Blueprints vs digital files - saw both at a job site and it got me thinking

I was at a new house build over on Maple Street yesterday and noticed the senior drafter had a full set of rolled blueprints laid out on a table while the new guy was working off a tablet. The older guy said he likes having the whole floorplan in front of him without scrolling. The tablet guy talked about zooming in on tight spots. Is paper still worth the hassle for big commercial jobs or is it time to go all digital for good?

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mason3613mo ago

Hold on, you're wrong about paper being old school. Digital files have a HUGE downside that nobody talks about. A tablet dies or gets a cracked screen on a dusty job site and you're stuck with nothing, a paper set still works when dropped in mud or left in the sun. Plus, you can't mark up a PDF the same way you can with a red pen on a full size sheet, I've seen crews waste time trying to pass a tablet around when they could just look at the same drawing from across the table. The zoom feature is nice for details, but for seeing how a whole wall ties into the foundation, scrolling actually makes you miss the big picture. Paper is better for real collaboration and it doesn't have a loading screen when you flip to a different page.

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wells.morgan3mo ago

Is it really that serious though @mason361? Like yeah paper's tougher but I've used a tablet on site for years and never had one die unless I forgot to charge it which is my own fault. And passing a tablet around vs a paper set both take time if people are being slow about it.

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