I have been seriously lacking in my writing this year, an area that I am now working on rectifying. To get things going again I am going to start out with a new series based on some much needed AutoCAD basics or AutoCAD 101 topics that are good for all levels of users.
After working in the AEC industry for almost 30 years and of that about 20 using AutoCAD I have learned a lot. The majority of my learning came from on the job training, with most being self teaching through books, blogs, magazine, seminars and a lot of trial and error. I have worked in Architectural, Mechanical and in current years Electrical offices for various firms and have consulted for a variety of other industries. All of this has increased my education as well – not only in AutoCAD but of the specific industries. Because of the variety of working fields and environments, I have also been exposed to a gamut of skill levels of co-workers, clients and consultants that use AutoCAD. In this time frame I have determined that one thing is clear – AutoCAD skill sets are seriously lacking.
I believe that there are a variety of reasons for this:
- Companies not investing in training for their employees
- Companies not hiring the right employees
- Employees (users) not interested in or practicing self development – for either time or money issues
- Users not realizing the power of new commands or features due to lack of knowledge of their existence
- As of late, users and companies not seeing the need to learn more about AutoCAD because they believe it is an old technology that will be replaced with a miracle product soon
- Some combination of all of the above
Well – these can all be overcome and the focus of this series will be to expand users knowledge of AutoCAD features that can and will improve their productivity and efficiency now. I have written numerous articles for AUGI world http://www.augi.com/augiworld on some of the topics above, including the importance of training, hiring the right people and how to be more efficient in AutoCAD. As I tend to get long winded in my writing, the goal of this series is to be present bite sized chunks of information that can be followed up prior to the next weekly post in the series.
What will be covered?
There are numerous tools in AutoCAD that are very helpful and and can greatly increase a users productivity and efficiency, but they have to be used to realize it. Some examples of commands and tools that I have seen so many users not use – because of lack of understanding/knowledge or just lack of exposure:
- Blocks
- Dynamic Blocks
- Xrefs
- Paperspace
- Annotation scaling
- Layer management
- Dimensions
- Basic Customization (just knowing some basics can greatly increase efficiency)
The first four posts will be all about Blocks – What they are, what they aren’t and how to make and use them.
If you know someone who is lacking in or just looking to learn more in any of the above these areas , I encourage you to share this blog with them. If you are interested in reading more about some of the other topics I mentioned above, you can find them on the AUGI website http://www.augi.com/augiworld or you can download the specifc articles here: http://www.functionsense.com/authoring/
Also – another good source for learning is the AUGI (Autodesk User Group International) website. Check it out and consider becoming a member. I wrote about the membership options here:
http://www.functionsense.com/2013/12/augi-membership/
WES
