I can't tell you the best way, since I've only done it one way. I took a course at my local junior college called "AutoCAD for Professionals". It was 4 Saturdays, 8 hours per day. It was enough to get me going pretty well. That was several years ago, and I'm STILL learning how to do things more efficiently. It will help if you have other knowledgeable people around.
I believe our local AutoCAD dealer offers similar courses (for more money, though).
You don't mention your background, but I assume you're already in engineering. If not, there are more extensive CAD courses that not only teach how to use AutoCAD, but how to draft in general.
Often High Schools offer ACAD courses
and are cheaper than Colleges or
ACAD Dealers. There are so many commands
that a structured course is advisable.
There are books that take you thru step
one and proceed till you have mastered
much of the material. Your job dictates
much of what you must learn as ACAD is
an umbrella for many types of industry
as well as architectural drafting.
Many companies will pay for your training.
Hope yours will. There are also some
ACAD user groups who have people that
often offer individual training which
is probably the best way. Lots of luck
with your learning experience.
If not, you can do it the way that I did: Buy a book (I used "Inside AutoCAD" and a command reference guide whose name escapes me for the moment) and start trying to make simple, 2D drawings.
As you develop some understanding of the basics, explore the menus to see what commands exist and then look those up in the help files or in your book.
A class will speed up the process early on but I believe the only way to really learn it is to use it daily to solve real problems that have meaning to you.
One word of caution: Don't forego the menu/help exploration, especially as you progress in your skill. I've worked with several people who consider themselves quite competent but who remain very inefficient at what they're doing because they don't realize some of the tools that are available.
You can learn any software by basically going through a good book and other resources. However participating in a structured class allows you to concentrate in the areas that are more relevant to your job.
Also you will have a guide that can walk you through your problems.
Thanks a lot for the info. I have no plans of becoming an engineer. I have a career in another field. However, as a hobby, I like to design furniture and other wood working crafts. A lot of wood workers use CAD to design and thought I might be able to use it.
I may consider a class; I'm always looking to learn different things.
I used to have a student that work designing furniture. You might want to explore either Inventor or SolidWorks. They are more useful to create 3D Models, also you can create working drawings from these models.
If you are proficient in AutoCAD I recommend Inventor.
If you're just fooling around with it, AutoCAD is awfully expensive. And anything you want to do with it, there's always two or three different ways to accomplish it, so it's more complicated than what it could be.
If you're just doing drafting (and not 3-D modeling), then AutoCAD Lite will do the trick at 1/3 the cost.
But do check around on other software that's available.
Do some reading on basic drafting, as well as AutoCAD- so you know what do draw, as well as how to use the software.
JStephen is right, however I assumed that you already owned AutoDesk products by lookin at the first thread. If you don't own either Inventor or SolidWorks don't bother.
But you can look in google for CAD open source and you might find Solid Modeling Software free. Also there are other options way cheaper, which are more convinient than Solid Modeling than AutoCAD.
I had a class in the beginning that I knew autocad, but all the rest was selfstudy, the only things I knew when I started learning the program by myself was the programing rules (incremental, polar and absolute programing)
So:
Incrimental (the next point is that far in X, Y and Z from the start): @10,10,5
polar (angular programing given in radius and angle): 10<150 (a line 10 long and undser an angle of 150deg.
Absolute (from the zero point of the page) 10,10,10.
I think the best way to learn a program like autocad is by yourself, I did it aloms completly by myself and went up to the level that programs like Inventor become quite easy to learn.
