AutoCAD Fundamentals Certificate

Hours: 144 / Access Length: 9 Months / Delivery: Online, Instructor Supported

Course Overview:

This Certificate training program covers all aspects of 2D Computer Aided Drafting and Design with the latest versions of AutoCAD. It also includes an introduction to basic 3D modeling concepts ensuring the graduate of this program will have a sound fundamental understanding of both 2D and 3D skills for working with AutoCAD. These three basic courses are essential for architects, engineers, interior designers and all those involved in the production of technical drawings.

The delivery format of this course is via self-directed, video lectures and demonstrations, PDF manuals, and online support via web-based discussion groups and email support.

This course is designed for the full, Windows version of AutoCAD.  Regarding running AutoCAD on a Mac, the best solution is to use the Mac's Bootcamp utility and have a copy of Windows installed on its own partition. Parallels Desktop will also work and will allow you to install the full PC version of AutoCAD on your Mac.
 
Although there is an "AutoCAD for Mac" version available, it is not widely used and is missing many of the features found in the full Windows version of AutoCAD. The current Mac version will work for the level one course but if you continue your training with the intermediate and advanced courses, the further you go the more you will run into features that simply do not exist on the Mac software.

Upon successful completion of this course, the students will have reliably demonstrated the ability to:

• Set up an AutoCAD drawing.
• Use construction commands to create a new drawing.
• Use editing commands to modify an existing drawing.
• Use annotation commands to add text and notes to a drawing.
• Use dimensioning commands to add dimensions to a drawing.
• Set up viewports to plot a single layout, single scale drawing.
• Setup and work with multiple layouts in the paper space environment in AutoCAD.
• Create detail drawings using multi-scale viewports and paper space detailing techniques.
• Create construction drawings with blocks, attributes, and hatching.
• Use tables and table styles to create schedules for construction drawings.
• Create presentation drawings with solid and gradient fills.
• Use sheet sets to create multi-file plotting sets.
• Use publishing techniques to prepare drawing sets for distribution over the internet.
• Use external references to create a 2D Assembly drawing set.
• Add raster images to a 2D assembly drawing set.
• Create and work with Fields and Drawing Properties
• Create a 3D Modeling work space.
• Create 3D solid models
• Edit and modify 3D solid models.
• Document 3D solid models with automated 2D documentation procedures.
• Create custom 3D visual styles.

Students can get a free one year license of the latest version AutoCAD from Autodesk by going here.

Students will be prepared to take the Autodesk Certified User (ACU) certification exam.

Testimonial

"Kevin was a great teacher. Everything was at the perfect pace for someone like me who is just getting familiar with the computer."

Nick Dunnigan

Course Outline:

AutoCAD 1 - Basic 2D Curriculum:

Lesson 1: Introduction to AutoCAD

Introduction to basic AutoCAD concepts and the AutoCAD interface. Using the online Help system. Entering, canceling, and repeating commands. Line, Circle, Arc, Polygon, Rectangle, Erase, and Undo commands introduced. Starting a new drawing, saving a drawing and opening a drawing. File utilities and windows file management techniques.

Lesson 2: Coordinates

Introduction to the Cartesian Coordinate system, methods of point entry and Dynamic input. New concepts also include navigating a drawing with the Zoom and Pan commands, Drawing Aids, and Object Snaps.

Lesson 3: Selection and Editing I

Introduction to basic selection methods. (Pick, Window, Crossing, Previous, and Last). Construction and Editing I – Erase, Move, Copy, Rotate, Offset, and Mirror.

Lesson 4: Polylines and Editing II

Creating and working with Polylines. Construction and Editing II – Trim, Extend, Fillet, and Chamfer.

Lesson 5: Setup, Layouts and Viewports

Discussion on drawing set up procedures. Using basic template drawings. Introduction to Paper Space. Creating single viewports and setting viewport scales.

Lesson 6: Inquiry and Editing III

Construction and Editing III – Stretch, Scale, and Lengthen. Breaking and Joining entities. Introduction to basic inquiry procedures with the List, Dist, ID, Area, and Measuregeom commands.

Lesson 7: Properties and Layers

Introduction to Layers and Object Propertes AutoCAD. Controlling linetypes with Ltscale and Celtscale. Students will learn how to set and modify properties through the Properties Palette. New commands include Layer, Properties, and MatchProp.

Lesson 8: Annotation

Discussion on procedures for adding text to a drawing. Setting a style and following standards. Students will learn techniques for creating and formatting text. Various options of the Mtext editor will be discussed in depth.

Lesson 9: Grips and Tracking

Introduction to grips and grip edit commands. Working with Polar Tracking and Polar Snap settings. Using Object snap tracking and the Align command.

Lesson 10: Points and Arrays

Construction & Editing IV – Donuts and Spirals. Xlines and Rays. Rectangular and Polar Arrays. Point, Divide and Measure.

Lesson 11: Dimension Overview

Introduction to dimensioning terms and commands. Introduction to dimension styles and style settings and how they control the appearance of dimensions. Students will learn how to create and manage both mechanical and architectural style dimensions.

Lesson 12: Dimension Editing

Editing and fine-tuning the appearance of dimensions with Child styles, dimension edit commands (Update, Edit and Tedit), grip editing, and the Properties palette.

AutoCAD 2 - Advanced 2D Curriculum:

Lesson 1: Introduction to the concept of Paper Space detailing

Discussion on advanced techniques for creating and working with floating viewports, creating multiple layouts, and using the Maximize Viewport toggle. 

Lesson 2: Advanced Dimension Concepts

Students will be introduced to advanced dimension concepts including tolerances, ordinate dimensioning, and alternate unit dimensions. Students will also learn how to properly create a single dimension style for use in multi-scale drawings.

