[jameswing]

I know there are a lot of people who currently use or have used autocad on this forum. I have an interview in a couple weeks for a new position as drafting professsor at merced college and have to give a demo lecture.

For part of my demo I want to use what people say about it. So my question is:

When you think about autocad what do you think of as its major function? ie. design, documentation, commmunication...

Also for those of you on 09 what is it's best new feature?

Any info you give would be usefull. Thanks in advance.

 

[LSCYCLING]

2009 and there are no good new features.

actually I guess the dynamic blocks are pretty cool but thats about it from what I can see. I turned it to classic right away and there is too much "bling" that slows it down.

 

[silversx80]

AutoCad FTL!

SolidWorks FTMFW!!!

 

[MagpieTear]

AutoCAD is the bane of my existence as a patternmaker. Every yahoo architect thinks that if they can draw it in AutoCrud, I can cast it. Same rules apply from the blueprint era, just because it works on paper doesn't mean that it will work in real life. And please, please use the appropriate dimension snap tolerance. Just because you can dimension a drawing in 128ths of an inch doesn't mean you have to.

 

[COrun]

It makes me think of work :/ haha, I'd say documentation ie CD sets and the like, that's its end result, at least for my architecture firm. Not much design in it.

In 09, I like the Quick View Layouts/drawings, dynamic blocks, the steering wheel isn't bad for 3D navigation after a bit of practice and the overall user interface is much improved i think.

 

[jameswing]

2009 and there are no good new features.

actually I guess the dynamic blocks are pretty cool but thats about it from what I can see. I turned it to classic right away and there is too much "bling" that slows it down.

Same here also, I haven't used 09 yet, but think I will just use it like I have been. I think multiple layouts, Polar snap, Tracking, and extension osnaps are the best things added since I started with R9. I use mtext as little as possible, haven't tried DBlocks, and don't like multi-leader.

AutoCad FTL!

SolidWorks FTMFW!!!

I prefer Solidworks also, but 2D is a good basic starting point, and there are some things that AutoCAD does better or faster in that realm.

The Demo I am doing needs to be basically the first part of an into to ACAD class.

AutoCAD is the bane of my existence as a patternmaker. Every yahoo architect thinks that if they can draw it in AutoCrud, I can cast it. Same rules apply from the blueprint era, just because it works on paper doesn't mean that it will work in real life. And please, please use the appropriate dimension snap tolerance. Just because you can dimension a drawing in 128ths of an inch doesn't mean you have to.

That isn't ACAD's fault, it's the designer. I preach DFM in my classes, and the first thing I do at new companies is go out and see what equipment and dies they have, so I would know their capabilities when I was doing designs. Using the correct precision and tolerances is another of my pet peaves & is a big place that students in my engineering graphics classes loose points.

Maybe I should expand the question from just AutoCAD to CAD in general.

 

[j-ho1]

I think of Auto CAD as more of a documentation/communication tool. I am a drafter for an MEP engineering firm and we pride ourselves on the precision and clarity of our drawings. Auto CAD works very well for plan view drawings. I don't have experience with Solidworks and the like so I can't offer a comparison.
The best feature of '09 is the color by layer command. No more editing blocks to change colors to our standards. Now you can use a window selection and force everything to "by layer". Dynamic blocks are awesome too, but they were introduced in '05.

 

[Bigham]

How about VidCAD? We use that for audio visual designs and installations.

 

[jameswing]

How about VidCAD? We use that for audio visual designs and installations.

That's fine, It's actually a Vertical product (based on) to AutoCAD.

 

[RandyO]

AutoCAD is the bane of my existence as a patternmaker. Every yahoo architect thinks that if they can draw it in AutoCrud, I can cast it. Same rules apply from the blueprint era, just because it works on paper doesn't mean that it will work in real life. And please, please use the appropriate dimension snap tolerance. Just because you can dimension a drawing in 128ths of an inch doesn't mean you have to.

bwaaaaaaa!!!

my experience is just the opposite, as a surveyor map maker, just because it happens in real life, doesn't mean you can draw it on paper,

I like Acad (Civil 3D) for design work, where you often have to redo stuff, drawing a simple boundary survey, I'd still rather draw it the old way by hand

 

[Whatever Dude]

I guess I'm a less intensive user than others on here, but that comes with being in civil engineering, not manufacturing. To me its about 50/50 for design and documentation. Yes, its valuable when designing sewers to line and grade. Its easier to lay it out in AutoCAD over a basemap of the city streets and move the pipes & manholes around and have AutoCAD tell me the lengths, angles, etc. than it would be for me to figured those things out and enter them into AutoCAD.

For other things (say mechanical details), its just a clean way to show a design that somebody already drew on paper. And much easier to modify later on if necessary.

One thing that is definitely apparent in civil engineering with the rise of AutoCAD: there is a definite focus on getting something down on paper before the detailed engineering has been done. i.e. less thought and calculations prior to putting the first line on the piece of paper. Used to be that the lines were the end product of the detailed, checked, and double checked engineering calcs because you didnt want to erase the lines. NOW...not so much. I believe the second way (with AutoCAD) is quicker overall, but i also feel its "dumbing down" the field of civil engineering a bit, or at the very least its becoming less engineering level analysis and more technician level moving things around on a drawing.

 

[jameswing]

Thanks for all your input. I did get the job (Linky).

 

[thejimdaddy]

masterCAM FTW