Learning CAD

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drillman

Member
Location
Texas
I am currently an electrician/supervisor at a county jail. I would like to learn CAD in order help me manage projects better.

One of the main reasons is that we do a lot of upgrading of HVAC equipment. We also have a library of CAD templates of our buildings already built.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to get started? Are they are decent online classes?

Thanks for any help.
 
ceb58

ceb58

Senior Member
Location
Raeford, NC
Do not know what is available in your area but here the local comm. collage offers courses such as intro. to CAD in their night classes. Two nights a week for 6 weeks. Something to look into.
 
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wireguy8169

Senior Member
Location
Southern Maine
I am considering the same thing and have seen several online training courses for AC, depending on what kind of learner you are this may work for you. I took intro to AC in college but that was over 5 yrs ago and so I am debating on the online or not. The only big benifit I see is being able to do it from home....but as ceb58 stated local community college you could take a class or maybe a local trade school offers it.
 
charlie b

charlie b

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Lockport, IL
Occupation
Retired Electrical Engineer
A previous company purchased a basic CAD course on a single CDROM. I was one of their employees who was allowed to use it. It started with simple commands, such as "draw line," and took me all the way through creating and plotting drawings. I spent about an hour a day for less than a month, and was able to do my own CAD work from then on.

I do not know the name of the company that produced that particular course. Nor do I know its cost. I would suggest asking your local library's reference department to do a little research for you, and to give you a list of possibilities. They can find schools also, if you prefer to go that route.
 
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drillman

Member
Location
Texas
Thanks for all the help. I did not think about trying a library.

The big issue is Autocad is 3000 bucks and my boss will not buy me a copy at this point.

I was looking into Autosketch which is 200 bucks and looks like it can do what I want.

I thought about comm college classes but I am worried that they might be to slow for me.

The other option is for me to stay late and learn on one of the existing workstations if they will let me.

You see, this is not part of my job description but I think it is something that will let me do a better quality job.
 
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wireguy8169

Senior Member
Location
Southern Maine
drillman said:
Thanks for all the help. I did not think about trying a library.

The big issue is Autocad is 3000 bucks and my boss will not buy me a copy at this point.

I was looking into Autosketch which is 200 bucks and looks like it can do what I want.

I thought about comm college classes but I am worried that they might be to slow for me.

The other option is for me to stay late and learn on one of the existing workstations if they will let me.

You see, this is not part of my job description but I think it is something that will let me do a better quality job.
Click to expand...

That may be a good idea (using a work station at work)with that and tutorials you should be able to get going anyhow.Hopefully they will appreciate that, not to mention the help it may give them in the future.
 
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dicklaxt

Senior Member
If you have ties with someone who has a work station in their home,,,,,,,that may be an option.

A few years back a friend offered hands on tutoring at his home on nights and weekends.He used to get folks thru the neccesary basics in 25 hours for a nominal fee.I was always able to learn more and faster if I had someone sitting close by and slapping my wrist when I screwed up or got bogged down .It may also be availble at your workplace if they buy into it. good luck

dick
 
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Karl H

Senior Member
Location
San Diego,CA
I took the Comm courses and will agree, it was SLOW learning because it was
a Engineering Graphics class. I'm not exactly sure what you want to do with
AutoCAD but, if your going to be working with other trades,architects,
engineers,etc. I would strongly suggest taking a course. Speed and
efficiency is everything, and that's where the training will really help you.
If you just want to do simple lay-louts, then Autosketch would be a better
investment than AutoCAD. The $3000 version is a full version of CAD.
Check out AutoCAD LT, unless your interested in 3D modeling which the LT
version cannot perform. And before you decide, remember everything is going
3D. :)
 
tshea

tshea

Senior Member
Location
Wisconsin
I will echo the community college route. That is the best option for AutoCAD 20XX. The course fee is reasonable and you get to work on fast computers with the newest programs--at least here you do.

I started with DOS drawing programs, then worked up to windows based. One program was Floorplan, then Floorplan 2, then Floorplan for Windows. I also have a copy of Chief Architect program somewhere. It takes bit getting used to but works in a pinch.

I also had Sketch, AutoCAD LT (several versions) and currently use AutoCAD 2004. Will need to upgrade soon...

Also had TurboCAD, & ZWCAD at different times.
 
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cadpoint

cadpoint

Senior Member
Location
Durham, NC
First let me commend you for increasing your knowledge!

ACAD is out front as to what most people use! It is what everyone uses for better or worse. It is the base software that many other formats use for file transferring data.

