How can I teach myself AutoCAD?
September 24, 2013 3:58 PM Subscribe
I recently started work at a company that does a lot of design and manufacturing using AutoCAD and CNC. I'm working in a different department, but since I'm looking to stay at the company for a while and move up the ladder, I figure it would be a good skill set to learn.
- Can anyone point me to a solid resource on learning AutoCAD from basic competencies through intermediate and advanced? I'm thinking possibly a college syllabus of some sort?
- B) I have a Mac at home, and AutoCAD for Mac, but the company uses PC. Will it be a huge problem down the road jumping from Mac to PC, or will it just be a minor interface change? I'm comfortable with both systems, and could possibly purchase a PC laptop for home use with my training.
Yeah, like rudd135 says, make sure you know the exact product the company is using. There's rather a lot of differences between Autocad and Inventor, for example.
posted by kaszeta at 4:22 PM on September 24, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by kaszeta at 4:22 PM on September 24, 2013 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Ah, yea that's what I thought. Just snooping at a few employee profiles I see that they use a combination of OneSpace SolidDesigner or Creo Elements Direct, Solidworks, Pro-E, AutoCad 3D, and Inventor.
I really have no idea what any of those are, but I figured even getting the basics of drafting/design in AutoCAD would be a good idea. I will ask someone at the company if they have any specific advice, though.
posted by sociology at 4:30 PM on September 24, 2013
I really have no idea what any of those are, but I figured even getting the basics of drafting/design in AutoCAD would be a good idea. I will ask someone at the company if they have any specific advice, though.
posted by sociology at 4:30 PM on September 24, 2013
I use autocad for windows at work and on a mac at home, and they are quite different. the mac version was apparently written from scratch and doesn't include all the commands available on the pc version, which can be surprisingly frustrating when it's a command i use frequently. i'd recommend learning the version you'd be using in your work.
posted by maximum sensing at 4:33 PM on September 24, 2013
posted by maximum sensing at 4:33 PM on September 24, 2013
Best answer: Hi. I am an AutoCad teacher, among other things.
I'm not super enthusiastic about any of the beginner's books for AutoCad. The least offensive is probably Wohler's, and that seems to be what most colleges use to teach their AutoCad courses with. It is a lot of money to pay for a book that is hmm... adequate. As mentioned earlier, make sure you buy the version for the correct year of the AutoCad program you will be using.
I messed around with Mac AutoCad stuff about a year ago. My very brief impression was that it is about a generation behind the PC version-- which is totally not a big deal. All of the old user interfaces are still present in AutoCad, and many people end up using the interface they were taught with, since it is still present, and don't feel comfortable with the new "ribbon" or "dock" or "wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey" iteration of whatever they are selling this year. Besides, the real path to being good with AutoCad comes from using the command line to do almost everything. Your mileage may vary.
Also, I if I were you I would tour your manufacturing facility and make sure that they really are using AutoCad for their CNC machines. It may be equally likely that they are in reality using MasterCam or Solidworks or something else. But, most AutoCad skills are similar from one to another. Which reminds me-- if you want to learn something similar free at home, Dassault makes a 2d drafting clone of AutoCad that is free. It is called Draftsight, and it comes with a tolerably good manual. Also, I always like to plug Rhino in these cases-- it is cheaper, and also does 3D very well-- in particular it handles soft organic shapes better than almost anything else. Rhino is cheaper than AutoCad, and the program will open almost any file of any sort-- many shops that don't use Rhino still keep a copy onhand just to do file translations. So there are some more options for you.
Finally, here is your first lesson in practical AutoCad, given to you for free:
"80% or more of the problems you will have as a beginner in any AutoCad-like program (including Draftsight and Rhino) will come down to two things: 1) Always check the command and/or status line to make sure you are not in the middle of a command, which means the computer is waiting for you to do something, and 2) Check your O-Snaps. (Object snaps)."
