This site presents the correspondence between my professional assessment of the computerization of building construction tools and the emerging consensus of the profession in their manuals and guidelines. The Increasing Computer Use page will support the idea that computerization has allowed results to be made faster and more accurately in construction. The Steeper Learning Curve page, by contrast, observes that the increased power of computers in construction may have complicated and even slowed the process of learning the required skills in the field. This site expresses the optimistic view that the essential connection to building tradition may save us from losing our place entirely to computers. These are my views and opinions of computerized technology and how it affected engineers and workers over the last two decades.
That computerization has complicated people’s learning process in building construction is actually a main contributor to the speed and accuracy of the results. The real basis of drafting and design as they connect to construction remains something that only human beings, and relatively easily too, can grasp completely. Ancient engineers thousands of years ago built great things that today are still standing, for example the pyramids, without computers or even paper. If computers left us behind in this industry, they would probably quickly go nowhere.