Any CAD grads here?

[250r rider 88]

i'm starting a A.S. in CAD/Drafting (industrial) and just wandering if anyone on here is a grad and if they have a A.S. or B.S.? hows the job market right now? What type of programs do you prefer and use on daily basis?

thanks

[jcv400ex]

Graduated in 97 with an Associates. I like Inventor the best. I've used Auto cad, Co-create, UG and solid edge. Gotta say Inventor has been easy to learn and has great support online. I took the 3 day course and have had to have 3 online support sessions, but I get by!

Job market wise, it's not good in my area. Honestly, if I could do it over again, I'd get my bachelors.

[250r rider 88]

we are learning Pro Engineer which is becoming the new "industry standard" i guess, my advisor who teaches 3 of my 4 classes this semester told me there isn't much of a pay difference between a B.S. and an A.S. in this field :/

[Quad18star]

I've used CAD , LDD (Land Development Desktop) , now I'm using some underground design programs ... can't remember the name of them at the moment.

[jcv400ex]

BA median pay = 56,000
BS median pay = 72,000

That's enough of a difference for me.

[wishmasstir]

I use Inventor at work, I've used all the main ones except for Pro E. I think Inventor works pretty good, when it wants too. Our models are so big that we're trying out 64 bit machines now.

[Honda#4]

I'm currently going to school for architectual drafting and some of mechcanical drafting,theres better mechcanical drafting pay than architectual around here but theres not much difference between them.

I did 3 years of CAD/CAM software. Focussed mostly on CAD using AutoCAD, last year of it new programs emerged and we learned a bit of all of those 3D designing programs. However I am now in Medical. So all of that info I learned just made me think more technical about everything I do. More of an engineers point of view. I didnt care for the wages I was seeing and wanted to shoot for more.

[ben300]

i have 3 years experience wiht auto cad and auto desk inventor.....i also have 4 years of experienc with pro engineer....

..pro e is by far the better program in my book....the ammount of things that you can do wiht pro e over auto cad or auto desk is unbelievable, especially when you have access to ALL of the modules like EFX, moldflo, solid flo, and you have it linked to ANSYS........

i have limited experience wiht solidworks too...but i think pro e is way better...

on the note of a job.....IMHO, i would not go for that degree and go for a mechanical engineering degree..either straight ME or even MET.....the job market for cad/drafting is very small these days.....i had a friend graduate the near the top of his class last fall semester with a asociates in cad/drafting, and he is currently cutting grass at a campground...


the problem is, most engineering degrees, like mechanical, teach quite a bit of drating, cad and GD&T (geometric dimensioning and tolerencing)

[CNC_guy]

I use AutoCad Mechanical and Inventor everyday. My advice is don't go just far enough to be a drafter and that's it. Make sure you have other marketable skills because, as someone else said, there are so many degrees that require drafting anyways. I can remember some of my early drafting classes having lots of females because the class was required for their interior design major.

On a personal note, I would be bored to death if all I did was draw all day. I love being about to design something, then program it and finally set it up and machine it.

[standardryder]

Used autocad and inventor all 4 highschool years. My highschool was a trade school and I went for machining. After I graduated I started a 4 year apprentice toolmaker course and Starretts and am graduating next week:cool: I've been using Mastercam mill X for the past year and a half(currently on x4) to design, program, and make custom parts for the company. Also have about 30 online programing and drafting classes from ToolingU.

[mxquadracer115]

IMO Catia is far more advanced then the other 3d software, but it comes with a hefty price tag to

[CNC_guy]

^A lot of our drawings that come from outside sources have been drawn in Catia and then translated for us. We won't be buying a seat of that anytime soon.;)

[ben300]

pro e has everything that catia has and then more..they all do the same thing...pro e is just far more advanced..especiallyw ith all the different modules you get with the program...plust you cant use programs like efx with catia.....if you havent used efx and ever get teh chance too....try it....it is a simply amazing product to use....you can design the whole skeleton of a sky scraper in one day if you need to

and if ya think catia is expensive, try $16k+ for pro e per seat



there fore pro e >solid works>catia>inventor or mechanical desk top



also, i have used master cam...pretty trick software program...


graphics suck tho, and i hate when you use with with pro e, that you have to do one milling sequence, save, start the other, save...

[mxquadracer115]

Well since Catia is like $25k for a seat I would say it is the most expensive, that is why only companies such as Boeing, Ford, Honda ect... use it. The power of the software is simply amazing, I would say it is the best in my opinion, but to each his own

[brian76708]

Ive heard the job marked for CAD is continuously decreasing as engineers do there own CAD work. I was planning on doing this degree but i got talked out of it and now I am doing a associate in animation technology (basically robotics). previously i was doing Mechanical engineer in which i did learn basics in auto cad 2d and 3d.

[Tommy 17]

I use Pro E, Catia, Solid workz, auto cadd, inventor, mastercam, and many others...

To me solid works is the best one. Easy to use and has a very good finite element analysis program in it. I used constantly at college. I've done some crazy things in this program!


At HONDA I'm using a special verison of Catia that is just for us and its ok I guess. I liked the others better, this ones just a little harder to get it to do what you want it to do.

[titanium68]

Been using AutoCAD for 20 years, just picked up Solid Works a couple years ago, I like it. It is getting harder to find design/drafter work, as all the new engineers are coming out of school knowing Solid Works. They still can't make a decent drawing:ermm: .

[bbender85]

i use AutoCAD and Pro-E daily. have an A.A.S. in CAD Drafting/Tool Design, B.S. in Product Design Engineering Technology.

as said, you'll be further ahead with an ME or MET due to the marketability of having skills other than being able to use a cad program; with downsizing these days, an employer will go for someone that can do more than one role, such as designing AND drawing (insert-product-here) in CAD.