Civil 3d and AutoCAD?

[paulharvey]

I recently found my self looking for work again, in the construction/engineering field. I've noticed many jobs that didn't used to require some familiarity with AutoCAD civil 3d. Is there a free super basic way to learn at least how to view and make small changes to an existing plan. I'm not trying to become a drafter or anything, just have a general idea how to view and navigate existing plans. My background is in construction supervision and inspection, and I've never need any of this; but it could be a useful tool/resume helper. I'm not completely new to the concept of CAD, I've used a simple program called Chief Architect years ago, but it's completely different; ie apples to torque converters.

 

[Fossil Farm]

Autodesk AutoCad Trueview is a free viewer to look at autodesk drawings. It is not a learning tool, but you can look at existing plans. Some of the CAD programs have a 30 free trial period if you wish to pursue that angle.

If you have a high school career center (vocational school) nearby, many of them have night classes or a weekend class pretty cheap to get a basic class. There are some online courses, but I do not know how good they are or if they are worth your time. Good luck.

 

[toddbailey]

The only way you are going to learn civil 3d is to take a class, it's a huge powerful program that does a lot. It's totally different from previous versions of cadd.

 

[carah]

See, AutoCAD is not that simple. But, of course there are ways of learning of it. The tutorial on the official website is itself so powerful that you don't need anything. But learning the basic concepts you need to observe some basic plans also. The top civil engineering firms have all made it compulsory for their engineers to learn and implement plans on AutoCAD. This tool have given a helping hand to civil engineers.

 

[sld]

I use CATIA V5 everyday at work. These systems are not something you learn overnight. But, it's not impossible to learn them in a relatively short time.

 

[paulharvey]

I just picked up my new company laptop today, and it was preloaded with civil 3d 2014. It's not something I'm supposed to need, but they loaded it "just in case". So I'll be able to tinker with it some on my own time.

 

[toddbailey]

The best way to learn is just play with it every chance you get.

 

[Tractor Seabee]

Off the subject but I noted your experience in CM and Quality Control. There is a much overlooked opportunity, if you have an eng, arch, or CM degree, in Contractor Quality Control Management on Military construction projects. Contractors are experiencing real problems staffing these jobs since they started specifying the college degree requirement. You can probably negotiate a better salary than working in and engineering design office,

Ron

 

[CARNEYM]

Download DraftSight - Free CAD Software for your DWG Files - Dassault Systèmes

Draftsight is free and the same software as Autocad Release 12. I currently use Solidworks 3D in my engineering job and this is the 2D software we use now.