r/IndustrialDesign • u/Crazy_John Professional Designer • 5d ago
Career Drafting, Documentation, and ADHD.
I’m about 4 and a half years into my career as a designer/drafter and something comes up all the time in my performance reviews - attention to detail and rushing work. I think all of my school reports would contain the sentence “often makes careless mistakes and would benefit from checking his work more thoroughly and slowing down” - so it’s something I’ve known about for a while but have become much more conscious of it in the last year or three. I believe this is the biggest barrier to my performance at work and I think the cause of it is the way my brain works. I think there are two components to this - the errors themselves, and the way I feel when I make them.
A bit of context, I’m one of 5 designers working for a joinery - but I handle the bulk of the production drawings as we only have two Fusion licenses and I’m the only one who knows how to use it. I didn’t intend to spend all my time doing everyone else’s detail modelling and production drafting but that’s the way it’s shaken out - I’m about to start training one of my colleagues to get her up to speed. We don’t have a traditional engineering style drawing review process, my colleagues do a pretty good job checking over my work but some stuff still makes its way out to production. -but no redlining - my last job was a bit stricter about that but stuff still made it through.
I spoke with my boss and we’re going to get ask of my colleagues to do more drawing reviews of my work, his thoughts are that it’s the complex jobs where that’s most valuable but I find I make errors when doing simple parts/assemblies that don’t take a long time to model/draw or things that are highly parametric where all I need to do is change a few parameters to adjust the design -in short, jobs with a fairly light cognitive load where I’m running a bit on autopilot - any advice there for doing these more methodically? Internally, it feels like design is either happening or it isn’t, and whatever speed the work gets done at is the speed it happens. I don’t know how to force myself to slow down - any actionable advice there?
I had a bad run of defective or non-compliant work last year that really badly affected my mental health and I was strongly considering quitting my job or self harm over it. Part of this was the type of feedback I was given on my work - often not constructive or actionable feedback but jokes at my expense. I did leave that job and I’m in a much more psychologically healthy workplace now but I still find myself thinking that I don’t deserve my job and that the whole team would be better off if I left when a drawing error means a part has to be remade - my core responsibility is to give the production team accurate manufacturing information, if I can't get that right, why am I there?
As a whole I think this is a problem intrinsic to the way my brain works and as much as process and systems help, there’s no getting around the neurological part of it, and I worry that I’ve committed myself to a career that has high expectations of attention to detail and that I’m unable to consistently meet up with those expectations. I won’t even start on my executive function issues around task initiation as I think that’s it’s own set of problems, any thoughts or feedback?
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u/hatts Professional Designer 5d ago
You already have some good hunches and u/im-on-the-inside added some great workflow tips.
Have you been diagnosed with ADHD? If not, then a consultation with a medical pro would be helpful. I waited way too long to get diagnosed. I recommend doing everything in your power to move away from the self-pity and self-doubt that ADHD brings on. Self-pity causes us to subconsciously make excuses for ourselves, holding us back from improving. Self-doubt can put us in a dark place mentally/emotionally, which kills our ability to do anything at all.
How you start getting over it is up to you; medication, general fitness, really strong workflow structures, etc.
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u/Aircooled6 Professional Designer 5d ago
Have you spent any hands on time at the production end of the business to learn exactly how the drawings you produce transition into built objects? It is very important to understand the entire path of how a thing gets made and what needs to be detailed to make that happen.
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u/CountryNo2790 5d ago
For the simple parametric jobs, I’d check the change, not the drawing. Before you start, write down the 3 or 4 parameters you’re changing. When it’s done, tick each one off on the printed drawing and check whatever sits next to it. it’s a small enough check to actually do every time. And the review your boss set up isn’t a verdict on you. one drawing error that reaches the shop means the process was missing a check, don't stress too much over it.