And one last throw-away-- you should really be asking this question to the people you work with. They should be happy to talk to you, and will appreciate your interest, and can give you the specifics of what is needed at your company. Best of luck to you!
posted by seasparrow at 4:40 PM on September 24, 2013 [7 favorites]
I'm not super enthusiastic about any of the beginner's books for AutoCad. The least offensive is probably Wohler's, and that seems to be what most colleges use to teach their AutoCad courses with. It is a lot of money to pay for a book that is hmm... adequate. As mentioned earlier, make sure you buy the version for the correct year of the AutoCad program you will be using.
I messed around with Mac AutoCad stuff about a year ago. My very brief impression was that it is about a generation behind the PC version-- which is totally not a big deal. All of the old user interfaces are still present in AutoCad, and many people end up using the interface they were taught with, since it is still present, and don't feel comfortable with the new "ribbon" or "dock" or "wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey" iteration of whatever they are selling this year. Besides, the real path to being good with AutoCad comes from using the command line to do almost everything. Your mileage may vary.
Also, I if I were you I would tour your manufacturing facility and make sure that they really are using AutoCad for their CNC machines. It may be equally likely that they are in reality using MasterCam or Solidworks or something else. But, most AutoCad skills are similar from one to another. Which reminds me-- if you want to learn something similar free at home, Dassault makes a 2d drafting clone of AutoCad that is free. It is called Draftsight, and it comes with a tolerably good manual. Also, I always like to plug Rhino in these cases-- it is cheaper, and also does 3D very well-- in particular it handles soft organic shapes better than almost anything else. Rhino is cheaper than AutoCad, and the program will open almost any file of any sort-- many shops that don't use Rhino still keep a copy onhand just to do file translations. So there are some more options for you.
Finally, here is your first lesson in practical AutoCad, given to you for free:
"80% or more of the problems you will have as a beginner in any AutoCad-like program (including Draftsight and Rhino) will come down to two things: 1) Always check the command and/or status line to make sure you are not in the middle of a command, which means the computer is waiting for you to do something, and 2) Check your O-Snaps. (Object snaps)."
And one last throw-away-- you should really be asking this question to the people you work with. They should be happy to talk to you, and will appreciate your interest, and can give you the specifics of what is needed at your company. Best of luck to you!
posted by seasparrow at 4:40 PM on September 24, 2013 [7 favorites]
Response by poster: Thanks so much everyone, especially seasparrow!
I will definitely talk to someone in-the-know and get them to give a tour and a run-down of the design and manufacturing process.
posted by sociology at 4:47 PM on September 24, 2013
I will definitely talk to someone in-the-know and get them to give a tour and a run-down of the design and manufacturing process.
posted by sociology at 4:47 PM on September 24, 2013
sociology ...OneSpace SolidDesigner or Creo Elements Direct, Solidworks, Pro-E, AutoCad 3D, and Inventor.
None of these products are remotely like AutoCAD 2D, so you might not be helping yourself by learning it. AutoCAD 2D is a very good, but very old program that lets you precisely draw lines on a page, and not much more.
Solidworks, Inventor, Pro-E and the like are 3D "Solid Modellers" (SMs). You build up 3D models and assemblies by extruding and carving "features" into virtual blocks, and then fastening the blocks together. When you're done, if you want a 2D drawing of your model, the software can render one for you automatically. You can do plenty more than make 2D drawings though. You can measure volume and mass, analyze moving parts, perform structural simulations, create animations, track bills of material, etc etc. They're much more powerful programs.
Oh, and when you do have to make 2D sketches (to define a feature for instance), SMs usually have something called a "Parametric Sketcher". Basically, instead of having to do the math yourself, you can let the program figure out how long and what angle a line should be so that it meets another, and that relationship will hold even if you change one of the lines later. Like I said, SMs are powerful stuff.
