Found my old paper logbook and barely recognized the workflow
Been drafting since 2009, mostly residential work around Columbus. Last month I was cleaning out a file cabinet and came across my first logbook from 2011. Every single revision, every phone call with an engineer, every stupid redline written out by hand. I used to spend 20 minutes just updating that thing before I could even start drawing. Now I just flip through layers and check the cloud history, which takes maybe 2 minutes. The old system kept me honest though, because writing it down forced me to think through the whole change before I touched anything. I started doing a quick mental scan of what I'm about to edit before opening the file, and it catches errors I used to miss. Anyone else keep any old habits from their paper days that still work better than the software tools?
That first year I drafted I kept a spiral notebook too, and I remember thinking digital was just a crutch for people who couldn't handle the discipline. But seeing your point about the mental scan, it hit me different. I tried it last week before a big redline, just sat there for a minute and walked through the whole change in my head, and I caught a conflict with the existing ceiling height that the layer check would've missed completely. You're right that the old way forced the thinking, and I've been stealing that part back into my software workflow ever since. The tools are faster, but that pause before the click, that's the keeper.