A lead drafter told me to stop overlaying every single layer

I used to keep every utility, structural, and MEP layer visible in my CAD files at once because I thought it showed thoroughness. About 6 months ago, a senior drafter in our Omaha office pulled me aside and said "you're cluttering your own view and it slows everyone down." Now I only toggle on the layers I actually need for the current task, and my drawing times dropped by almost 20 minutes per sheet. Has anyone else had to unlearn a bad habit from someone who's been in the trade longer?

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1 Comment

sandragonzalez1mo agoTop Commenter

oh man i feel this so hard lol. i think you're missing the bigger picture though cause keeping everything visible actually used to be the standard before people realized it was just noise. i had a similar wakeup call about five years ago when a mentor flat out told me my drawings looked like a tangled mess of christmas lights. once you learn to trust the layer system and only pull what you need per task it's like your brain stops having to filter out all that visual static. dropping 20 minutes per sheet is huge but honestly the real win is not having to mentally sort through a thousand meaningless lines every time you zoom in. good on you for making the switch.