Marcel, yea that's hilarious! We were using 486s in class. Even they were very slow for redraws. Pretty regularly someone would instead of hitting L for line they'd hit R then enter then yell "DAMNIT"! LOL. The further autocad came along with ability the further behind the hardware would be. That was right around the time the pentiums were coming out and of course they got them but very few at home or in the industry were interested in the big money expense...AGAIN after just upgrading a year prior. For a few years there there was a new processor that was going to put the previous to shame. And maybe they did, but that's only because the previous version was a shame. The first pentiums were a joke. Pentium 60 or 66 maybe? Needless to say then came the 90 and so on and so forth. My first real maching was a 486 DX4 100 megahertz. It was far faster than the pentium 60 I saw no difference between it and the 90.
Where it really got back was when they started running Acad under windows. Well, actually I should say that's when it went from bad to worse.
Fortunately for me when I got done with cad classes I was working in the field using programs other than autocad. My first job that I did drafting I used a 486 machine and ran sign programs, art programs and there was a cad program. Drafix cad pro. Don't worry, you've never heard of it, I think we were their third and last customer before going bankrupt. LOL. The girl that was doing the engineering was so far in over her head she just never recovered. And the boss didn't like her because she would be in her car at 5:01 every day. One day she left and the boss asked me if I wanted to be a draftsman. He somehow didn't even know I was taking cad classes. The funny part about that was that they were only offered durring the day. I was gone for 3 hours three time a week, still getting my work caught up so he never even noticed! LOL This poor girl never left her desk till quitting time and never caught up. I tool the promotion and quickly found out why. She just didn't undertand the program. She managed to draw an awning, which was what we built there, and printed it. So what the fabricators would get was a generic picture of an awing with numbers written on it. She couldn't figure how how to draw to scale and dimension. This was a degeed engineer mind you. And not my little pittily azzed associates degree. She had a bachlers. Anyway we were learning detailing in class and I knew enough about design to be able to fake it so I just started designing the entire awning system, often they would go all the way around the building, every inside and outside turn, knotch out for downspouts...everything and then I'd detail each section. Then I went one step further and made him a cut list. Of course it was just a bill of material but he didn't know what that was so, he got a cut list. Everyone was so amazed! The poor guy went from standing there scratching his head feeding the calculator for two hours before the first piece of steel was cut. The second day I took the job he was cutting steel ten minutes after I handed him the job. Needless to say the boss DID notice that one and I became the chief engineer. Then the artist quit. I coudln't draw freehand to save my life. But I knew the program well enough that I thought I could fake it. Sure enough, the boss walked in and said, "well Wayne, here's you new hat". The rotton sob was empty handed. He didn't even bother to get a hat made that said "Artist" on it! That was the best no paying job I ever head. I delt directly with customers, with the county office to pull permits...that was funny they were all old hippies that didn't want any signs. I did the purchasing for the entire facility and managed my people. And get this, less than two years before that I walked in the door and took a job as.....wait for it....janitor. Yep, I started cleaning the toilets and sweeping the floor. Talk about starting from the ground up! Loved that job, hated the old boss that sold the place to this guy. The old boy had a trick up his sleeve. and was able to steal the company back out from under them after a couple years of legal battles. I saw it twice. The last time I saw it happened it grabbed my calculator and pen and left the building. That was that. Pretty sad.
I've got a lot of interesting stories like that, we should start a thread about drafting/engineering jobs we've had. I worked in the field for over 7 years when the economy took a dump all over us. But I've worked for a whole lot of companies. They wouldn't keep us busy. All of a suddent, sorry, you're laid off. I'd say "no I'm not. You just fired me. You weren't paying me enough to make it on unenjoyment. I'll be dropping off resumes tomorrow unless you can find something for me to do?" None every had the forsight to see that coming. The new guy can't make it on unemp so I guess we'd better keep something for him to do or we're going to have to hire someone else all over again AGAIN! But it would happend all the time. I'd say, "layoff" No thank you, bye now". LOL
)
