Draughting

[funkenschlag]

Could you please explain the difference between "draughting" / "drafting", and "draught" / "draft" (as technical drawing)? How these words are related to "draw"? Which one is correct in British English?

[Gość: Steve]

Both spellings are fine in Britain, although care needs to be taken with
non-professionals to ensure that "draft" is not used where it can be confused
with creating a "draft" ie a provisional document that is to be commented on and
amended later. Some professional groups will have working preferences,
especially if they work on the international market, but that can only be learnt
in practice. I - a non-professional - would normally use "draught", but that may
be an older generation preference. See Wikipedia 'Technical drawing' and
'Draughtsman'.

To me, to 'draw' the technical drawing is the physical action involved, it would
sound odd to say that you are "draughting" the drawing. If I read that you were
"drafting' the drawing, I would not know if it was just provisional and that it
was expected to be changed. NB my spell checker just told me that it doesn't
know "draughting".

[funkenschlag]

So, for exapmple I'm doing a course in "Computer Aided Draughting and Design".

[Gość: Steve]

Yes, although I was surprised to find this out.

My surprise came from the guess that it would probably have US spelling since
'CADD' is computer jargon. I was wrong.

[jonathan.oakley]

"drafting" has been around for some time and is also the noun for
craft of drawing blueprints. A good dictionary is better than a
spell checker...

[Gość: Steve]

Agreed about the dictionary, but a spell checker is an excellent quick
reference. My dictionary has 31 main variants, plus sub-variants for "draft or
draught", so good luck to anyone with excellent English trying to find the
answer to the question here, because I don't think they will find it. However,
with the combination of my prejudices, a spell checker and a good dictionary, I
assert that it is wrong to say 'draughting a drawing', but I am not sure.

For the use of 'draughting' and not 'drafting' in CADD, searching the internet
to find out what people actually do in practice beats a good dictionary, etc
everyday.

[viking2]

Steve, you're right. In fact, and I say it from the professional perspective,
nobody would use the expression "I'm drafting a drawing" - the word "drafting"
denotes the trade or craftsmanship, i.e. the activity in its general sense, much
like "he works in drafting (or in Drafting Department)". The actual process is
often described by saying "I've been working on this drawing" or "I'm doing this
drawing right now" or such like.
To be quite honest, I've never seen the acronym CADD explained as "Computer
Aided Draughting and Design" - it's always "Computer Aided Drafting...". Most
major systems come from the US market, so the generic name of the software would
use American spelling. Perhaps the only exception that comes to mind is CATIA -
you can see it used in UK by Rolls-Royce aero engine division. CATIA is
proprietary to French D'Assault Systemes, although created in partnership with IBM.