bethben Posted December 1, 2018 Share Posted December 1, 2018 What is the best way to learn/ start with CAD? My son is interested. I would like him to be able to play around with free stuff before we actually purchase anything. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arcadia Posted December 1, 2018 Share Posted December 1, 2018 Sketchup has a free version https://www.sketchup.com/ AutoCAD LT has a free 30 day trial https://www.autodesk.com/products/autocad-lt/free-trial I prefer AutoCAD for mechanical drawings and Sketchup for architecture drawings but that’s a personal preference. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andromeda Posted December 2, 2018 Share Posted December 2, 2018 Does your son have a background in technical drawing? This would include basics such as cross-sections, projection planes, inclined and oblique surfaces, etc. If he doesn't, you might want to look into getting an intro to technical drawing book and have him practice on paper so that he gets an idea of what is involved. A good feel for 3-D geometry and being able to manipulate 3-D objects in his head is helpful. Also, given 3 projections or views from top, side, etc. can he figure out what the object should look like in 3-D and sketch it to scale? These are the sorts of exercises I had to do in school and college when taking an AutoCAD class. I found this book on Amazon that looks good, although I don't have personal experience with it. Technical drawing is really neat, but AutoCAD has a good-sized learning curve, or at least it used to when I last had experience with it (admittedly quite a few years ago). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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