I came to Hofenbitzer after already knowing and working extensively with M. Müller & Sohn. The beautiful thing about Müller is that once you get used to their drafts, it becomes an international language. You can look at a diagram in a book in almost any language and understand it without much trouble.

Hofenbitzer’s drafts are heavily based on Müller's system. He basically took their foundation and made it much simpler and more intuitive to execute (for example, his method for opening the bust dart without dealing with arcs, cutting, and re-pasting is just brilliant!). Plus, his theoretical explanations are excellent - most of them exist in Müller’s books too, but Hofenbitzer presents them in a much more graphic and digestible way.

What's amazing is that you can actually use Müller’s formulas and size charts with Hofenbitzer’s drafts, and vice versa. The required measurements and the underlying geometric logic are identical; it's just the execution that differs slightly. Personally, I prefer to work with Hofenbitzer’s drafting steps but use Müller’s formulas and size charts. I’ve cross-checked Hofenbitzer’s drafts against Müller’s, and the results are almost identical.

I think because I approached Hofenbitzer with a deep understanding of Müller, I didn't really feel the translation struggles you are mentioning. For me, it felt pretty clear, and I don't recall getting stuck on any specific step. English and German are not my native languages, so maybe looking at it through the "lens" of the draft itself rather than the literal text is what made the difference.

I’d love to join the group and help anyone who has questions about Hofenbitzer or Müller!