I'd have to disagree with that statement for ME (at least)
,
I can visualize and set down on paper more complex and fluid things faster than SW or SE or other for the initial design process. But I am a good draughtsman / have good illustrative 3d skills. Setting down an initial set of ideas and working through those ideas can (depending on what you are inventing) literally involve the integration of multidimensional ideas and phenomena that can't really be represented in a CAD system so easily and with immediacy.
Op's question pertains to invention per se. and assemblies that do something new. "Roll out of bed" to...
I'm fast at or with CAD systems.
Depends on what you are designing...
For people that can't draw or visualize in their mind's eye certain things very clearly - then YES - I would agree that parametric modelling can get you pretty far pretty quickly for some work. - And then (IME) you hit a brick wall, NX modelling tools and some from Solid Edge close in on that wall a bit, but then one starts to over-focus on driving the CAD processes rather than working through the
immediacy of a fresh set of ideas. [Sometimes those first two to three hours are crucial to work that
ALL through and connected and related ideas to a reasonable conclusion. ~ It's hard to explain -
it's when you are "In the zone" I just found that CAD would interrupt that flow... Great for second or third iteration stuff , and sometimes when stuff is well established in CAD I'll go back to paper to shake out some different or more imaginative ideas.].
In whatever guise these are all in their individual cases what I call a "
Cognitive prosthesis" to a deeper set of ideas or actualized systems. Obviously in the near final CAD/CAM execution CAD is very essential although some "Peeps" use different methods ranging from finger cam to writing their own software.
Professional conceptual designers I know, and design engineers that can't draw, - still work through stuff on paper initially,
There ARE design tools (that are digital) but more in the realm of
commercial design rather than 'CAD" per se. AD seems to own a lot of those as well (now) lol.
Whatever works for you - works for you :-) ( nobody can tell you what does and does not work for you
).
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If OP rolls out of bed and does his Fusion 360 and somehow does "Patent stuff" in that instance ...
For stuff we (my little ship) are doing we don't show work in progress and the designs we are working on are unique and hence can be "Stolen" by someone's eyes with a 20 second glance in some instances; you can't un-ring a bell, so best not to put yourself or other people in that situation if you can help it [at least in our case] - again not a million miles away from how James Dyson has been doing stuff for 30 / 40 years in different application areas and capacities.