Novice

[comical_wenger]

Hey, im new to this forum and want to learn how to use CAD. Can someone point my in the direction of some good starting tutorials?
thanks

[rkmcswain]

Assuming you are talking about AutoCAD, some beginner tutorials can be found here and here. These are pretty version independent.

[Steve_Bennett]

Or here:
http://www.augi.com/education/default.asp?page=728

and here:
http://www.augi.com/education/auhandouts.asp?page=726

[comical_wenger]

thanks if anyone has anymore that would be great, I am just at a loss of how to get started.

[irneb]

I'd advise you to start small and learn by experience. Simply reading a book isn't going to do you much good. You could use the book to show you ways of doing something better, but it's not like learning an Act of Law out by heart.

Pick something you want to draw, make it a simple thing ... like ... a rectangular room layout (maybe you want something different depending on your discipline). Try drawing this with various commands & see how you can do this using the least commands. Once you're satisfied, try drawing more complex "things" - e.g. add doors & windows to the room, give the room more complex shapes. Also try looking into Snapping to specific points when drawing (Object Snaps).

There's basically only a few types of drawing elements you can use to draw in AC. Line, Circle, Ellipse, Spline, Hatch. All others are combinations or portions of these. Then you learn the modifying commands like Trim / Extend, Stretch, Rotate & Scale.

It's not too difficult to figure how to draw something just using a few commands, but you're probably wasting your time if you don't try to make it as fast as possible. That's the whole point of CAD, if its not more efficient than drawing by hand it's useless. This is where you start looking for commands which combine several into one, e.g. instead of drawing 4 lines, just use the Rectangle command. Or Dimensions, Leaders, etc. Or duplicate what you've already done, Copy, Mirror, Erase (yes erase can actually help you draw faster). As you notice more commands you start figuring ways of using them. There's no perfect way to draw anything, it's a subjective feeling instead of a textbook rule.

Now you can start looking at how to get the actual drawing onto paper. You'll lear stuff like Paper Space, Plot Setups, Page Layout, View ports, etc.

Then you start looking at how to draw stuff to make later changes as simple as possible. Here you start thinking into the future instead of just drawing ... unfortunately most CAD operators I've seen have done the previous till they're experts, but then stop. Once you understand this (blocks, xrefs, layers), you know the basics of CAD and you can truly call yourself AutoCAD litterate.

Finally you extend this using new types of entity combinations like Dynamic Blocks, Annotative Scaling, etc.

If you're satisfied you know the 2D stuff, its time to look at 3D. Depending on what you want, it may be simpler to use something else than AutoCAD. But, it's never a bad idea to figure out what to do in AC3D. But that's a totally "new" set of commands to learn.

And if you really want to become expert, you start looking into customizing AutoCAD to fit your needs ... but that's like trying for a Professorship, so first do your grades.

[irneb]

You could also try the DGCad video tutorials. Some of them are free, although they seem to now seem to focus on Revit more than AC. Here's one of their free introductory tutorials for AutoCAD (http://www.dgcad.com/Acad2004-Level1.htm). It may be a good place to start. After viewing a lesson try do "do your own thing" by implementing the concepts it discussed, not simply follow their instruction so you start "understanding" the concepts instead of remembering them.

[brandenz]

Youtube has a few good videos on it as well. Just search "AutoCAD tutorial"

[simons_d]

irneb is right on it
a good reference book is a must
but the real answer is

DRAW DRAW DRAW / fix mistakes
DRAW DRAW / fix more mistakes
DRAW

Then, get an entry level position
at a company that has experienced cad users
then, LEARN , then LEAD

GOOD LUCK