The bad news is the skills you get from AutoCAD aren't really applicable to SMs. The good news is all SMs pretty much behave the same way, so you don't have to worry too much about mastering them all. OTOH, SMs are overkill for things like architectural plans, flow diagrams etc, and they tend to be much more expensive and hard to get a hold of. I haven't really found a good Solid Modeller for OS X (Although there is apparently an OS X copy of the new version of Inventor).
posted by Popular Ethics at 10:29 PM on September 24, 2013 [1 favorite]
None of these products are remotely like AutoCAD 2D, so you might not be helping yourself by learning it. AutoCAD 2D is a very good, but very old program that lets you precisely draw lines on a page, and not much more.
Solidworks, Inventor, Pro-E and the like are 3D "Solid Modellers" (SMs). You build up 3D models and assemblies by extruding and carving "features" into virtual blocks, and then fastening the blocks together. When you're done, if you want a 2D drawing of your model, the software can render one for you automatically. You can do plenty more than make 2D drawings though. You can measure volume and mass, analyze moving parts, perform structural simulations, create animations, track bills of material, etc etc. They're much more powerful programs.
Oh, and when you do have to make 2D sketches (to define a feature for instance), SMs usually have something called a "Parametric Sketcher". Basically, instead of having to do the math yourself, you can let the program figure out how long and what angle a line should be so that it meets another, and that relationship will hold even if you change one of the lines later. Like I said, SMs are powerful stuff.
The bad news is the skills you get from AutoCAD aren't really applicable to SMs. The good news is all SMs pretty much behave the same way, so you don't have to worry too much about mastering them all. OTOH, SMs are overkill for things like architectural plans, flow diagrams etc, and they tend to be much more expensive and hard to get a hold of. I haven't really found a good Solid Modeller for OS X (Although there is apparently an OS X copy of the new version of Inventor).
posted by Popular Ethics at 10:29 PM on September 24, 2013 [1 favorite]
Daughter of drafter-designers here, grew up with AutoCAD in the 1980s and 90s when it was just beginning. Not very familiar with newer versions, just enough to know that the core functionality hasn't changed much over the years.
No offense to Popular Ethics, but saying that AutoCAD 2D "lets you precisely draw lines on a page, and not much more" betrays a fundamental lack of knowledge about the program and about drafting/designing. I wanted to point it out because it is very important and enriching to approach AutoCAD 2D as an immensely powerful tool that can be customized in ways you can only imagine as a beginner.
As I mentioned, I grew up with CAD, we even had a couple plotters in the house. I never used a book, although my parents had hardback AutoDesk AutoCAD manuals that they often referred to. My main source of knowledge were my father's employees: nthing seasparrow that your colleagues should (as in probably will) be happy to help you out. Ask your boss if there are one or two people who do CAD training, or would be happy to, and see if you can set up scheduled hours in the week for that. You'll have the extra bonus of looking proactive, and colleagues who offer to train you will also gain proactivity points. In other words, don't be shy, your questions will be appreciated!
We (parents and I) used a mix of command-line and tablet, but I have no idea what tablet-based commands are like these days. In the 80s and early 90s, CAD-specific tablets were developed that were both pre-programmed and customizable, and essentially offered clickable shortcuts to commands. On a more advanced note, the reason I went so far as to contradict someone in-thread about CAD in two dimensions is that AutoCAD has its own programming language: AutoLISP. Don't feel like you need to dive into this right away! It is advanced (it's a LISP dialect; LISP is used in AI), yet it is also wonderful to know about because it essentially gives you superpowers in CAD. My mother and I were doing 3-dimensional drafts used for structural modelling/simulation in 2D AutoCAD in the late 80s/early 90s thanks in part to LISP scripts I programmed. AutoCAD 2D can thus "do the math for you"; I wrote quite a few scripts to be shortcuts for that sort of thing, can only imagine that it has become more commonplace since drafters very much need that sort of feature. Naturally, the caveat is that you're in more of a manufacturing context, whereas I've always been in architectural, so there will be differences. Ask your colleagues! They'll be happy, especially if they love the tools they use.