Lesson 3: Hatching Patterns, Gradient Fills, and Solid Fills

Introduction to methods for adding and modifying hatching patterns, gradient fills, and solid fills to a drawing. Students will learn the Hatch and Wipeout commands.

Lesson 4: Multileaders, Quick Dims, Wipeouts, Revision Clouds, and Boundaries

Students will learn how to create and work with Multileaders, Quick Dims, Wipeouts, Revision Clouds, and Boundaries.

Lesson 5: Introduction to tables and table styles

Students will learn how to create and modify tables, control the appearance of tables with styles, and add text and formulas to tables.

Lesson 6: Advanced selection sets

Defining Selection filters and using Quick Select. Defining Layer filters and working with Layer states.

Lesson 7: Introduction to Blocks

Applying the block, insert, explode, rename, and purge, commands. Using REFEDIT for in-place editing of blocks. Creating a library drawing of block symbols. Using the Wblock command to write blocks to the hard drive.

Lesson 8: Attributes

Students will learn how to create and work with simple attributes to assign information to blocks. Attribute extraction methods will also be discussed.

Lesson 9: AutoCAD Design Centre

Discussion on how to use the AutoCAD Design Centre to import named entities such as blocks, dimension styles, text styles, layers, layouts, etc, from existing drawings into a current drawing. Block tool palettes.

Lesson 10: Dynamic blocks

Students will be introduced to the concept of Dynamic Blocks and explore methods for adding intelligent parameters and actions to blocks.

Lesson 11: Introduction to the Sheet Set Manager. 

Students will learn how to organize drawing layouts into named sheet sets.

Lesson 12: Introduction to Publishing

Students will learn how to publish a sheet set from the Sheet Set Manager as a set of paper drawings as well as a single, electronic, multisheet Design Web Format (DWF) file.

AutoCAD 3 - Basic 3D Modeling Curriculum:

Lesson 1: Xrefs I

Introduction to methods for working with externally referenced drawings. Students will learn how to attach and overlay external references, use the Xref manager, and edit and update external references.

Lesson 2: Xrefs II

Students will learn how to resolve external reference errors, clip external references, increase xref performance with demand loading, layer and spatial indexes, and archive drawings with external references with the Bind and Xbind commands.

Lesson 3: Introduction to Raster Images

Students will learn how to attach, scale, and work with raster images. Techniques for managing raster images and tuning raster image performance will also be discussed.

Lesson 4: Fields and Drawing properties

Students will learn how to define custom properties for a drawing and how to define fields of text that will automatically update as the drawing properties change.

Lesson 5: Introduction to 3D Workspaces and the Ribbon control panels

Introduction to 3D object creation, 3D Navigation methods, and Visual Styles.

Lesson 6: Introduction to 3D Coordinates

Basic User Coordinate Systems. Advanced UCS Options, and UCS settings. Working with model space viewports. Composite solid modeling and Boolean operations, Union and Subtract.

Lesson 7: Model Documentation I

Introduction to the Model Documentation commands. Discussion on techniques for generating Base Views, Projected Orthographic Views, and Projected Isometric Views.

Lesson 8: Region, Extrude, and Revolve commands

Applying AutoCAD’s solid modeling capabilities using the Region, Extrude and Revolve commands.

Lesson 9: Model Documentation II

Discussion on techniques for generating Section and auxiliary views. Press Pull command.

Lesson 10: Model Documentation III

Solid model edits with Slice, Section, Fillet, and Chamfer commands. Accessing Solids History. Discussion on techniques for generating Detail views.

Lesson 11: Intersection Modeling

Students will learn how to create complex forms with multiple extrusions and Boolean intersections. Grip Editing Solids. Selecting and modifying 3D sub objects.

Lesson 12: Working with subobjects and Gizmos

Using 3D MOVE, 3DROTATE, 3D SCALE, 3DARRAY, ALIGN, 3DALIGNand MIRROR3D commands in the creation and layout of complex 3D models.

All necessary course materials are included.

Certification(s):

Students will be prepared to take the Autodesk Certified User (ACU) certification exam.

System Requirements:

Internet Connectivity Requirements:

• Cable, Fiber, DSL, or LEO Satellite (i.e. Starlink) internet with speeds of at least 10mb/sec download and 5mb/sec upload are recommended for the best experience.

NOTE: While cellular hotspots may allow access to our courses, users may experience connectivity issues by trying to access our learning management system.  This is due to the potential high download and upload latency of cellular connections.   Therefore, it is not recommended that students use a cellular hotspot as their primary way of accessing their courses.

Hardware Requirements:

• CPU: 1 GHz or higher
• RAM: 4 GB or higher
• Resolution: 1280 x 720 or higher.  1920x1080 resolution is recommended for the best experience.
• Speakers / Headphones
• Microphone for Webinar or Live Online sessions.

Operating System Requirements:

• Windows 7 or higher.
• Mac OSX 10 or higher.
• Latest Chrome OS
• Latest Linux Distributions
  

NOTE: While we understand that our courses can be viewed on Android and iPhone devices, we do not recommend the use of these devices for our courses. The size of these devices do not provide a good learning environment for students taking online or live online based courses.

Web Browser Requirements:

• Latest Google Chrome is recommended for the best experience.
• Latest Mozilla FireFox
• Latest Microsoft Edge
• Latest Apple Safari

Basic Software Requirements (These are recommendations of software to use):

• Office suite software (Microsoft Office, OpenOffice, or LibreOffice)
• PDF reader program (Adobe Reader, FoxIt)
• Courses may require other software that is described in the above course outline.