One major statement that hasn’t been stated about ACAD verses ACAD LT or Sketch is that importing a true ACAD drawing into the cheaper versions of the software can rip-out a lot existing working attributes that are in the original ACAD drawing. The file tranfers can also get into problems with versions of LT & Sketch verses what version of ACAD version your importing to. Xref’d files will merge or be dropped altogether; an example of an xref’d or referenced drawing is a drawing that is sitting in space behind the working drawing(layman description) - like arch walls viewable and printable for the piping and HVAC to be run against. I haven’t dealt with the smaller packages in years, but with knowledge and exposure to these smaller packages your will understand the individual limits too. You have to remember that’s why there LT and sketch!

I also frankly thought that I might express my opinion of what you might run into on the job. First is these are record drawings! I’ll say that in respects to the engineer of record completed a final set of drawings (CAD) that reflect what was the information based on the day the building opened. Having said that; your facilities engineering dept might well be concerned that their record drawings are now being used in the manner you described in your original OP.

Be sure to copy for storage all working drawing and file them away before you draw on them or file to another file name. Maybe it will be something that your facilities people will describe for you to do!

One has to understand these greater aspects of any of the software or even the smaller software packages as to what are the limits before your get the record drawings!
 
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rltomkinson

Member
Location
Charles Town, WV
AutoCAD LT will read regular AutoCAD drawings

AutoCAD LT will read regular AutoCAD drawings

AutoCAD LT is a 2 dimensional version of AutoCAD, put out by Autodesk and uses the DWG format natively. Autosketch did not used to read dwg files, but I have not used Autosketch since v. 1 or 2. AutoCAD LT will lose all 3 dimensional data, and may lose data from 3rd party software including other Autodesk products. But what is printed on paper should still look the same.

Definately keep copies of the original drawing files, along with the xrefs, pen tables and fonts if you have them. I suggest saving them to a cd-rom, if they were not provided that way.
 
M

macmikeman

Senior Member
Location
Planet macmikeman
drillman said:
Thanks for all the help. I did not think about trying a library.

The big issue is Autocad is 3000 bucks and my boss will not buy me a copy at this point.

I was looking into Autosketch which is 200 bucks and looks like it can do what I want.

I thought about comm college classes but I am worried that they might be to slow for me.

The other option is for me to stay late and learn on one of the existing workstations if they will let me.

You see, this is not part of my job description but I think it is something that will let me do a better quality job.
Click to expand...

Not in the same league as Autocad but free to download and use is Google Sketchup. Good online learning tutorials that can rapidly get you up and running, and it features a sort of semi-3d way to view your drawings once created.
 
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jonathn1

Member
Location
Macau, China
Do try all the possible free stuff before going and spending money on school or programs you decide you hate. I had a friend who wanted to become a programmer so I started him off with some basic stuff using free programs. he was so totally disillusioned on the process he gave up in a month. He had no idea it would take so much to actually learn the material.
Once you try the free stuff and you dont throw it out the window, then look at the cost to time programs. Colleges have a great advantage in that you have an instructor right there to ask. It also gives you some paper you can show to someone that you actually did the training. But check out the curiculim. Sometimes they are teaching the stuff you already know and that is a waste of time. Most will allowwyou to challenge a course tho so dont discount it based on just that.
With CAD knowing the basics can really help you do the harder trickier stuff. Once you have the basics you can also do some stuff on your own easier.
I do agreee that you need to work on a copy of the material. You can then play knowing yu wont damage anything.

Good luck
 
S

straynote6

Member
drillman said:
Thanks for all the help. I did not think about trying a library.

The big issue is Autocad is 3000 bucks and my boss will not buy me a copy at this point.

I was looking into Autosketch which is 200 bucks and looks like it can do what I want.

I thought about comm college classes but I am worried that they might be to slow for me.

The other option is for me to stay late and learn on one of the existing workstations if they will let me.

You see, this is not part of my job description but I think it is something that will let me do a better quality job.
Click to expand...

You can try EZ Schematics for free for 21 days. It will do just about everything you'll probably need to accomplish - simply and fast. You can find out more at wadeinstruments.com
 
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drillman

Member
Location
Texas
Thanks for for all of the advice.

I just finished a 80 hour class in Autocad at the local community college.
Am currently taking part 2 for another 80 hours.
Very intense, very good instructor, class is not slow at all.

This Autocad is really neat, I was completly unaware of what this program is capabale of.

As an aside, since I am a student, I downloaded the student verison of autocad for free.
It is 100% the same as the pay verison, the only difference is it watermarks the .dwg as an educational product.

The reason I am not using other products is that Autocad is what my employer currently uses.
 
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