Learning Autocad

[BigMovieBuff]

I have to learn Autocad for a new job. I have never used it before, but I had 2 semesters of technical drawing in school (15 years ago) and have been a construction project manager for the last 10 years, so I know my way around a blueprint/schematic.

My question is, what is going to be the quickest way for me to learn how to use Autocad? Software tools, take a class, have someone teach me directly, or can I just start playing with it and learn that way?

I tend to lean towards watching over someones shoulder as they use it and asking questions as I have them.

I appreciate your comments and input.

[Rensho]

Does your work know that you don't know Autocad? I would expect them to send you to a class or two if that's the case.

[BigMovieBuff]

Yes, they know I've never used it. They don't expect me to be an expert, and I have a few months to get familliar with it. Their expectations for me are lower than my expectations for myself however, and I'd like to know more than they expect, quicker than they expect it.

[WarderX]

I was never really trained in autocad, but started using it in high school and still use it every so often. It's not terribly difficult to pick up. The actual drawing is not difficult at all. I'd say the hardest thing is setting things up correctly, the dimensions, paper type, etc...

[Phelps McManus]

Take a class. If you try to learn it yourself, you will miss a lot of features and shortcuts that make AutoCAD powerful. If you learn from a coworker, you will likely miss whatever they don't know (especially if they learned on an older version).

I do very basic editing of existing drawings, getting by with a class I had in high school over 10 years ago. I can use snaps (end point, center, tangent, intersection, etc), trim, extend, setup layers, and create dimensions. If that is all you have to do, you should be ok without a class.

If someone hasn't already setup the scaling and model space vs view space stuff, though, I can screw a drawing up pretty good.

[EmpireF4i]

The last autocad I used was Autocad 14. I would say go to a community college and take a drafting class that uses it. You can figure out the simple things on your own, but theres alot of things that you need to know about it to use it to its full ability.

[BigMovieBuff]

I should add that I only need to know Autocad 2007 LT 2-D

[Bristlebane]

I use AutoCAD 2005 with Land Desktop 2005. I learned it from a couple of people (I went to college for something completely different.)

I've also got 2007, but I never use it.

It's really not so bad to learn. Learning how to use it as efficiently as possible is what may take some time.

If someone else in the office is using it, copy their macros and buttons to your own computer, that also helps.

[Tripamang]

Autocad is easy to use, but it's hard to use efficiently. You can just about anything right out the box without putting too much thought into it, a lot of the efficiency comes from the hotkeys. An example from our first class was creating a few circles of specific sizes and locations, it took us the entire class to use the menus to create it, using hotkeys it took about 3mins :P

Knowing your hot keys and making templates can make you extremely efficient at it, and that's probably what your employer wants. Whether you have to do classes on it or if you think you can self train is kind of up to you. The best advice for self training is to just look for example projects that you can work on recreating (theres tons out there), and just follow through the steps. I'd say 10-15 of those is probably better than most classes and you can self study.

When I went through for school it was all just working through examples, complete waste of a 600$ course imo considering most of the time I just did the class content at home.

[Frawdo]

AutoCAD is fairly easy to use, takes a while to master it though.

Definitely one of the first thing (beyond simples shapes) you want to familiarize yourself with is snaps. They are essential, you will waste a lot of time if you try and work without them when you begin.

[Cathan]

I use cad every day at work pretty much and as a structural engineer it's a way of life. Best way to learn cad is just to use it for a long period of time but the next best way is to get a book and crank out the exercises to learn all the tools and how best to use them. I use a hybrid of keyboard and mouse (lotta older people use nothin but the keyboard but I can't understand how they select groups of objects to move them around). I hotkey a bunch of commands like move, copy, stretch, trim, straight line to keys my left hand rests on naturally. After that it's really just about getting used to using the various functions and though there may be many... you really only need a handful or so and the time to get good with them, like the ones I listed above mainly...

As far as scaling, xref'ing and plotting.... You will need help with learning that stuff. I use this stuff daily and I still have to ask questions occasionally to get drawings to work.

Pick up a book on cad 2007 whatever version you're using if applicable and just go through the thing as you have time to learn the functions. Each function is like a tool in a toolbox. The more you understand what they do the more tools you have in your toolbox but generally you're going to use the same tools over and over. Straight line, move, copy, stretch and trim are like wrenches, sockets and screw drivers...

[Rhaze]

I was a "rodman" at a survey/engineering firm and one day they tried having me do autocad without any experience, hilarity ensued.

[Mkopec1]

LOL actual businesses use Autocad? I thought that was like a highschool CAD software to teach 16 yr olds CAD.

[Bristlebane]

Originally Posted by Mkopec1

LOL actual businesses use Autocad? I thought that was like a highschool CAD software to teach 16 yr olds CAD.

Uh, no, many major corporations and governments use it. And the non-school versions certainly aren't cheap. Especially when you start using the other packages with it.

I use Land Desktop, myself:

Infrastructure Software - Autodesk US : Products

[Ardbeg of AB]

Been using AutoCAD on and off for the last 10+ years in different versions and it is not to hard to get the basics down and start making drawings.

If the company is willing to send you to a class go for it, its valuble just to be able see what you can do with the program and to pick up some tips and tricks.

Its very useful to take som time to learn how to utilize layers, blocks and xrefs etc and also how to use layouts. Any fool can draw a line on the first try in AutoCAD. If they company is already using the program they probarbly already have set up standards on layers and whatnots.

With your background I wouldnt fret to much about it.

/Ardbeg The Gnome