Draftsman/designer vs project designer

The differences between draftsman/designers and project designers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. While it typically takes 6-12 months to become a draftsman/designer, becoming a project designer takes usually requires 2-4 years. Additionally, a project designer has an average salary of $64,943, which is higher than the $52,529 average annual salary of a draftsman/designer.

The top three skills for a draftsman/designer include design layouts, solidworks and shop drawings. The most important skills for a project designer are revit, sketch, and design concepts.

Draftsman/designer vs project designer overview

	Draftsman/Designer	Project Designer
Yearly salary	$52,529	$64,943
Hourly rate	$25.25	$31.22
Growth rate	-3%	1%
Number of jobs	47,341	60,364
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Associate Degree, 51%	Bachelor's Degree, 69%
Average age	45	42
Years of experience	12	4

Draftsman/designer vs project designer salary

Draftsman/designers and project designers have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Draftsman/Designer	Project Designer
Average salary	$52,529	$64,943
Salary range	Between $30,000 And $89,000	Between $47,000 And $89,000
Highest paying City	Washington, DC	San Francisco, CA
Highest paying state	New Jersey	New Mexico
Best paying company	TalentBurst	Apple
Best paying industry	Technology	Manufacturing

Differences between draftsman/designer and project designer education

There are a few differences between a draftsman/designer and a project designer in terms of educational background:

	Draftsman/Designer	Project Designer
Most common degree	Associate Degree, 51%	Bachelor's Degree, 69%
Most common major	Drafting And Design	Architecture
Most common college	Carnegie Mellon University	Cornell University

Draftsman/designer vs project designer demographics

Here are the differences between draftsman/designers' and project designers' demographics:

	Draftsman/Designer	Project Designer
Average age	45	42
Gender ratio	Male, 92.2% Female, 7.8%	Male, 66.5% Female, 33.5%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 3.1% Unknown, 5.2% Hispanic or Latino, 11.7% Asian, 7.0% White, 72.3% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.7%	Black or African American, 1.5% Unknown, 4.1% Hispanic or Latino, 7.6% Asian, 4.6% White, 82.1% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.1%
LGBT Percentage	6%	23%

Differences between draftsman/designer and project designer duties and responsibilities

Draftsman/designer example responsibilities.

Manage and supervise other draftsmen.
Assist with structural steel detailing, machine design, CNC graphics and ceramics machine design projects.
Detail preliminary design drawings to create BOM's, production use shop layouts, and specific details.
Travele to various work sites to dimension and sketch details of the projects.
Develop and maintain current Revit templates for consistency and overall visual quality of projects.
Design and draft building components from red lines create by MEP engineers with revit software.

Project designer example responsibilities.

Lead efforts to redesign and convert existing self-pace and instructor-le course materials into eLearning and web-base formats.
Provide 2D AutoCAD and 3D Sketchup drawings for client presentations.
Implement AIA layering standards and create file management standards for the office.
Calculate size of ductwork, hydronic piping, plumbing, and gas piping.
Time management, procedure, and field sketch expertise, must be absolute, and perfect.
Prepare and deliver construction documents using Revit and AutoCAD for each project on time and within budget.

Draftsman/designer vs project designer skills

Common draftsman/designer skills

Design Layouts, 16%
Solidworks, 10%
Shop Drawings, 5%
R, 4%
HVAC, 4%
Customer Specifications, 3%

Common project designer skills

Revit, 17%
Sketch, 8%
Design Concepts, 5%
Auto CAD, 5%
SketchUp, 5%
Design Development, 4%