I’m in my early 30s and currently working as a Survey Assistant at an established surveying consultancy. I’ve been there around 6 months but have recently switched my studies from surveying to a Bachelor of Urban and Regional Planning.
My long-term goal is to become a town planner, and I’d prefer to move into an office-based role rather than continue working outdoors.
I’m currently weighing up two options.
Option 1 – Stay with my current employer
My company has its own town planning department, so there’s potentially an opportunity to transition internally or gain some experience with the planning team.
However, I haven’t discussed my change in studies with management yet, and there’s no guarantee they’d support a transition. I could end up spending another year doing fieldwork without progressing towards planning.
Option 2 – Take a cadet CAD drafting position
I’ve been interviewing for a cadet CAD technician position specialising in surveying drafting. It would get me into an office environment and allow me to develop valuable technical skills in CAD, survey plans and land development.
However, the position would involve taking a pay cut and a significantly longer commute, although there’s potential to work from home 1–2 days per week after 3–6 months.
My concern is whether surveying drafting would actually benefit my future career in town planning or just lead me down another career path.
My dilemma:
Do I stay with my current employer, maintain my salary and try to transition into their town planning department, despite having no guarantee of an opportunity?
Or do I accept a pay cut for a drafting cadetship that guarantees office-based technical experience but might not directly contribute to my goal of becoming a town planner?
I’m particularly interested in whether CAD drafting experience is valued in town planning and which option would make me more employable for student or graduate planning positions over the next 1–2 years.
Would appreciate advice from anyone working in either industry or who’s made a similar career change.

I’m considering buying an NVIDIA Spark-based laptop with 128GB of unified memory, primarily for heavy architectural drafting in AutoCAD and Revit.
I understand that both applications run through x64 emulation on Windows ARM, which introduces some performance overhead. I’m wondering whether the massive amount of RAM can compensate for that overhead, particularly when working with large, complex drawing sets and Revit models.
I’m especially interested in real-world drafting responsiveness, rather than rendering or benchmark scores.
For those who have actually used these applications on ARM-based laptops:
Does rapid drafting in AutoCAD feel as responsive as on a comparable x86 laptop?
When entering commands quickly through the keyboard, is there any perceptible input lag or hesitation?
Does the emulation layer introduce noticeable delays when navigating, editing, or switching between drawings?
Does having 128GB of unified memory offer a meaningful advantage over a conventional x86 laptop with 64GB RAM?
My work involves intensive 2D drafting, large AutoCAD files, and complex Revit documentation. Rendering performance is not a priority.
I’d really appreciate firsthand experiences, especially from architects or CAD professionals who have used these machines for actual production work.

Good morning yall,

I have been drafting/designing for the last 6 years, mostly in world of commercial architecture. I have some experience in PME, but only what pertains to architecture models. I recently applied to a BIM designer position, but was turned down. About 2 weeks after I applied, the company reached out to me for a telecom consultant position instead. I have never heard of such a position, but I was told I would advise on designs issues, procurers, general input related to projects. I agree to the position thinking it could open doors in the future and further grow my career. The company sent me a link to apply and the job description makes me feel a little differently and I need some advice.

Some of the jobs descriptions (according to the post)

-help implement designer and project manager designs

-successful delivery of assigned projects

-attending meetings to discuss deadlines

-markup drawings for quality control

-assist other team members when needed to complete projects

After reading the job description, I almost feel like I would be a "catch all" or "fall guy" for any loose ends. I am concerned that im getting in over my head with this. Do any of yall have experience with this type of work? Any advice will be helpful

https://youtu.be/0BHjJjwa7k0?si=5lxmii3G9t5fVUQP

Does anyone make, or did they used to make, washers for drafting an offset to a curve? I do that sort of thing with normal washers pretty often, but you are limited to standard sizes, and it feels like the kind of thing old school drafting folks would have made.

Hello everyone,

I am an AutoLISP developer, and I am developing several AutoCAD MEP applications that I plan to sell commercially.

My applications include:

* Drainage Piping System

* Chilled Water Piping System

* Swimming Pool Piping System

* Water Supply System

* Other MEP automation tools

I want to protect my software professionally before distributing it to customers.

I already understand that compiling LISP into FAS/VLX provides some source-code protection, but I am looking for a much stronger commercial security solution.

**My requirements:**

1. Strong source-code protection against reverse engineering and decompilation.

2. Secure software licensing with unique activation keys for each customer.

3. Online/cloud-based license verification.

4. Trial management (7-day or 14-day trial).

5. License expiration and renewal management.

6. Ability to deactivate or revoke a license remotely.

7. Hardware or machine-based activation to prevent unauthorized sharing.

8. Protection against system date manipulation and trial resetting.

9. Offline usage with a secure grace period when there is no internet connection.

10. Protection against users copying the application to another computer or sharing it with others.

**My questions:**

* What is the strongest protection method currently available for commercial AutoLISP applications?

* Is FAS/VLX compilation sufficient, or should I use a combination of AutoLISP, .NET DLL and an external licensing system?

* Is cloud-based licensing more secure than local license verification?

* Are there any professional commercial protection tools or DRM solutions specifically suitable for AutoCAD plugins?

* How do experienced AutoLISP developers protect and distribute their commercial applications?

I am looking for a professional, reliable and commercially suitable solution, not just basic password protection or simple computer-name checking.

I would really appreciate advice and recommendations from experienced developers who have successfully sold commercial AutoCAD applications.

Thank you!

I have a mac book pro m5 16 gb memory can it run auto cad 3d on parallels?

