Starting advice request from a PF student

Hello, all. I found this site while searching for assistance understanding some of the foundational material presented through the Penn Foster Drafting with AutoCAD course. I have been impressed with the sharing of your collective experience and knowledge.

I'm now at the AutoCAD portion of the PF course. While I waited for my book to arrive, I began going through the tutorials at My CADsite and reading the information presented in The Hitchhiker's Guide to AutoCAD inside the program itself.

I received the book on Friday and started reviewing the material. I noticed some discrepancies between what is said in the book and what was said in my other two tutorial sources. In light of the amount of discussion regarding Penn Foster projects, combined with my previous frustration with the teaching style, I have the following questions.

Do I try to follow the course material, or do I see what the course material wants to teach me (skim it), and then learn the information through other sources? I would be completing the tests, but perhaps not in the way taught in the book itself. This approach makes me somewhat nervous.

Do holes exist in the course itself? It's needing to be rewritten (imo), but does it present the critical information or should I be also studying another book or online course at the same time/after?

As an example of conflicting information at a super basic level, in one of the two tutorial sources I found, I was encouraged to use the command line and not the mouse for accuracy reasons (which made sense to me). In the book, it says "... some excellent CAD operators may rely too heavily on the keyboard. Do not limit yourself by typing everything." I would prefer to not learn bad habits, but at least two sources are at direct odds. Is this type of thing just preference? Is there one that is "better"?

Lastly, is there any advice you would like to give a student of the PF program as she starts this portion of the course? I'm generally a good student and learn well on my own. I am also a creature of habit, and would prefer to not create bad habits I have to break later (or that coworkers curse me for having).

Thanks for any advice or suggestions.

Welcome to the CADTutor forum Becky.

I'm already impressed just by your carefully thought out questions.

I would avail myself of all potential avenues in the course of learning AutoCAD and not rely solely on the material given to you by Penn-Foster. I say this because after reviewing a number of the projects I have found the instructions to be poorly written and in some cases outright incorrect. One of the most frequent complaints voiced here at CADTutor by PF students is the lack of timely help from instructors when students have a question. Emails go unanswered and phone calls seldom returned. In a few cases the instructors are said to be abrupt, rude and of little actual help.

There are many aspects of AutoCAD Penn-Foster fails to make students aware of. One glaring omission, in my opinion, is the use of paper space layouts and viewports. They don't cover annotation scaling or dynamic blocks either. That's why I would recommend the purchase of an after-market AutoCAD book either by George Omura or Ellen Finkelstein.

Best advice? Yes, if you have a question about AutoCAD come here and ask. There are many knowledgeable forum members that would be more than happy to assist you.

Good luck with your course.

Regards,

ReMark

...., I was encouraged to use the command line and not the mouse for accuracy reasons (which made sense to me)...

That makes absolutely zero sense to me? Why would using one method be any more accurate than the other? This must be quoted out of context. I can only assume this was in reference to typing in the distance or size of something rather than merely clicking the mouse cursor position on the screen. The other CAD programs I use don't even have a command line.

command line?

Thanks! I will use the Amazon's Look inside feature to decide which book to purchase first, unless someone has a recommendation. And I'll watch for the other topics you mention so I can become familiar with them.

Sorry I wasn't clear on the command line question. The command line instruction was in relation to the line and circle commands, and setting distance and location were the main point of the lesson. It was suggested that Dynamic Input be off, and in the textbook the instructions were related to the Dynamic Input option, suggesting that it be used. It sounds like I blurred these terms together.

BeckyW

The conflicting information you are getting from the varying sources are not necessarily related to the same thing. The thing about AutoCAD is there are numerous ways of getting the job done. The example you mentioned about the use of the command line as opposed to the mouse is one such case. Some people are much more efficient in enter commands by using shortcuts than they are icons or menu selections. Others perhaps not so much because they don't use shortcuts, and that is the reason the one book says says "... some excellent CAD operators may rely too heavily on the keyboard. Do not limit yourself by typing everything."

In the seemingly conflicting suggestion they are actually talking about using the command line for an altogether different purpose. Not for initiating a command but for supplying a command with input for coordinate entry or feature sizing and such. Many new CAD operators just "eyeball" the placement of things by mouse movement and selecting points that look "close" This is what they are advising against. It will produce a more accurate drawing. I would suggest following that advice along with using point filters for placement of geometry.

Hi Becky. I can see that you will do well. Just keep up the critical analysis of what so-called experts tell you. I am not familiar with Penn-Foster so I can't comment on their courses overall but what I can say is that after twenty-five years learning, using and teaching Autocad there are almost as many viewpoints as there are teachers. You will experience many discussions such as the one you mention "Keyboard is more accurate than mouse" largely because there are so many ways to use and customize Autocad. So read the HELP thoroughly then work it out for yourself BUT also post your questions here.

Regarding accuracy you could have a look at myCADsite lessons 1-4 and 1-9 but PF should have pointed out that: Provided your drawing is already accurately drawn continued accuracy is most easily achieved by using Object Snaps rather than just clicking near a point and hoping for the best. You will have discovered by now that you can turn on an auto-snap feature in Autocad that automatically locks on to key points on objects allowing you to select points with absolute accuracy. This is what PF were probably referring to. An alternative is to pre-select (by clicking on relevant objects first ) to highlight these snap points so that you can see where they are in advance. Yet another option is to study the OSNAP and AUTOSNAP commands and learn the all osnaps by-heart so that you can enter them explicitly from the command line. Also have a look at lesson 1-3 myCADsite.

Just in passing; a word from a "greyhair" (if I had any): Learn to use commands from the command line. You will in the long-run find this much faster than messing about with menus. Now that should bring out some differences of opinion!

Regards

Colin Wright

Mikekmx; Is this what you mean by "command line?" ?

Object Snaps - as browndog pointed out is what I should have said rather than point filters (which can be used with object snaps in a more advanced method). Thanks for mentioning them browndog. Nice post for a CADTutor newbie.

I really appreciate the feedback. I have gone through the Lessons 1-1 to 1-3 so far on the myCADsite, so I do recognize some about OSnaps. I literally just started the textbook from PF, saw that seemingly conflicting bit of advice, and thought I should check in with experienced professionals before reading much more. It's possible that they cover OSnaps and clarify the suggestion at that point, but I've had some poor experiences with their other lessons. I've been very glad for the internet and an old Technical Drawing textbook. Starting out right seems more efficient than relearning.

..., and setting distance and location were the main point of the lesson. It was suggested that Dynamic Input be off, ....

I have always taught my students to use Direct Distance Input the dynamic input - and they have no trouble.

I notice a lot of books also have students start of with a grid and counting dots.... ...turned that off in my second CAD class back in '87 of the last century.