is not a difficult problem. Expected result should be on order of 0.035A (35mA).

I have seen answers in the 1,000,000A range. Off by approx 7 orders of magnitude! These kids are supposed to be budding engineers, and they do not recognize the absurdity of the answer they write? How does a Junior or Senior EE not recognize that 1 MILLION DC Amps would fry most any conductor? They just blindly put whatever the calculator says. No thought given to the problem at all. I would be happier if they would just write 'this does not look correct'. But usually there is no work shown. THIS is a pet peeve of mine. No partial credit here!

Thank you for all your comments. I've just spent the last 4 hours writing notes, drawing details and asking questions - such as "Why is this roof truss hanging in mid-air? What should support it? What kind of cap should be on this post? Hangers? etc." Erggg!

I think all of you are right - some people rely too much on the computer and don't use any critical thinking skills anymore to determine if something makes sense or not. I like millworkman's comment that it's computer AIDED drafting . . . you still need to know what you're designing.

I'm sure the engineer will fix and clarify everything I've pointed out, but I sure wish he would have proof-read the plans a little before sending them to me. I just have a huge lack of confidence in him now as he thought these plans were ready to send out to bid and to also to plan check. Ahhh, the joys of building a house!

It's the same in fine art too. I have no problem working from photos and have no problem when others work from photos too. Photographs are a tool like CAD.

However, how many times have you seen drawings or paintings where there are poles coming out of a person's head? That is because the "artist" drew exactly what was in the photo, and didn't edit the photograph before starting to paint or draw.

Or someone does a drawing or painting of buildings, and the buildings are leaning to one side or another, looking as if they're about to fall over. Again it's a perspective issue in that the camera distorts perspective and the "artist" doesn't have the knowledge or skill to correct the photo before drawing.

Or my favorite. If you put your hand up to your face with your palm at the bottom of your chin, your longest finger will be just above your eyebrows. I can't tell you how many times I see "artists" draw a person where the hand in the drawing/painting is 2-3x as long as the person's head. Why is this? Because again, photos distort perspective and the "artist" doesn't have the knowledge or skill to correct it in their drawing.

CAD, like photographs are only tools. With art, if the artist doesn't have the skills to observe and translate from life, they won't be able to correct distortions in photographs. They also won't have the ability to know what to leave in and leave out with regard to good design/ composition. It's no different with a "designer" using a CAD program to create a building.

I send my CAD framing plans to an engineer and he sends them back with sizes and notes and I put that information on the framing plans. If he finds the corrected framing plans acceptable, he stamps them. That works better and is cheaper than me correcting his CAD drawings. Framing a house is pretty easy; I would do it without an engineer if the code allowed it and I could afford to carry his level of liability insurance. But I pass the cost on to my client and the building officials issue permits much faster so it works out well.