A short look is taken at the historical development of mechanical drafting, the aim of which through the past centuries, was only to describe machines for purposes of explanation or advertising while, with the industrial revolution, technical drafting had to constitute a guideline in view of the designing and manufacturing of machines and products, becoming technical design. The problems that arose, and which are still present in technical design teaching, beyond the simple learning of conventional standard rules, are then examined. With the introduction of informatics, the possibility to utilize and manipulate standard shapes from computer files, special knowledge of geometry is required, furthermore, physical and mathematical sciences are required as a formative basis to deal with the calculations. An engineering-type education is therefore a necessary and sound basis on which to train the students from the elementary principles of drafting to the appropriate design procedures and then to the techniques of the computer-aided drafting and design.