What makes a good CAD operator?

[Augi Doggie]

Absolutely . . . and this mindset does not necessarily mean one has to come from a hand drafting background. All it takes is an eye for detail, a bit of artistic flare, absolute commitment to making sure everything is drawn correctly and an atmosphere that will let this attitude be nurtured. No matter how selective an employer is in hiring, finding this individual is more a matter of luck than anything else. The only factor the employer can directly control is the nurturing atmosphere. There is no telling how many can be found in the ranks of the "pile people" described above; hopefully they are not all overlooked in the sacrifice to the "quick and dirty" alter of "just getter done.".

I really think there's a lot of truth to that, too many companies give in to the quick and dirty mind set. Appearance and attention to detail are often secondary if they are even considered at all. I used to get pressured to go faster and faster, and if I missed something on a drawing I was seriously chastised for it.
I finally made a stand and said "do you want it fast or correct?", because one has to give in order to foster the other.
They of course replied accurate is more important......but do it quickly.

Another point, the reason so many former hand drafters are so concerned with the artistic side of things is because when AutoCAD came around, simply drawing lines and circles on the computer was exciting, appearance took a back seat if it was even allowed on the bus. I remember seeing some drawings from more experienced hand drafters and thinking, a computer will never make a drawing that good.
Now years later (some industries are better than others) companies are realizing that appearance does matter to the client. The slow trend is finally going back to the artistic/appearance side. It makes sense, the better the tools in AutoCAD, the more productive a drafter is, companies can afford a little time to make it look nice.
I thing I will always swear by; the best order of importance is -Accurate - Appearance - Speed (in that order).

[jaberwok]

I thing I will always swear by; the best order of importance is -Accurate - Appearance - Speed (in that order).

Someone's got it right.

[NickB]

You mention education; I have a problem with some of the community colleges and technical schools that are just teaching CAD as the computer program and not teaching drafting first. I have talked to some of the grads from these programs and they have no idea how to properly draft something, no knowledge of orthographic projection, no idea of standard drawing order, or general drafting standards. I think there is a big difference between a CAD operator and a CAD drafter. I'll take a draughtsmen and teach them cad over a cad operator and have to teach drafting.
Just my .02

[Brian Myers]

Perhaps above all else, the understanding of the design process is actually the most important skill. If you don't understand how something is constructed or how each of the parts relate to each other then there is a good chance you won't be good at your job. That's actually one of the problems I believe many drafters out of college have (may it be a Tech school certificate or a high level degree) they don't understand enough about what they are actually detailing to do a good job at it.

The worst thing we can do is simply throw a person into a 10-12 hour a day production environment and expect near perfection. Perhaps you'll get it if they've worked in the field for several years, but if there is a learning process then a high pressure, long hours job will break even some of the best individuals with great potential. Also, I've always found it amazing how some firms will have weekly meetings to sit down and discuss better drafting/detailing and CAD standards while not sitting down and instructing newer employees on the correct way things actually function and are constructed at the plant/job site/etc. Understanding what you are drawing is the first step to drawing it correctly.

[jaberwok]

Perhaps above all else, the understanding of the design process is actually the most important skill. If you don't understand how something is constructed or how each of the parts relate to each other then there is a good chance you won't be good at your job. That's actually one of the problems I believe many drafters out of college have (may it be a Tech school certificate or a high level degree) they don't understand enough about what they are actually detailing to do a good job at it.

The worst thing we can do is simply throw a person into a 10-12 hour a day production environment and expect near perfection. Perhaps you'll get it if they've worked in the field for several years, but if there is a learning process then a high pressure, long hours job will break even some of the best individuals with great potential. Also, I've always found it amazing how some firms will have weekly meetings to sit down and discuss better drafting/detailing and CAD standards while not sitting down and instructing newer employees on the correct way things actually function and are constructed at the plant/job site/etc. Understanding what you are drawing is the first step to drawing it correctly.

Dead right.
A technical drawing is merely a set of instructions to the people who will be making/installing the end product. To give those instructions we need to know what
processes are involved and (should) be able to anticipate the problems they will come across.

[reed.stephens]

You mention education; I have a problem with some of the community colleges and technical schools that are just teaching CAD as the computer program and not teaching drafting first . . .

There is a hopeful sign around here though. The local high school offered a computer drafting course as an elective this year. Nothing in the description or title indicated anything other than learning to use some CAD package. The students and parents were surprised however when the entire first term was taken up with basic hand drafting technique. Not surprisingly, there were some decent looking CAD generated during the second The kids grumped a bit at first but I think all of them benefited from it and a few even admitted to enjoying the hand drawing assignments.

[H-Angus]

I whole heartedly agree with the "If you don't know then ask" statements. I also agree with a bit of investigating ones own dilemma, either using the help files or internet forums etc. Although I have been using CAD for around 10 years, in the past I have often looked at the help files for something in particular and ended up also discovering other tricks or related items.

The other thing is how many of you use the toolbars to start a command, I'm sure its only personal preference but it seems to me that most advanced (probably wrong word to use) users type their commands in rather than searching for little buttons.

Just my opinion.

Steve

[CADKitty]

You mention education; I have a problem with some of the community colleges and technical schools that are just teaching CAD as the computer program and not teaching drafting first. I have talked to some of the grads from these programs and they have no idea how to properly draft something, no knowledge of orthographic projection, no idea of standard drawing order, or general drafting standards. I think there is a big difference between a CAD operator and a CAD drafter. I'll take a draughtsmen and teach them cad over a cad operator and have to teach drafting.
Just my .02

You're kidding! My first semester of community college I had to take hand drafting, and this was after I'd taken three years of it in high school! I'm with you on this one - you need the basics of drafting before being handed a CAD package. It truly helps in visualization for the orthos and you need to know those basic drafting techniques.

[CADKitty]

The other thing is how many of you use the toolbars to start a command, I'm sure its only personal preference but it seems to me that most advanced (probably wrong word to use) users type their commands in rather than searching for little buttons.

Depends on the command. I've created my own buttons for some commands like copy with basepoint and saveas so I use those often, and if it's a command I don't use much like breakfirst I'll use the toolbar. "Basic" commands, however, like circle, line, offset I'm a keyboard person. My drafting style is one hand on the mouse and the other on the keyboard. I usually type in my osnaps, too, unless I know I'm doing something osnap intensive - then I turn on the osnaps.

[Brian Myers]

Depends on the command. I've created my own buttons for some commands like copy with basepoint and saveas so I use those often, and if it's a command I don't use much like breakfirst I'll use the toolbar. "Basic" commands, however, like circle, line, offset I'm a keyboard person. My drafting style is one hand on the mouse and the other on the keyboard. I usually type in my osnaps, too, unless I know I'm doing something osnap intensive - then I turn on the osnaps.

I'm similar in the fact that I use both typed commands and those from my toolbars. But, it's still semi-rare when I do use my toolbars. What I've done is create a "Super" toolbar that contains all the little commands I rarely use, but still seem to use in every project. As a result it doesn't take up much screen area (just one line) but I'm very fast at using it since I know where every commend is at and I don't need to search thru Icons to find what I need. It's similar to the old days where most of us used Digitizers that had all the commands on them. Those of us that used them on a daily basis instinctively knew where each command was located on the board after a couple weeks or less, it was very fast, and really it was the only way to go back in the days of DOS.

I'm not sure if this is worthy of your ATP class (since most CAD managers like to set these up) but setting up your basic toolbar for commands you need quick access to is a nice skill to have and so is the ability to edit the acad.pgp file for your custom command aliases.