I am by profession a Draughtsman. I learned to to draughts by hand and I can even still do it despite the fact that things have become much easier through CAD.

I can understand when people say "what do we need drawings for?" I certainly understand the benifits of utilising 3D data for production means. But what about security. What happens if something happens to your model. How do make sure that you can follow all changes which have been made during the life of a part.

What I have found over the years is, that many people these days are no longer able to read a drawing correctly and this quite often causes problems. So, it's the easy way out just to say, "we don't need drawings any more." To date there is no substitute for drawings in all cases. At present time there are still more than enough smaller supliers who don't have the means to utilise 3D data so you still have to have a draught which has been done correctly.

Perhaps in future times people like me may well become obsolete as there will be no further need for drawings but I think that is still a little far off.