AutoCad

[Thomas Maurice Booth]

I'm starting to learn AutoCad (2008 LT) at work to do some Structural Drafting. Does anyone in Tubenet Land have any helpful tips or tricks I should pick up? Thanks!

TMB

[mclaugh]

Switch to Vectorworks.

[Thomas Maurice Booth]

I won't be doing any switching since the office just bought me a new computer with all the fixin's. Thanks though.

TMB

[Dan Schultz]

I used AutoCad and AutoCad LT (2000 being the last version) for years and the best advice I can give you is to just 'jump in' and start making mistakes! The more mistakes you make, the more you'll learn.

I never did any structural drafting but was involved in machine design and mold design. I think perhaps some of the solid modeling programs like Idea, Solid Works, and UniGraphics were perhaps better suited to that kind of work. But, for what you are doing, a 2D program like AutoCad LT should do you just fine.

You might want to take a look at a solid modeling program at some point just to expand your horizons in case you decide later to go into full planning services.

[Dan Schultz]

I think perhaps some of the solid modeling programs like Idea, Solid Works, and UniGraphics were perhaps better suited to that kind of work.

Having worked on all of these (assuming that you mean "Ideas," which has been absorbed by UG), I like Catia V5, especially for it's FEA capability...

S"yes, I'm a geek..."T

Yep. Forgot that one! It's been about eight years since I was very active in the design industry. I wasn't aware that UG slurped up 'Ideas' but it certainly doesn't surprise me. I had forgotten about another one that seemed to be quite popular around here in 'plastics country' a few years ago.... Cadkey. Maybe that one's been gobbled up by one of the 'big boys', too.

[Dan Schultz]

..... My main time was spent on a proprietary Ford Motor Co software package..... The only problem is that a complete and current license is well over $100K. .....

Yeah... I never worked with Ford to the degree that I needed to worry with reading their Cad files. However... Chrysler and GM used to drive me crazy with their stuff. At the time, I think Chrysler was using Catia and GM was using Unigraphics. We were just a small shop and usually contracted the file manipulation to 3rd parties that had bigger bucks than we had. Glad those days are over!

[Rick Denney]

Even though my only recent experience is with AutoSketch (my last experience with AutoCAD was pre-Windows), I agree with Dan. It's my general formula for learning any new software package: Define a project, determine to use that software to complete the project, and don't stop until the project is fully done with every detail in place. Then, take a training class, if you want, and you'll get far more out of it.

The project I did in AutoSketch (my first Windows-based version of AutoCAD) was an addition on my house. Now all we need is the sack of cash required to build it. That was the first computer drafting I have done since AutoCAD Version 11. Now, when I need a technical drawing, I can usually get the precision I need in Corel Draw, but I no longer need such features as automatic dimensioning.

I learned drafting in the old days. I still have my power-lift drafting table hidden behind some ductwork in the basement, heh, heh.

Rick "who hasn't supervised production design in about 12 years" Denney

[Dan Schultz]

I think I still have my first go-round with AutoCad here somewhere. It was DOS-based... ran on an IBM that was switchable from 8 to 16 mhz ('turbo')... needed an additional math co-processor... and came on twelve 5 1/4" floppies! Man... those were the days! That wasn't far behind the time when a four-function calculator cost hundreds of dollars and EVERYONE in the design industry carried one of those orange-colored Illinois Gear Works book of trig and log functions. Still got my old Pickett slide rule, too!

[Rick Denney]

Still got my old Pickett slide rule, too!

Pickett? Philistine.

Rick "a Keufel and Esser man" Denney

[Rick Denney]

someone who doesn't us windows *reaches out to touch* happyest day of my life
Everyone I knows uses windows and it drives me nuts!! I personally use Ubuntu but it kinda fails in the gaming area....

Man some of those liences cost HEAPS I stay awake at night wondering how people can use that kinda stuff!
U "Geek ubuntu nerd and proud of it" T

I have Ubuntu loaded on a couple of machines, one of which is a 12-volt computer that I built for amateur radio field operations and for navigation in my motorhome. Forget finding Linux drivers for many of the built-in functions. The touchscreen that I bought has them, but the instructions require a highly detailed, step-by-step process of recompiling the kernel, with no clue as to what to do if any given step doesn't work (and the first step failed immediately). On the other hand, the automated installation process worked fine in XP. That scenario has been repeated over and over. Want the same fonts on your Ubuntu box as your co-workers have on their Windows boxes? It will take typing some detailed command lines and then it will only work partway. And the only reason you'll know how to do that is because some other geek got partway through the same process through trial and error and was satisfied enough with the partway result to brag about it on a forum. I gave up trying to make it really work for me--it's still for computer geeks only.

But Vista--that was what drove me to the experiment in the first place. I have retrograded my Vista machine back to XP. I really WANTED Ubuntu to work.

(My first CAD experience was using an Intergraph prototype on a VAX VMS workstation that cost over $100K. And my first Unix experience was programming a traffic signal system using SCO Unix on an IBM Industrial AT. So treat me with respect, heh, heh.)

Rick "thinking that you (still) get what you pay for" Denney

[Dan Schultz]

Still got my old Pickett slide rule, too!

Pickett? Philistine.

Rick "a Keufel and Esser man" Denney

Got a K & E compass set complete with ink points! Never got to use a circle template until somewhere in the early 70's.

[Rick Denney]

Got a K & E compass set complete with ink points!

Me, too. I actually used my ruling pens when I spent summers during college drafting for TxDOT in Houston. They were still doing drawings (in-house--no sticking consultants back in those days) in India ink on cloth. Those were the days! There were always beads of nervous sweat on my forehead when laying in a highway curve or spiral with a ruling pen and a beam compass on a drawing that had been worked on for a couple of days already.

When the boss wasn't around, of course, I pulled out my set of technical pens.

I also did summer drafting for a conveyor belt manufacturer whose drafting boss would not allow calculators. I did all the design math by hand (grumbling under my breath, but not too much--I was paid by the hour) using Smoley's Four Combined Tables. Slide rules were not precise enough for the dimensional calculations for an inclined conveyor.

Rick "who doesn't miss working with ruling pens or tables of trig functions" Denney