CAD program - Where to begin

Edwards Finance > CAD Drafting

Q. Need some help here folks. I have a copy of TurboCad and am trying to learn how to use it. I'm about to go back to pencil and paper! Is there a good tutorial on how to draw? TurboCad has a tutorial but it is too detailed (ex - "Lets show you how to turn on your computer. Great! Now lets show you how to start up TurboCad....."). I'm looking for something that explains how to make drawings. Ex. Use the polyline tool and draw all the lines of your drawing. Don't worry about getting the perfect, we will show you how to correct that in a minuet. OR visualize your end drawing. Draw rectangles and circles for each piece then we will show you how to put them all together. 2D or 3D, I don't care, I just want to make some simple to medium, blasted drawings. Any thoughts, ideas, web links or book names would be greatly appreciated!

A. - I tried to make Turbocad work for me for nearly 10 years making drawings for my physics teaching but finally abandoned it for SmartDraw. http://www.smartdraw.com/ Most any decent CAD program is not for the casual user and is not intuitive. Since you've probably already pained(pun) for the TurboCad my remarks probably help little. -First off, have you had any formal drafting instruction? I have used probably a dozen different versions and brands of CAD in the last 18 years. I had formal drafting training in school and was glad I did when I began using CAD programs. For me the CAD programs were intuitive as I knew what to do and what I needed to look for in the programs to draw. If you are only going to do a few drawings, do them with a pencil and paper. If you are going to use a CAD program often, I would advise getting a drafting book and learn the basics so that you will know what tools to use and how to use them for any specific CAD program. Anyway, for most people CAD has a steep learning curve unless they have had formal drafting instruction. Learning CAD is kinda like learning to ride a motorcycle, its relatively easy if you already know how to ride a bicycle.

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