online AutoCAD instruction recomendations?

[NorthCarolinaEnvEng]

I use Bentley MicroStation at work. I'm currently looking for a position closer to my home, and a couple of positions I was interested in required experience in AutoCAD. I'm thinking of getting some schooling in AutoCAD, figuring that my MicroStation experience and an education in AutoCAD might be enough to get me over the AutoCAD experience requirement. However, my local schools aren't offering the courses I need anytime soon. Can anyone recommend online instruction that would serve my purpose? Any other options for me to get around my lack of AutoCAD experience?

The 'official' Autodesk courses are a bit expensive and I don't have a week-long block of time to attend their online course. I'm looking for something in $1,000 and under range, with learn-on-your-own-time and online assistance capabilities. Thank you...

 

[MiketheEngineer]

Buy the book - if you can do MS - you can do AC

 

[NorthCarolinaEnvEng]

Thanks Mike...which book do you recommend?

Open to inquiries for a water/wastewater/water resources position in the Western NC area...

 

[dik]

I used a text by Omura (sp?) titled, "Mastering AutoCAD". This was 25 years ago... and he has a current one out... don't know how good it is, but he earlier text was excellent.

Dik

 

[MiketheEngineer]

AutoCad for Dummies?? Don't think that exists. But there are many out there. Check w/ Amazon.com

Pick one that is not for beginners but intermediate.

 

[NorthCarolinaEnvEng]

only bad thing with going with a book is I still won't have the AutoCAD program itself. At least with an online class/course, I'd most likely get at least the student version to play with.

Open to inquiries for a water/wastewater/water resources position in the Western NC area...

 

[MiketheEngineer]

I think you can download a 30 day trial.

 

[raneu]

Check out Draftsight, it is very similar to Acad and its free, I use it at work for all my Acad needs.

 

[ohiocad]

Last I knew, some of the autocad books actually came with a trial version on disk in the back of the book.

Don't know if that's still the case, but it was as of a few years ago. If not, you can still do a download 30-day trial of most of the Autodesk software.

 

[MiketheEngineer]

Go to e-bay. Some mighty cheap copies there. Not sure they are legal but most say they are??!!

 

[francesca]

eBay copies of AutoCAD are not legal. Official courseware still coms with a free trial. Official courseware is available for sale on the Autodesk site. Amazon has a bunch of other options. So does your library. There is an AutoCAD for Dummies book, by the way.

The official AutoCAD 2011 courseware kind-of sucks. I just taught an online presentation of Part 1 and it's all object snaps, grip edits, move, copy, rotate, blah blah. Not worth the money for taking a class at all. An evening with YouTube and a 30-day trial plus MicroStation knowledge (esp. if it's V8i not V8) will get you much further. Part 2 covers annotative scales, xrefs, creating styles, etc. - more useful.

 

[NorthCarolinaEnvEng]

Thanks for the help, everyone. Francesca, can you recommend any other online courses? The official AutoCAD is out of my price range. Although it looks like I'll probably go the book route, I'd be interested in looking into a decent online course that includes instructor feedback.

Open to inquiries for a water/wastewater/water resources position in the Western NC area...

 

[francesca]

Autodesk outsources all of their training to Authorized Training Centers. They have a similar price-point. Any other online vendor is not quality-controlled. There are hundreds of videos on YouTube and other sites that are free. Get involved in the AUGI or Autodesk forums if you want feedback.

For a while Autodesk opened up the Student Community site to people who had been laid off in the recession. There are curricula there and videos.

 

[chicopee]

If you can master Draftsight as mentioned above by raneu, you'll have no problem using ACAD drawing commands. Yes Draftsight is free and l downloaded it and yes it looks very close to my older ACAD versions.

 

[NorthCarolinaEnvEng]

thanks again everybody...

Open to inquiries for a water/wastewater/water resources position in the Western NC area...

 

[rollupswx]

Do you have a child?

http://www.autodesk.com/edcommunity

open to any and all students.