Learning AC via autocad, any benifit?

[Rick Thompson]

My 19 year son old wants to learn AC, but the school he is in only offers CAD drafting in Autocad or Microstation. Would it be a complete waste of time, or are there some "educational" benefits that might help even thought they are so different? At least he would get some credits, but I don't want to recommend it if it is a complete waste of time.

[david nicholson-cole]

I would suggest that you let him learn them and get the credits, and let him make up his mind, as a near adult, as to what will help him most, later. He will be able to learn ArchiCAD from you. Trust your children, dont censor.
As a parent, you could offer to run some evening classes in ArchiCAD and even get in a student disk to instal on one of the school machines. If you are some countries, eg Scandinavia, Austria, UK, there are ways of getting ArchiCAD into Schools a lot more cheaply than you fear.
>>>david

Rick wrote:
My 19 year son old wants to learn AC, but the school he is in only offers CAD drafting in Autocad or Microstation. Would it be a complete waste of time, or are there some "educational" benefits that might help even thought they are so different? At least he would get some credits, but I don't want to recommend it if it is a complete waste of time.

[Rick Thompson]

"david nicholson-cole" wrote:
I would suggest that you let him learn them and get the credits, and let him make up his mind, as a near adult, as to what will help him most, later. He will be able to learn ArchiCAD from you. Trust your children, dont censor.
As a parent, you could offer to run some evening classes in ArchiCAD and even get in a student disk to instal on one of the school machines. If you are some countries, eg Scandinavia, Austria, UK, there are ways of getting ArchiCAD into Schools a lot more cheaply than you fear.
>>>david




If he lived near by I would be able to do that, but for now he is trusting my judgement as to what is a waste of time or not. Personally, I wasted a lot of energy in school and don't want that for him if I can help out with a little direction...thanks.

[David Larrew]

In my experience, I've found that learning any standard CAD software package is better than none.

I would encourage him to learn all he can (on the schools dollar) about any CAD package they offer. But be sure to remind him that there ARE other (better) CAD packages out there in the workforce.

Make sure he keeps and open mind - sounds like he already does due to his interest in ArchiCAD. I've found that younger minds are less likely to have the "herd mentality" of most of the "CAD jockeys" before them.

[Richard Morrison]

I think there isn't enough information to give an informed opinion.

Is he likely to be looking for a job in architecture or engineering after graduation? If so, AutoCAD skills may be a very useful selling point.

I think there is value in learning to think and draw with any CAD tool, as far as organizing your process and developing discipline. This wouldn't be wasted. But it's really annoying to get AutoCAD "in your bones" with drafting habits, and have to unlearn a bunch. (Voice of experience...) On the other hand, being exposed to the AutoCAD world is useful to learn the lingo for when you're dealing with consultants who use it.

[aahatimo]

some one told me "the second cad program you learn is the most difficult". one is always comparing what x-cad or y-cad did that !-cad does not do or does differently. if he is interested in architectural cad why not start out w/ the best - archicad!

[Rick Thompson]

Richard wrote:
I think there isn't enough information to give an informed opinion.

Is he likely to be looking for a job in architecture or engineering after graduation? If so, AutoCAD skills may be a very useful selling point.

I think there is value in learning to think and draw with any CAD tool, as far as organizing your process and developing discipline. This wouldn't be wasted. But it's really annoying to get AutoCAD "in your bones" with drafting habits, and have to unlearn a bunch. (Voice of experience...) On the other hand, being exposed to the AutoCAD world is useful to learn the lingo for when you're dealing with consultants who use it.

His interest is in being able to sit at home (I have inspired him:) and help out with my work. I do stock plans and they often require changes. So, not so much looking for a job elsewhere, but...you never know...he is young (19) and looking for a future way of making a living. It is too bad AC is not more available in schools, but that's "higher" education for you. My question is would it help or hurt his learning AC. He should be reading these comments...(are you Murphy)

thanks for the input

[stefan]

Learning AutoCAD is useful: for comparison, for future work, for knowledge when dealing with file exchange etc...

But you'll have the problem that you'll learn habits that work well in AutoCAD that aren't suited in ArchiCAD and that you don't use certain ArchiCAD tools, because you try to do it in an AutoCAD way.

I use ArchiCAD, but also teach a part of the AutoCAD courses at our university. It can never hurt to know AutoCAD, but it might be confusing when switching back & forth between two completely different approaches.

I guess you are not talking about Architectural Desktop, but about plain AutoCAD.

[Link]

It will at least make him realize how great ArchiCAD is! Just hope it doesn't taint him too much;-)

Cheers,
Link.

[Anonymous]

No matter wich software will use the most important is not the technique itself but the correct relation between the purpose and the methods.
As an creator hand made sketches are most important
to stimulate the intuition. but an mature architect can bee stimulated by the complexity of software capabilities
Archicad value is his strong architectural specific
Any actual software can be good or destructive . the most difficult thing is to master a global vision about the drawing
ability and the final results.
And to keep the mind clear without Cad- phobia