Hand drawn sketches

[Willie]

Do any of you still hand draw your sketches. I used Apex years ago for a short time, and then moved to another shop that didn't have Apex. Have been hand drawing them ever since. I wonder if I should go ahead and learn Apex again or keep on hand drawing my sketches? Am I a dinasaur? No one has complained about the sketchs.

 

[TC]

You sound like my old boss who still measures with a wheel!!! Use the Apex draw and get into the 90's.

TC

 

[Jo Ann Meyer Stratton]

Go back to Apex! Although I enjoy drawing sketches myself, the Apex sketch is much more professional looking in a report. And if you are emailing your reports as pdf files to clients, the Apex integrates with most appraisal software. You can download a demo versions from Apex website and play around with it. The easiest way I have found is to do an exterior wall sketch in their free form choice. In free form the program is not doing any calculations and you can sketch, back out, draw on top of, draw a line on the opposite site of the screen, etc, etc, etc until you have decided that is where the lines should go. Then choose a calculated area, join to a corner to start and follow the dots around the exterior. Their latest version was issued July 16, 2002, so check that one out. You can even get carried away and not only put all the plumbing fixtures and applicances in the house, you can draw cars in the garage and even fill in areas to represent tile or brick, etc. Apex is fun! And for a one person shop the cost is very reasonable, and quite frequently it is one of the actual programmers that answer the phone--not just a tech person they hired off the street yesterday. So their tech support is very good.

 

[Ted Martin]

I've been using Apex since 1991 +/- and wouldn't think of not using a sketch progam. We use ACI software and Apex transfers the square footages to the appraisal form automatically. Takes at most ten to fifteen minutes to do a sketch and it prints out with the appraisal. I'm sure all of the major software does the same. I tried to use WinSketch but never could unlearn Apex, so I gave up and went back to Apex.

 

[larryhaskell]

William:

Do you type your reports on a typewriter?

 

[Ross (CO)]

When you say "hand draw" do you mean pencil on graph paper or stylus on "palm" pad screen ? My field sketches are still pencil on paper on clipboard and I will draw lines to best-fit the grid with 1 block being 1 foot. Any and all pertinent facts about the house which are fundamental to condition are written around the edge of the sketch page as I walk around the house. Our sketch is one of the last vestiges of proof that we actually did see and reasonably observe the subject property. If one took the time to sketch then one took the time to look. ( The very young subdivision home may grant us a license to move our observations rapidly, otherwise...) Back at the office the sketch is definitely drawn into APEX IV and I would never attempt to re-draw a clean paper sketch as hardcopy page within a hardcopy report. William, you should be APEX-drawing (or another good recognized program ) your sketches for the final report ! Why would your client complain about your hand-drawn paper hardcopy sketches ?....they don't care how much time it all takes you so long as the area total portrays reality. I continue to be amazed when I hear a h/o say that the last appraiser from a year ago was only there for 5 minutes and then left. Took picture from front yard, one from back yard, walked through and had keys back in the ignition in 5 minutes ! I am still not sure what sort of impression that is supposed to leave.

 

[slacker]

Do any of you still hand draw your sketches.

I usually call in my dimmensions to the UW on my CB and then ship the original on a carved stone tablet by canoe.


Go back to Apex. It's easy, quick, and clean. I do still have my old CB though.

 

[Francois K. Gregoire]

Do any of you still hand draw your sketches. I used Apex years ago for a short time, and then moved to another shop that didn't have Apex. Have been hand drawing them ever since. I wonder if I should go ahead and learn Apex again or keep on hand drawing my sketches? Am I a dinasaur? No one has complained about the sketchs.

William,

You are not alone. There are at least two of us.

You have me beat, however. I've never used a sketch program. One of these days this may change, but it will take a good reason. Stone age is fine with me.

 

[EDWARD BERRY]

After working at Boeing in 1953, I could have a floor plan drawn while Apex loaded.

However, with EDI, I bitted the bullet and now use Apex. I really took a while to learn.

Someone(maybe Jo Ann, Mrs. Martin or someone) offered the best advice.--USE THE FREE FORM on BAD ones.

Also, I still find it useful to quickly hand draw, if some of the dim are missing from my field notes.

Once I got the hang of it--never go back.

Backward ed in arkansas.

 

[Austin]

I noticed that about sketch programs too. If your measurement numbers don’t match up, the darn thing won’t close. Maybe they need a time adjustment or some other kind of fudge factor in those sketch programs so things will balance out and the ends will meet. Works on the marketing grid, so why wouldn’t it work in the sketch program? Maybe some one will invent an ADM. (automatic drawing model) Ends meet every time.