Comments | cad_monkies: practice drawings for autocad newbie

littledrunknemo in cad_monkies

practice drawings for autocad newbie

Jul 13, 2007 11:56

hi archies,

sorry for this lame request post, but i'm currently in the process of learning autocad on my own. i've pretty much got all the basics down by now, but it'd really help me to have some examples of (simple!) floorplans (or elevations or whatever) which i can practice copying... basically anything I should theoretically be able to draw up ( Read more... )

Comments 10

gerome_77 July 13 2007, 12:54:46 UTC

what I used to do was draw my apartment/house/whereever you live. It's good practice to measure it all and sketch it and then draft it up in CAD.

sassy_red_head July 13 2007, 14:02:22 UTC

I agree with this. It's a lot better to learn from actual site measurements than to copy another drawing.

Things you might want to play with are organizing your layers (ex: by wall type, window type, door type etc), setting up layouts at different scales and setting up title blocks. This goes a long way to make a simple drawing very professional.

You could draw up where you live, or do elevations of buildings in your neighbourhood or even just design some new spaces. To go further you could take one floor of where you live, then do a demolition plan followed by a new construction plan.

edgecondition July 13 2007, 14:27:37 UTC

yeah, this is good, not because the exciting/notexciting subject (your surrounding vs. drawings from books) but because the deal with CAD mastery is just in how well you'll translate your ideas, paper drawings, and existing structures in a digital drawing. Once you saw it digitized, half the work is done.

On the other hand, it could be worth a look if several of us here and now shared a drawing or two through internet to see how different the styles or standards or preferred graphics looked around the world. I don't want to go first thooo :S:S: :(:(:( ;) XD

sassy_red_head July 13 2007, 14:34:55 UTC

It would be cool to see what people would be working on I would totally be fired if I posted drawings I did.

boiwonder July 13 2007, 14:07:55 UTC

The previous suggestion is a good one. That was an exercise that we did in my first studio to get an idea of the relative sizes of living spaces.

In the CAD course that I took, we were assigned a modern building and had to document it in AutoCAD from drawings that were published in books. Here's the link to the assignment (with list of precedent buildings): http://www.ap.buffalo.edu/courses/arc411611f06/assignment01.htm. Here's some tutorials if you're interested in that: http://www.ap.buffalo.edu/courses/arc411611f06/Paul/murawskiTutorials.htm

carosconundrum July 13 2007, 14:08:30 UTC

I highly recommend going to your library and checking out a copy of "Applying AutoCad". It doesn't matter which release (hell, I've got an R14!) but it's full of great diagrams and dimensions and will give you more of a progression of challenges.

jmroberts70 July 13 2007, 14:50:31 UTC

I have found that necessity can become a powerful motivator. Doing some drafting out of a book -or even drafting up something in the real world- can get a little boring. When you HAVE to accomplish a task using these tools, believe me, you will learn! I only say this because I've been a CAD monkey for 17 years now and only took some very basic classes early on. Most of what I've learned was due to the need based on what I was trying to get done. If you're planning on doing architectural stuff, take on a real basic room addition or something for a friend --all with the understanding that you're also learning AutoCAD so at least they're aware of the situation at hand. You will learn the value of layering, paperspace, the use of blocks, etc all from actually DOING something.

stevis78 July 14 2007, 19:28:51 UTC

What I did: I went to the store one day (you can do this on the internet now) and bought a magazine full of floor plans for various-sized homes. I went through the book and drew them one by one on CAD. I dimensioned every room, did outside dimensions, all that. I layered walls, doors, fixtures, dimensions. I made roof and electrical layouts, made my own title block.

As was written previously, practice the basic commands on a regular basis and then you'll learn others by osmosis with experience in your field.

stevis78 July 14 2007, 19:30:58 UTC

Check out this site as an example.

http://www.architecturaldesigns.com/

jmroberts70 July 15 2007, 10:06:56 UTC

Aw man! I forgot about that site!! Great place for ideas based on the architectural style you're trying to create.