Draughtsman

See also drafter. For the board game piece, see Draughts.

A draughtsman or draftsman (the former more often in the UK, the latter more often in the US), is a person skilled in drawing, either:

• drawing for artistic purposes, or
• technical drawing for practical purposes such as architecture or engineering. Many modern draughtsmen use computer aided drafting (CAD) software to produce drawings.

A draftsman, spelled the same way in both British and American English, is also an individual who drafts (i.e. draws up) documents, especially for official purposes.

A draftsperson is an artist skilled in technical drawing. The 'skill' is to draw complex instructions precisely and accurately. The 'art' is to arrange that information in an organised way which is also easily readable.

Drafting includes any task that utilizes graphics to convey instructions to another person. Commonly this is associated with the making of plans for structures or mechanical devices before they are built.

Disciplines of drafting include: Civil, Structural, Architectural, Plumbing, Cartography, Electrical, Entertainment Design, Thermodynamics (and HVAC), Mechanical, Hydraulics, Telecommunications, Materials, Aerodynamics, and Archaeology.

Alternate spellings include draughtsperson, draughtsman, draftsman, drafter or drafties.

CAD, or computer aided design, is the principal tool used by drafters to create drawings or plans. AutoCAD, MicroStation, Archicad, Vector Works, Allplan, Tekla Structures are some popular CAD software packages out of many.