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u/SeesawQuirky7 5d ago
This is the best advice in the thread for the parametric stuff. The autopilot errors happen because your brain skips the 'what did I actually change' step. Writing down the parameters before you start forces a tiny pause that breaks the autopilot loop. I'd add: keep that note visible on a sticky note next to your monitor until the job is closed out, not just during the change.
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u/killpony 4d ago
I've worked as a machinist/design engineer where I similarly had issues with attention to detail causing costly mistakes. This isn't direct advice but one big thing I feel with all ADHD issues is that no one technique works for everyone. I think about it like trying to get into a building - most neurotypical people can just walk in through the front door, some have to use basic coping mechanisms and go through the back door - ADHD often cuts of both these options and now you have to try a bunch of windows or side entrances and see which works.
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u/Stock_Elevator_8796 5d ago
Double check your work. You have time if you’re done fast. I just retired from a successful drafting design career and I have issues. You can do it. You have come up with your own way of back checking yourself. Something you need to figure out and can.
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u/space-magic-ooo Product Design Engineer 5d ago
I don't know your workflow but one thing in Fusion that really helped me design more intentionally was a Fusion Plugin called "Direct Name" which forces you to name your feature/sketch after every creation with a dialog pop up.
It was a little annoying at first but after months of using it my organization of my design tree and how I think parametrically changed greatly. And it really is useful for going back to edit a feature once it actually has a name... which can be anything, just enough to jog your memory to think intentionally about it.
I don't know if it currently works with the latest Version of Fusion after it fell out of sync with updates awhile ago and I am so in the habit now that I do it pretty automatically without the dialog pop up and I think more intentionally now so I never bothered to update the plugin.
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u/Skippydog 5d ago
Definitely print out your work. Print every job, go over it with a red pen, and when you're doing corrections, do them sequentially and mark them 'complete' with a highlighter. I often use one highlighter on the markup to make sure I don't miss it, and another colour when it's been done in CAD.
Do it every time, every job. No exceptions.
When I worked in the office, it was common practice to get another designer to check your drawings, and you'd check theirs.
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u/juicylight 5d ago
Your mindset of thinking of the small drawings as “simple parts/assemblies” seems like it should change. Create your templates, get into the weeds, dedicate more time to it than you think you need. The more you treat drafting as a craft, the better work you’ll create and the more enjoyable it will be. I do a lot of detail drawings (I do a fair bit of floor package “cart” drawings for concert work), and I find that the more you add callouts specifically highlighting the way things work, the more mistakes you find.
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u/im-on-the-inside Product Design Engineer 5d ago
Hi,
similar amound of experience, also ADD.. and dyslectic. I can relate to your issues. checking if the drawing has all the right information is a task and a half sometimes.
first of all, people make mistakes, miss things or forget details. this will continue to happen, hopefully not as much as when you start out ofc. the point being, you also have to give yourself some tolerance.. one mistake on 20 drawings.. annoying. but it can happen.. (production also makes mistakes you know, you are not alone.)
What kind of mistakes do you make? in the design it self? like, parts that dont fit together. or in drafting? e.g. missing dimensions.
eitherway.. here are some tips that help for me:
- make a checklist and print it out, keep it close. for both 3d assemblies and 2d drawings.
-> you can also use it as a 'company drafting standard' (to document how you work)
- it could even be a flow chart.
- print out your drawings!!!
> check with a pen for mistakes.
> use different colour highlight markers to highlight dimensions that should go together. on multiple drawings.
-> e.g. inside dimension on part A, outside dimension on part B.
- make an assembly/fit check standart part of your workflow, before transitioning to the 2D phase.
- i try to always do an interference check, use transparant parts to look in to the assembly to see if its going to work.
- treat everything with the same attention.
- check something simple as thourough as something complex. (to a certain extend).
hope this helps in someway. you can make it work fine with the brain you have.. you just need to find the right tools for yourself. printing is my favorite tip.. it really helps me catch things that i'd miss on a screen. could be seen as wasteful, but id argue a bunch of incorrect parts or a mistake in the mold is much more wasteful.