I know when I use Xara Photo & Graphic Designer (a vector program comparable to Illustrator) and use beveled shapes and drop shadows. While working in Xara, the shadow directions and light intensity is fixed, so when I rotate any object the shadow stays in the same place. On bevels the level of light on each face changes to the fixed light direction. This means that I create one rectangular house (for example), but then I can copy and rotate it degree by degree (or partial degrees) in 360 degrees of rotation. A single house, duplicated in varying rotations and rescaled can represent multiple similar structures, but due to varying levels of surface bevel light and shadow - no two structures appear identical. This way I can create a single rectangular shaped house, "L" and "T" shaped structures, ones with open interior courtyards - so basically four different structural configurations. Now rescale and rotate, and those 4 buildings can appear as 40 (or more or less) individual unique structures. If you choose not to use bevels and drop shadows, differentiating each building on varying rotation shifts takes manual adjustment to simulate what the bevel and drop shadow do automatically. Doing so completely by hand is infinitely more time consuming. While I agree that artistically doing each structure by hand, one at a time, may be doing a better job - the time loss for me, exceeds the value of doing that. I'd rather complete a map in a timely manner, than having some artistic need not to use bevels and drop shadows.