And definitely go for a PC version.
posted by fraula at 12:37 AM on September 25, 2013
No offense to Popular Ethics, but saying that AutoCAD 2D "lets you precisely draw lines on a page, and not much more" betrays a fundamental lack of knowledge about the program and about drafting/designing. I wanted to point it out because it is very important and enriching to approach AutoCAD 2D as an immensely powerful tool that can be customized in ways you can only imagine as a beginner.
As I mentioned, I grew up with CAD, we even had a couple plotters in the house. I never used a book, although my parents had hardback AutoDesk AutoCAD manuals that they often referred to. My main source of knowledge were my father's employees: nthing seasparrow that your colleagues should (as in probably will) be happy to help you out. Ask your boss if there are one or two people who do CAD training, or would be happy to, and see if you can set up scheduled hours in the week for that. You'll have the extra bonus of looking proactive, and colleagues who offer to train you will also gain proactivity points. In other words, don't be shy, your questions will be appreciated!
We (parents and I) used a mix of command-line and tablet, but I have no idea what tablet-based commands are like these days. In the 80s and early 90s, CAD-specific tablets were developed that were both pre-programmed and customizable, and essentially offered clickable shortcuts to commands. On a more advanced note, the reason I went so far as to contradict someone in-thread about CAD in two dimensions is that AutoCAD has its own programming language: AutoLISP. Don't feel like you need to dive into this right away! It is advanced (it's a LISP dialect; LISP is used in AI), yet it is also wonderful to know about because it essentially gives you superpowers in CAD. My mother and I were doing 3-dimensional drafts used for structural modelling/simulation in 2D AutoCAD in the late 80s/early 90s thanks in part to LISP scripts I programmed. AutoCAD 2D can thus "do the math for you"; I wrote quite a few scripts to be shortcuts for that sort of thing, can only imagine that it has become more commonplace since drafters very much need that sort of feature. Naturally, the caveat is that you're in more of a manufacturing context, whereas I've always been in architectural, so there will be differences. Ask your colleagues! They'll be happy, especially if they love the tools they use.
And definitely go for a PC version.
posted by fraula at 12:37 AM on September 25, 2013
I've used AutoCAD for Windows at work for years, and recently started to use AutoCAD for Mac at home and have found it to be very frustrating because it's slightly different and feels behind the PC version, as seasparrow said. I would agree that learning the version you'd be using at work (which I'm almost 100% certain will be the PC version) would probably be ideal, however you're not going to be at a huge disadvantage if you started on the Mac version. I'd say PC AutoCAD users going to Mac are the most frustrated ones, and the Mac users will just find that moving to the PC version is just moving to a better version of the same program.
I taught myself the simple basics of AutoCAD many years ago then got a job and ended up doing the bulk of my learning on the job, actually doing things. You'd be amazed how much and how fast you learn when you suddenly have something to draw/model and think "okay how the hell am I going to do this". I don't have specific suggestions on resources, but whatever you choose, pick something with a lot of examples and practice drawings/models. Google will help you find a bunch of exercises online. Practice makes perfect!
posted by ohmy at 7:58 AM on September 25, 2013
I taught myself the simple basics of AutoCAD many years ago then got a job and ended up doing the bulk of my learning on the job, actually doing things. You'd be amazed how much and how fast you learn when you suddenly have something to draw/model and think "okay how the hell am I going to do this". I don't have specific suggestions on resources, but whatever you choose, pick something with a lot of examples and practice drawings/models. Google will help you find a bunch of exercises online. Practice makes perfect!
posted by ohmy at 7:58 AM on September 25, 2013
seasparrow: "Which reminds me-- if you want to learn something similar free at home, Dassault makes a 2d drafting clone of AutoCad that is free. It is called Draftsight, and it comes with a tolerably good manual.
Seconding that. My company only lets my dept use Bentley Viewer, which is strictly a viewer - and therefore only mostly useful. So, I (subversively!) use Draftsight. Half the time, when I need guidance, I forget that I'm using Draftsight, and google something like "AutoCAD snap options" by mistake. It invariably produces useful advice, despite the wrong software name.
