I need to learn AutoCad on my own and anything you can throw me, bone-wise, would be greatly appreciated. I tried this last weekend to get into a class offered at the local CC that fit around my work schedule but it was full. Any sort of advice regarding tutorials, texts, self-instruction courses or general advice would be terrific.
My brother’s company needs some help with fairly simple 2D design and this will be a chance for me to work without the long commute I currently have.
Thanks,
If you have a licensed copy of AutoCAD (any recent version) you should have a CD titled Autodesk Learning Assistance. Install that and run the exercises there. That’s a pretty good start. IF you do not have that CD, I’d suggest the AutoCAD for Dummies that is appropriate to the version you’ll be using.
You can learn the basics of AutoCAD in a day or two. You won’t be terribly efficient, but you’ll understand how to do things. Everything after that is learning shorcuts and more efficient ways to set up drawings, layers, scales, plotting, and the infamous paper space.
I think the “for dummies” is a good place to start, but it would be like reading how to throw pots. Take it one chapter at a time and try every exercise on your own, no matter how tedious and obvious it seems. I’ve been using autocad every day for nearly six years, and I still find quicker ways to do things.
For your needs, forget the 3-D, xrefs and paper space. A handful of commands should serve you well.
Off the top of my head:
Learn layer managing. This is downfall of many projects that start simple and become more complicated. Any system that makes sense for you should suffice for now. For example, put walls on a layer called “walls”, electrical, plumbing…you get the idea. Have a separate layer for notes.
Draw everything actual size. If the door is three feet wide, draw it that wide. You can scale the drawings down when you chose to print. This way, you’re not locked into a scale and you can edit the drawings later without mental gymnastics. People who don’t do this are defeating the two greatest advantages of AutoCAD
Draw everything exact, using OFFSET. Two layers of 5/6" gyp on both sides of 3-5/8" metal studs? Draw it exact. You never know which aspect of a drawing will come back to an ADA space crunch or conflict with existing constrution. Use the offset command to make sure your dimensions are exact. This also allows dimensioning to be a breeze, because everything is what you say it is. Again, you can override this, but why? You’re potentially creating a big headache for yourself in the future. Every job changes during or after construction.
Spend some time learning how to scale drawings so they will print to the scale you want. Text on a drawing is sized according to what scale you want the final result to read as. A floorplan drawn actual size, that you want printed at 1/8" scale, with text 1/8" high on the final result, will have the text inserted in the drawing at 12" tall. Confusing? Yes, but essential. Understand plot scales and creating drawings with numerous scales on a single sheet (not uncommon for sections or details) will be…well, a little easier.
Learn to create and insert blocks for items you use over and over, such as doors, cabinets, bathroom fixtures.
What version of AutoCAD will you be using?
I learned it by doing it. I had started out on a Computervision mainframe program, so I had to unlearn some stuff. But most of what I learned came from: I wonder what this does.
Oh yeah, and SAVE often. Plus set it up to automatically save often. Save. Save. Save.
Good luck!
Another ol’ CV CADDS IVx hand here. Learning Acad without having to UNlearn stuff gives you something of an advantage, but a disadvantage, too. Because I already had lots of experience in two other systems I was productive in Acad almost immediately, but MANY years later I’m still learning. Be prepared for the learning process to never end.
Hmmmm…for Dummies or something similar…save early and often…try everything but start out with simple commands…layers…blocks…Yeah, looks like you folks have it covered.
I found that having a good background in paper drafting helped me make the transition to CAD easily. Mind you I started back on Autocad v2.15 when it would actually run on a floppy drive only system with 512kb ram. … Back when dinosaurs roamed the earth, computers were coal fired and we had to walk in the snow to school uphill both ways!
Sorry, I was channeling my alter ego Geezer-Ra there for a minute.
Autocad isn’t something you learn right away. You can start using it but the vastness of features will be a never ending learning process. Learn good drawing habits and the relationship between model space and paper space. Good luck.
Yes, the people who layout a drawing best are the ones who first learned how to do it on paper. Of them, the very best are those who used to do it in ink. No fixing your layout there!
A coworker used to say, “The good thing about Autocad is that you can do anything with it. The bad thing about Autocad is that you can do anything with it.” There are MANY ways to skin a CAD cat and nobody I’ve met, and I know some awfully good users, knows them all.
I agree with ** Ich Bin **.
and practice practice practice.
what will you be cadding?
One other thing occurs to me and I really cannot stress this enough. Learn to use the keyboard to enter your commands. The menus and such are fine, but if you get to the point of writing macros, customizing menus and Lisp programming, it really helps to know the full keystroke equivalent for each command.
You can also use “aliasedit” to shorten the character string for any command. I’ve got most commands shortened to 2 - 4 characters all on the left side of the keyboard. This leave my right hand totally free for the mouse.
I use a lot of icons/scripts I created myself to augment those that came with the system. I can spend most of the day leaning on my left ellbow! Also, get a three-button mouse so your snaps are on the middle button. Eventually I’ll be able to do EVERYTHING one-handed! I miss those insane mice of the 80s with numeric keypads and “@” and “<” and commas and stuff. Considering how slow computers were back then you could overfill the buffer real fast!
OTOH, there are times when I cannot for the LIFE of me remember what a command is because I put it into an icon I just click.
I knew you guys would come through for me. I’ll be designing or cadding (what a terrific verb; does that make me a future cad-about?) photo-etched brass and stainless steel sheets. It’s a vendor of ours who apparently has a backlog of work. I’m encouraged, thanks Padeye since I have a paper drafting background. Eventually, we’ll be doing our patterns and such in some form of stereolithography, so I thought I’d get a jump on the inevitable. BTW, we make large-scale trains.
Thanks again, y’all.
KEWL!