Does ANYONE know how to use AutoCAD properly anymore?!

[Frosty]

And so does Autocad. There is a nice little button at the bottom labeled LWT that visibly shows lineweight.

 

True, but its STILL based on the pen weight system from the days of pen plotters and STILL requires a CBT file which can be different depending on who prints the file. Simply put, AutoDesk uses an archaic method to do something that is very simple in other software. How many people actually use a pen based plotter now? I'll bet its a very small minority.

[GRACE_NANJING]

software just software, this is easy to learn,

 

use brian and make sulution for work is more important.

 

I met sameting ,but I find if you give their help and also let them think about

their work,this is more usefer,

 

 

sometime trainning new staff is not easy.

[Hazdaz]

True, but its STILL based on the pen weight system from the days of pen plotters and STILL requires a CBT file which can be different depending on who prints the file. Simply put, AutoDesk uses an archaic method to do something that is very simple in other software. How many people actually use a pen based plotter now? I'll bet its a very small minority.

The whole CBT issue is fairly straightforward, but I do totally get what you are saying in terms of AutoCAD's archaic workflow.

 

The worst is when dealing with 3D. The whole process of creating object Profiles for the different viewports, is so insanely antiquated it pisses me off to no end. Enough already. This is 2007 not 1987. No other legit CAD program forces you to deal with that BS. It makes ModelSpace totaly cluttered and adds a zillion layers for no good reason, and is highly restrictive if you make lots of changes.

[AJLynn]

You could actually just use actual lineweights on your layers, but nobody does that.

[Hazdaz]

You could actually just use actual lineweights on your layers, but nobody does that.

Yes, you can, but not if you want XYZ layer to be .1mm thick on one page yet .5mm on another page. That's where the CBT file can become extremely powerful.

 

I actually have most of my layers set to a particular thickness and some of the colors in my table are set to By Layer - that gives me the most freedom, yet also structures my drawings to come out looking the way I want all the time. Still though, that forces you to use a very small palette of colors. And that makes 3D modeling sometimes confusing since so many objects share the same color, and unfortunately you can't use all 16.7M colors, only the original AutoCAD palette.

[John Martin]

You could actually just use actual lineweights on your layers, but nobody does that

Well, actually I do And I would venture to say you probably do as well. My company follows the National CAD Standard (again a US thing) religiously. Out drawing templates are set up accordingly. It was ingrained into me when I was military (USAF) since the Tri-service CAD standards were basically the AIA standards. But the NCS is not right for everyone and is basically directed at architects and engineers, so many still do things the way they need to which is fine as well.

 

Actually, 07 is great for us blacksheep that model in it.

I would have been but our IT folks never installed it so by the time 08 came around I missed it completely. The only reason I am on 08 now is that when we purchased a seat of Revit we got the Revit Architecture Suite which comes with Autocad as well so I got both installed. I am really liking 08 over 06 which is what I was using last. The new annotation features are nice but I have not dived into the software to see how many changes occurred in last couple releases. And now we may be getting a reason to get Inventor, which excites me to no end. But i am running out of brain space in which to store the knowledge of all the software we use. Here is a list of our current usage:

 

Microstation V8 (for Corps of Engineers jobs)

Autocad 08

Land Desktop 06 (08 when we get it)

Civil 3D 06 (Same as above)

Viz 08

Revit 08

 

Try keeping current on all that stuff. A real PITA just keep versions current. And with only 2 draftsmen in my company (me included) we stay busy. Now I have to get back to work LOL

 

John

[Exellite]

I was a senior cad technician for 3 yrs at the last place I worked before I setup my own business and out of that 3 yrs I came across 1 person who I would call good and has gone on to be great in CAD. The biggest problem I have with the temps or just ppl going for jobs is they unrealistically expected high sallaries, yet take hours to produce something that should take minutes.

 

Few fundamental things you NEED to know imo is 1. how to use model space and paper space correctly. 2. NEVER have lines that dont meet or overlap (man I HATE that) 3. LAYERING (need I say more?) And finally 4. you must know how to edit the acad.lsp, setup & use commands for yourself, I hate ppl that fill up their screen with toolbars and sit there clicking away, it annoys me because I know they are the ppl that take aaaages to get simple things done in CAD.

 

And the worse culprits for crap autocad skills? in my experience anyway.....

yep, you guessed it, architects lol