"80% or more of the problems you will have as a beginner in any AutoCad-like program (including Draftsight and Rhino) will come down to two things: 1) Always check the command and/or status line to make sure you are not in the middle of a command, which means the computer is waiting for you to do something, and 2) Check your O-Snaps. (Object snaps)."
Also seconded.
posted by IAmBroom at 3:21 PM on September 25, 2013 [1 favorite]
Seconding that. My company only lets my dept use Bentley Viewer, which is strictly a viewer - and therefore only mostly useful. So, I (subversively!) use Draftsight. Half the time, when I need guidance, I forget that I'm using Draftsight, and google something like "AutoCAD snap options" by mistake. It invariably produces useful advice, despite the wrong software name.
"80% or more of the problems you will have as a beginner in any AutoCad-like program (including Draftsight and Rhino) will come down to two things: 1) Always check the command and/or status line to make sure you are not in the middle of a command, which means the computer is waiting for you to do something, and 2) Check your O-Snaps. (Object snaps)."
Also seconded.
posted by IAmBroom at 3:21 PM on September 25, 2013 [1 favorite]
I'll suggest that all of the things missing from AutoCAD for Mac are things you wouldn't have any interest in or need for as a beginner. By the time you're bemoaning the lack of autolisp or VBA support, you've definitely graduated from beginner-land.
Since most shops will have heavily customized their software to maximize productivity (and because your shop uses a lot more than just autoCAD), you'll want to train on their actual workstations eventually, but for learning the ropes, you're fine with your current setup.*
How to learn: measure and draw your house or apartment, or the items on your desk. Memorize keyboard commands, and resist the urge to click icons or use menus for common functions. Left hand on the keyboard, right hand on the mouse, and build up that muscle memory. Note that for most purposes, the space bar can substitute for return, and it's a nice big target for your thumb.
Ask a coworker to lend you a shop drawing set (or whatever equivalent product applies in your industry) and copy it exactly.
Close enough, isn't. CAD is precise. Learn to use snaps and polar/ortho tracking effectively. Learn user coordinate systems to orient your working plane.
If you have specific questions, feel free to memail me.
* I hope your current setup includes a 3-button mouse with click-wheel. That's the minimum needed to effectively orbit, pan and zoom around a drawing.
posted by Chris4d at 9:57 PM on October 1, 2013 [1 favorite]
Since most shops will have heavily customized their software to maximize productivity (and because your shop uses a lot more than just autoCAD), you'll want to train on their actual workstations eventually, but for learning the ropes, you're fine with your current setup.*
How to learn: measure and draw your house or apartment, or the items on your desk. Memorize keyboard commands, and resist the urge to click icons or use menus for common functions. Left hand on the keyboard, right hand on the mouse, and build up that muscle memory. Note that for most purposes, the space bar can substitute for return, and it's a nice big target for your thumb.
Ask a coworker to lend you a shop drawing set (or whatever equivalent product applies in your industry) and copy it exactly.
Close enough, isn't. CAD is precise. Learn to use snaps and polar/ortho tracking effectively. Learn user coordinate systems to orient your working plane.
If you have specific questions, feel free to memail me.
* I hope your current setup includes a 3-button mouse with click-wheel. That's the minimum needed to effectively orbit, pan and zoom around a drawing.
posted by Chris4d at 9:57 PM on October 1, 2013 [1 favorite]
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It worked out pretty good, it landed me a job some years later at an architectural firm.
I see that now the innerwebs offer a wealth of information and free tutorials, there was no internet when I learned. I'd think the MAC version is a ported over version of the windows based program, going through a few of these tutorials would quickly tell you if it's going to be majorly different.
I would like to give my opinion though - I'd snoop around and see how they get from ACAD to CNC - ACAD not really being a CAM program. Many shops are going to products like solidedge for CADAM.
posted by rudd135 at 4:17 PM on September 24, 2013