Penn Foster AutoCAD Course

I'm currently making my way through the Penn Foster AutoCAD program (at the moment I'm working on the structural drafting project that seems to get quite a bit of attention in the student questions area of this forum) and the things I've read about it from those who sound like experienced drafters on this forum are a bit troubling to me. I'm already most of the way through this course and I've already paid the money, so I can't exactly take back that decision. What would those of you who believe this course to be flawed suggest that I do after I complete the program? Are there better online schools for this subject?

Depends on what your long term aspirations are. Why don't you give us some information to work with?

I'm not really sure about my long term aspirations. At the moment, I just know that this sort of work seems like it could be enjoyable for me as well as a viable means to support myself while I go out for my post-baccalaureate degree in psychology. I don't really have enough knowledge or experience to decide which type of drafting (mechanical, etc.) I'd like to go into.

What made you decide to pursue the Penn-Foster course say over taking a basic AutoCAD course at a nearby training center or local college?

The local community college no longer offers courses on the subject, and my searches online didn't come up with any local training centers. In fact, I didn't really know there was such a thing as the latter until just now, so maybe if I had searched for such a thing it would have come up.

So, I then searched for online courses and the Penn Foster course looked like it taught what was necessary to get started in the drafting business.

AutoDesk resellers (companies that sell AutoDesk products and are authorized to do so) are known to offer training as well. Most of the classes range from 3 to 5 days. Some will offer basic, intermediate and advanced courses as well as courses on customizing AutoCAD. These can range in price from $500 to $1500 depending on the the area you live in.

My advice to you after finishing the P-F course (do it as quickly as you can) is to get some advanced training as well. A course that covers 3D might prove useful. The CAD Institute (Murray State College) has several online AutoCAD-related courses that are low in cost and self-paced.

FYI - One of my objections to the Penn Foster course is that they haven't updated the material to reflect changes in the software. I see no mention of paper space layouts, viewports, annotative scaling or dynamic blocks and these are just of small sampling of what is NOT covered. One would think that for the money you and others have shelled out the course material would be in sync with the features of the software being used.

Either way, Penn Foster has its flaws in explaining their material (currently on structural drawing, 100% on Oleson Village) but at the very least the fundamentals of autoCAD are being shown to you. I was recently given a job doing drafting at a hydro dam construction site and what I have learned so far with penn foster has not made me the greatest but it has definitely helped

Rephrased: the very least fundamentals

Hey man, I have been doing lots of reading on your replies to people and you have been a great help to many. To sort of go outside the Penn Foster teaching ability could you review this drawing which is plate one of the structural drawing and explain what I would have to do to make this plot out properly on a 11X17 landscape. if its not too hard or time consuming, that would be awesome thanks man and keep up the good work, students of penn foster depend on you lol

Structural plate 1.dwg

Thanks for the compliment dgolchuk. I'll take a look at your drawing later today (Saturday).

dgolchuk: As per your request I looked at the attached drawing you provided. I have the following comments.

Baseplate appears to be missing at each column.

You do not specifically call out the structural steel member sizes such as W12x45 and C9x20.

The dimension text size seems a bit small and the same goes for the arrowheads.

Your section lines for A-A and B-B are drawn in the wrong direction.

Normally the "centerline" linetype would be used to designate column center lines and not a dashed linetype.

For some reason the lower left-hand corner of your drawing does not fall on 0,0.

Do the instructions call for you to draw the full width of the structural member or just indicate its center line?

Your dimensioning appears to be incomplete at this time.

That's it.

Disclaimer: I did not take the Penn-Foster AutoCAD course and the drawing I compared yours to was done by a member of CADTutor which was graciously loaned to me.

Perfect, thanks for the info.

got going through the book and the reason a lot of people dont have the 14"x14",1/2" plate under the W12x152 columns is because its not mentioned until plate 2 "south elevation" lol took me a while to figure that out.

forgot the call outs, good call....

dimension size and arrowheads........ check, another good call

as for the section lines a-a and b-b, lost, their wording for a-a is place the symbol so that is points to the top of your drawing, and place it between rows B and C. show the section line cutting through the entire building.

for B-B it says "place the new symbol so that it points to the left, and place it between columns 2 and 3. Show the section line cutting through the entire building.

i thought the black arrow on the section circle thingy was what you pointing in the direction they requested?

Centerline changed

lower left now reads 0,0.

when the book instructs me to insert a beam or column it never mentions anything about just representing the center line, it states for me to look at "appendix H" which gives me the actual dimensions of the material

called penn foster to talk to a teacher and decided that was a bad idea after sitting on the phone for 20 minutes and still never talked to anyone..... thanks for the help!!!

I believe your section lines for A-A and B-B should be the opposite of what you are currently showing.

I'll see if I can dig up the PDF with the instructions.

I think the Penn-Foster instructors keep banker hours (in late, leave early, no weekends or holidays).

Hello dgolchuk - I am currently working on the same drawings as you are (taking the Penn Foster course). I just finished my Plate 1 drawing (except for title block). I was comparing mine to yours and I think your North arrow is pointing in the wrong direction and the "Foundation Plan" text beside the arrow needs rotated. You might want to double check it. I have attaced my drawing for reference.

Structural -Plate1 -ref.dwg

i checked it N12d14'0E is where that points, yours is pointing northwest. Remember the drawing is plotted out as an 11x17 LANDSCAPE so the drawing is reviewed long ways. i have a few 11x17 plans from the drafters at work and even though the title block is facing the way it is, the text is still depicted as if it were a landscape drawing

remark i went through the questions and you were right about the a-a and b-b lol good stuff

The north arrow should be pointing to the northeast and not the northwest.

It occurs to me now that since Plate 1 is the foundation plan and not the framing plan for the steel the most important elements would be the footings, baseplates and columns not the beams. Why would you show the beams on a foundation plan?

The north arrow should be pointing to the northeast and not the northwest.

 

It occurs to me now that since Plate 1 is the foundation plan and not the framing plan for the steel the most important elements would be the footings, baseplates and columns not the beams. Why would you show the beams on a foundation plan?

From what you've said about the Penn Foster programme, probably because they were originally drawn on the same layer for another drawing and've been left there ever since.

dJE

Let me rephrase that...The north arrow should be at the 1 o'clock position. And yes, it is pointing north.

I agree remark, i see that some of the people plotted the center lines of the structural steel to try not to take away from the foundation but they make it clear in the instructions that the steel is to be plotted as its true dimension. Really can't call it a foundation plan since they don't ask for the dimensions of the actual footing to be plotted, if you can see it by the time the W12's and C9's are put in.