CAD Case Study: PAT v Blocks v Lines

<Pattycake Disclaimer>

Introduction

As we’ve sat watching our coworkers endlessly toil away with blocks and wipeout, or copying lines across a room… (and not understanding where the pattern got slightly ‘off’)... we’ve realized there's a bigger problem. There are countless benefits to using PAT files, here is a short list of 5 listed on Pattycake, and most should be well known if you are familiar with PAT files. However, no one has completed a case study of actual time that can be saved. Until now.

Let's look at an example:

An exterior elevation of a theoretical artist's studio. In this example we create three different files to explore file size and speed.

1. Elevation drawn using lines only.

2. Elevation drawn using 99% blocks.

   1. Supplementing with lines when needed.

3. Elevation drawn using PAT file(s)

   1. Supplementing with lines when needed.

Notes:

• The following chart object counts do not count the base lines drawn to outline the elevation as these are the same for all 3 different tests.
• The following counts do not account for any base PAT files loaded into the file as a CAD default. However, the file size does count these.