CAD designer with wrist & forearm pain seeking new career 2

[gesigner]

I've worked for the last nine years as a CAD designer. Two years ago, I completed a Bachelor's Degree in Career and Technical Education and a year after that, I started having wrist pain. I tried several different mice and ergonomic setups but nothing helped much and the pain has now spread into my forearm and shoulder. I've seen several doctors, been to therapy and do daily stretches and ice, but nothing has helped and the pain is now starting to interrupt activities outside of work.

New study - wrist pain/mouse usage

I want to get away from using the mouse 8+ hours a day but I'm not sure what type of careers are available to someone with my background and education. I have thought of trying teaching/training but don't know how much mousing that would involve - probably some, but hopefully much less than I currently do. I've also thought of getting a Master's Degree in something (possibly education), but I'm not sure what.

Does anyone have any suggestions for other areas - consulting, etc. or does know anything about the teaching/training field?

Thanks for the help.

 

[CDH]

I have been doing this for 7+ years and have yet to experience any pain. I think a lot of it is the way you use the mouse. I would suggest changing the sensitivity on the mouse so that it moves more, with less effort.
The way I have mine set up, I don't even ever move my wrist or arm, it's all in the fingers. I can move from the top of the screen to the bottom, and side to side by simply moving my fingers. Side to side has a bit of wrist movement, but not much.

I know this isn't the answer to your question, but you brought up a good subject, and I was just putting in my thoughts!

 

[borgunit]

Hi,
We used to use digitizers a lot. This may be easier on the arm, but I am not sure. As far as another career, I would guess that you really do not need a masters to teach AutoCAD (unless you just like going to school - nothing wrong with that). Try local trade or tech schools. We utilize those schools quite often for AutoCAD training. The caveat may be that to teach it, you have to show and use it (arm - wrist). If you want to avoid computers, you may have to go into a total different direction. Best wishes.



"Whether you think that you can, or that you can't, you are usually right "
.. Henry Ford

 

[kmacsys]

I have found that the use of a digitizer used to tire my hands and arms out (I have 20+ yrs with CADD). I also have my mouse set up to be VERY sensitive, I simply move my fingers a little bit to get th mouse to move, it takes practice, but I can work all week without any pain.

 

[advidana]

go into car sales

 

[gesigner]

Thanks to everyone for your input. My mouse is set to be very sensitive to my movements. As I said, I have tried several different types of input devices and they either didn't help or made the pain worse; everything from a vertical mouse to a finger mouse to a Wacom tablet, etc.

Thanks for the car salesman idea, advidana! They seem to be doing very well in my area of the country.

 

[cadcoke5]

After about 6 years of AutoCAD drafting, I developed wrist soreness. I don't think it is necessarily from bad ergonomics, but any repetitive motions can do it. I also suspect some people are just more susceptible to it than others.

Being a lefty anyway, I simply switched mouse hands. It took a few days to get used to it, but I did. Note that it took a few years for the soreness to go away, since I still used the bad wrist for typing.

At home I purchased a tablet, and also use a touchpad on my laptop. I think the idea is to just keep switching devices and hands, so that you have variety over the course of the day.

I did experiment many years ago with the voice recognition. It wasn't really viable then, but I know this is something which has dramatically improved over the past 5 years. Consider setting the voice system to recognize certain key words which you use a lot of the time.

A short time ago, I experimented with a free program called "Visual Mouse" which uses a camera to watch your head movements to control the mouse. I don't think it is really viable, but perhaps you will want to check it out. There are ways to enhance its effectiveness, such as clipping on a red LED to a hat, and telling the software to only look at red. Note that they also sell a version for gamers at $10 to control your view out of an airplane.

http://www.mousevision.com/assistivetech.html

There is another product, Cymouse, which costs $80, but is definitely a more robust system. It comes with hardware.

http://www.cymouse.com/index.html

And despite all my writing to provide ways for you to still use the computer, it might be best for you to go for a period without using a computer so that your wrist can settle down. I also suspect that either teaching or software sales may be your best options... even if neither gets completely away from the computer.

Joe Dunfee

 

[Sirius2]

Try a ThinkDesign demo.

Im not a user myself, and certainly not endorsing it in any way - but I hear it has a unique 'speech interface' where you can say "Extrude" and "fillet 3mm" and it does it. Obviouly some mouse action is required, but it may cut down on clicks and general input device trouble (???).

Just an idea, I dont even know how sucessful the technology is, but Ive heard it works. You must have some mouse movements to select objects I presume however a lot could be cut down probably. The technology is almost there to try and use speech to fully control software I think.

See ya

Sirius2.

 

[advidana]

I though about your problem. you may want to change to a building department plans checker. you would need to pass and ibco exams. the pay is about the same as a designer. If your designs are in the construction business, then as a designer it would be possible to pass the exam. you would use the computer but not to the extent that a cad designer does. mostly mark up drawings.

 

[gesigner]

Thanks advidana, I'll look into this.

gesigner

 

[SouthernDrafter]

This is an intersting subject. I work with some who have pain also. I use a 16 button puck and tablet, while everyone else uses a mouse. I also play piano and guitar (about 6 hours each Friday and Saturday night) I have been using a puck ever since I started with version 12, back in the late 80's and I have yet to have any pain.

While it is true that everyone is affected differently by this, I can only attribute my absence of pain to using my fingers and wrists extensively. I can remember people telling that my eyesight would diminish from drawing and using my monitor all day.....so far, so good, still 20/20.

Perhaps, taking up a hobby that really exploits your fingers would benefit you. When I am playing, I move my fingers differently than when at work. I assume this may be the reason why - kind of offsetting the repetitive motion.

In any event, good luck in the future.

 

[gesigner]

That's really an interesting view of handling the pain, SouthernDrafter. I played guitar in the past and have always wanted to learn to play piano - I guess now might be a good time. Thanks.

 

[BravoCompany]

Given your experience it sounds like you would be the perfect candidate for a CAD teacher, either in the business sector or possibly at the university level. You would have to do a little research but I'm sure there is a need out there and it would get you out of production work. Many companies look for individual that can set up CAD standards and systems along with providing educational resources to the employed users.

Likewise given your situation you may even find an employer more likely to provide you with work over other applicants simply out of a sense of compassion for your situation. This of course would not eliminate your use of the mouse/keyboard interface but may more appropriate given your particular circumstance.

Good Luck

 

[MarauderX]

As a drummer I was concerned when I started to have wrist pain after a day of hard-n-fast CAD drafting. I rearranged my set up so that my entire forearm is on the desk extending out in front of me, and it helped...some. Then I realized that I was zipping my mouse back and forth a lot across the screen, and only when working on MicroStation projects. I changed my mouse sensitivity settings so that I could get from one side of our 21" monitors to the other without lifting my arm, which helped some more, but the Microstation jobs still pained me after a week of using it continuously to pull down menus or strike buttons. That's when I started to refuse to do Microstation projects, as using the AutoCAD command line with my left hand meant I didn't have to zip my mouse across my desk, which had been causing me some pain. One of my co-workers had wrist surgery (unrelated to work) and he was glad for my advice. I have since left that job to go 100% AutoCAD.

 

[gesigner]

Thanks to BravoCompany and MarauderX.

I have looked and assume that there is a need for CAD instructors, but I never seem to find many places hiring - maybe I'm looking in the wrong places (Anyone have any suggestions?). The community colleges in the area only want to hire adjunct and part-time instructors. I've thought of teaching high school level but have reservations about teaching that age group.

I started noticing my wrist/arm trouble soon after starting to work with Pro Engineer.