Engineer. All kinds of products from industrial to consumer. Always involved in the hands on of prototype building and production startup as well, which, besides drafting skills, is a very important part of being a good engineer.
And Cliff, you're showing a very narrow minded perspective on the industry. Your statement only reflects the middle of the process... the actual manufacturing of the parts. The process starts with estimators that require drawings, whether they can read them or not, and the process ends with QA people who also require drawings, whether that can read them or not. To say we could do without them is a dream, not a reality. I've dealt with shops that can build without prints for sure, and in fact it has saved us a time or two on deadlines but that "paper" trail is still an essential part of our lives. Documentation is required to establish a common understanding of all things manufactured. Take anyone involved in the process and they can begin to interprept a drawing, not so of a 3d model. Any good drawing will allow even a half-assed cad jockey to rebuild the 3d model. When a 3d file is lost or modified without a record of what changed what do you do? When the day comes that the world is ruled by machines and people have been eliminated your vision will be realized. Until then, realize that even in this highly evolved manufacturing world that we live in you are still reading letters that make up words, that make up sentences, that make up paragraphs on your pc screen. No 3d model was harmed in the writing of this.
Industrial Designer in the Chicago area (Aurora Illinois - Wayne's World, but not as cool as you might think from the movies) Through college, and a bit after, was a pattern maker and machinist for my old man on his sculptures (been called since when the job is tough).
Started off my career doing POP while doing interesting freelance product design on the side, now work full time inventing stuff for a wide variety of industries doing product and OEM design across multiple industries - keeps Monday morning VERY interesting. In my off hours I work on trebuchets and furniture for my house (what comes first... the living room set? or the new treb? If you need to ask, you've never built a treb).
Hmmm...I guess officially I'm neither, unofficially both. I'm a self-taught CSWP who is employed as a CAD Administrator. I do reverse engineering, redesign, new design, drafting, PDMWorks administration, document control... Like bob z, I don't like to be referred to as an engineer. Mainly because I'm not...
PolyTech Forum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here.
All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.