Heartily disagree.
Modern CAD software is EASY (I'm talking about Autocad). I repeat: it is so easy, I could teach my grandmother to use it!
Several years ago, a machinist friend gave me a quick introduction in Autocad. In about 2-3 hours of teaching behind a PC, I learned the concepts and about 15 important commands. All typed, BTW, not point & click; works much faster too.
Then several years later, when in engineering school, we were taught Autocad too. The teacher wasn't up to it; he was good at what he did, but he sucked at autocad. I became 'de facto' teacher in my class; when someone had a problem, I got asked instead of the teacher. Now, keep in mind that in those years between 'ad hoc' teaching by my friend and lessons in engineering school, I NEVER worked with autocad... My classmates, however, had NEVER worked with the program. (In the land of the blind, a one-eyed man is king ;-) ).Once you get a feel for the principles & most important commands & how they work, you can get by with most tasks at hand.
By now, I've become pretty good at using Autocad; have recently started making 3D-drawings (not taught in engineering school...), all by self-study, trial & error, and making drawings. This learning period was not unproductive; all my learning was on real-life projects. Efficiency for individual projects may have suffered a bit, but always the task was succesfully completed, things were learned, mistakes not made a 2nd time.
Despite the fact that Autocad (like other large programs) can look overwhelming, it's easy to use; perhaps 90% of its capabilities I don't use; that's ok, they're there when I need them, and they don't hinder me with the easy tasks.
By now, I've taught several people Autocad in one evening, to do basic stuff. True, they're not skilled draftsmen at the end of the evening, but they can solve their own problems, perhaps it takes a bit longer, but still.
AutoCAD is easy to use! It's user-friendly; and it doesn't make an idiot into a fully-qualified engineer; I can make beautifully horrible drawings in Autocad, like I do on paper.
The real benefit: when making an Autocad drawing, you have something to give to the company that e.g. manufactures your rotor plates; with the drawing, you drastically reduce their time needed; they can program the CNC laser cutter with your drawing, press 'start', and 5 minutes later you have your plates.
To anyone that has so far backed away from it I'd say 'give it a try, you'll be amazed how quickly you will be making drawings that are good enough for you'.
Do yourself a favour, and ignore all the comments as to how difficult CAD-software is. Yes, if you want to 100% comprehend and use all functions, you have a serious task at hand. But for everyday problems, it's fine. Like my HP48 calculator, it has more functions than I'll ever need. But instead of using a simpler calc, I use the HP48, knowing that I'm under-using it, but also knowing that if I ever get a serious problem, the calc can do it, if I put in the effort.
Oh boy, this message got way too long and way too off-topic. But after reading the previous comment, I couldn't resist. Your example of photographing a whiteboard is nonsense; this was not what cad software was designed to do. There are still tasks for which pencil & paper are better than PCs: quick drafts, shopping lists, love letters, etc. Don't blame this on the pc or cad software, it's silly!
Peter,
The Netherlands.
for anyone wanting to try: line, circle, dimlinear, offset, distance, extend, trim, array, qsave, regen, properties are some of the most important ones. Most important is the 'help' function. With these commands, you can do the job. Learning tricks on the job how to do things quicker/better.