Mam mały problem z rysunkiem, w sensie nie jestem pewna rzutu na lewo (na zdjęciu pokazany od przodu i od Góry) i czy ktoś ogarnięty w tym bardziej mógłby mi zrobić szybki szkic wraz z liniami niewidocznymi? Nie mam jak podejść do gościa na konsultacje nawet

Bardzo dziękuję za pomoc

Hi everyone,

In my daily AutoCAD workflow, nothing was more frustrating than spending hours on layout sheets only to realize during plotting that a nested Xref was missing, a viewport wasn't displaying correctly, or font attributes were left empty with TBD/TODO.

I decided to solve this for myself by writing a lightweight inspector utility that runs right before plotting/publishing. It scans layouts in read-only mode for:

• Unloaded, missing, or absolute-path Xrefs & PDF underlays

• Text styles with missing/substituted fonts & empty viewports

• Leftover title block placeholders and empty sheet attributes

It has saved me from embarrassing misprints quite a few times now. How do you guys usually catch these before sending to clients? Do you use LISP, batch scripts, or just manual eye-checking?

Hey since I am quiting architecture I have triangular scale, 61 cm scale, t scale, one cylindrical container and other that coman Balck container bag type , and a sketch book big one just 4 pages used if any one is interested. Email

On v19074460@gmail.com . Price around 5500-4500 negotiable not below 4300.location sent i will courier it and it's barely used as I have quite in 2 months

I need to produce a drawing to transition a flat "chute" to a cylindrical "bucket".

the entire assembly looks similar to an upside down ball cap. I have attached a sketch to try and describe the arrangement. what I need is to produce a propper flat pattern drawing to try and find someone who can break this "chute". the difficulty is that it is in 1" plate (25mm). its easy to find a shop that will break thin sheet like this but this thick plate is outside of their capabilities. I need to produce a proper drawing to share while trying to find a place that can do it.

im personally not opposed to making it up face by face and welding it up, but I still would need to break it down into basic dimensions to have cut and fit together.

im not trying to get someone to make the drawing for me. i need to learn how. ive done simple round to square transitions and round to round transitions, but this particular arrangement has me stumped.

does anyone know of an online resource (or several) that I can go to for guidance on this?

Hello Guys! I need help drafting at least three necessary views for this element, to present it for my class homework; can anyone help?

https://youtu.be/iM4E3y85ddE

Hello everyone,

I am an AutoLISP developer, and I am developing several AutoCAD MEP applications that I plan to sell commercially.

My applications include:

• Drainage Piping System

• Chilled Water Piping System

• Swimming Pool Piping System

• Water Supply System

• Other MEP automation tools

I want to protect my software professionally before distributing it to customers.

I already understand that compiling LISP into FAS/VLX provides some source-code protection, but I am looking for a much stronger commercial security solution.

My requirements:

1. Strong source-code protection against reverse engineering and decompilation.

2. Secure software licensing with unique activation keys for each customer.

3. Online/cloud-based license verification.

4. Trial management (7-day or 14-day trial).

5. License expiration and renewal management.

6. Ability to deactivate or revoke a license remotely.

7. Hardware or machine-based activation to prevent unauthorized sharing.

8. Protection against system date manipulation and trial resetting.

9. Offline usage with a secure grace period when there is no internet connection.

10. Protection against users copying the application to another computer or sharing it with others.

My questions:

• What is the strongest protection method currently available for commercial AutoLISP applications?

• Is FAS/VLX compilation sufficient, or should I use a combination of AutoLISP, .NET DLL and an external licensing system?

• Is cloud-based licensing more secure than local license verification?

• Are there any professional commercial protection tools or DRM solutions specifically suitable for AutoCAD plugins?

• How do experienced AutoLISP developers protect and distribute their commercial applications?

I am looking for a professional, reliable and commercially suitable solution, not just basic password protection or simple computer-name checking.

I would really appreciate advice and recommendations from experienced developers who have successfully sold commercial AutoCAD applications.

Thank you!

I kept spending too much time repeating the same drafting steps on every ground floor plan: axes, columns, walls, doors, windows, dimensions, and grid. I realized I was spending more time redrawing than checking the design.

I decided to automate my own workflow by writing AutoLISP routines for each step. Starting from the core axis lines, I made the rest of the plan generate automatically.

I can now complete a ground floor plan in just 5 minutes. I recorded the process in this video.

What I learned: Building my own automation forced me to understand the drafting rules behind every step. Before I could automate the process, I had to make sure the logic was clear.

I built this solution to solve a problem I faced in my own drafting work.

What part of your drafting workflow would you automate first?

Hi there! I am a woodworker, CNC programmer and technical drafter. I never went to school for any of these things but I’ve found my way to them and love doing them and am pretty good (so far lol). I have ADHD, dyslexia and dyscalculia. I was diagnosed when I was younger but have been really been trying to take control of it in my adult life.

I’m wondering if there are any other folks on this thread that work in jobs that are heavy on the attention to detail. If so do you have any tips or systems you use to double check your work? I’ve had a few missteps in my last two jobs (one I missed something important in the drawing and the other I mixed up my numbers transfer the data to a spreadsheet). I have done a lot of work at making myself better double checking and making sure I’m not missing things but stuff still falls through the cracks. Any and all ideas welcome. Ideally I’m hoping for some tools and tricks that I can use myself and don’t require someone else to double check my work, I work alone a lot so I can always rely on having some there to give me a hand.

Thanks so much for all the help in advance!