I am a former business owner, fabricator and electrician. Im tired of "getting dirty" for a living but nothing seems to make me happier than creating a simple mechanical solution to a complex problem. I enjoy working with computers and pickup on programs like photoshop etc with relative ease. Cad seems like the logical career path for myself and im interested in 2d/3d design/prototyping of mechanical assemblys and parts etc. I would really appreaciate some startup advice from someone within the CAD community.As of now, I do not have a college degree and would need to continue working if I put myself through school. The following approach is what I had in mind...Please let me know what you think and if you have any advice.1)Attend the following non credited but autodesk certified CAD classes at a local University:AutoCad 2010 2DAutoCAD 2010 2D AdvancedAutoCAD 2010 3d Modeling and renderingInventor 2010 Inventor 2010 Tooling (injection molded part design, molds etc)*each class is 16-24hrs long and cost between $400-$800 us.2)Find an entry level job (if possible at this point) and once settled work part time towards a 2 year degree in mechanical design.3)Depending on career outlook and personal situations at this point continue on to get a 4 year engineering degree.My main concerns are being able to stay working throughout and not waste excess time or money in the process.Thanks in advance for any help!Nunno2010-03-02 18:54:37

Aggressive game plan.
 
What did you "fabricate?" This might be a deciding factor when purchasing an AutoCAD program; i.e.: AutoCAD, Inventor, Solid Works, etc.
 
I went from sheetmetal fabricator to designer.
 
My tech school drafting courses taught me how to communicate using drawings.
 
I resisted CAD but, it's the current acceptable media to demonstrate your skills. It's show time. Good luck!

My fabrication experience is pretty broad. I've been involved in everything from automotive performance parts development, chassis fab, structural fab, architectural stairs, electrical systems layout, electronics etc. My personal interests though, are in the robotics industry. I'm hopping to someday score a CAD position within this industry and take it from there. I currently have AutoCAD 2010 and Inventor 2010. Would like to look into Solidworks as well... seems to be pretty popular. Would you think its wise to take all the non college credited autodesk classes and then end up taking the required general CAD classes again when I start on the 2 year degree?
Nunno2010-03-01 03:46:07

If your going to eventually take a 2yr 'CAD' course, the non-credited courses would be a waste of money...but not time, per se, they will give you a def leg up.
If your going to take a 2yr 'mechanical design' course, then by all means take the CAD classes beforehand.
And if you have Inventor, I wouldnt recommend taking a 3D autocad class either way, most current 3D design work is done with inventor, solidworks, or pro-e, because autocad 3D sucks (basically)

And there lies my problem at the moment... I'm in the Houston,TX area and cant seem to find any schools that offer Mechanical Design degree's. All I can find are general CAD degree's which are heavily geared towards architectural drafting. Architecture is pretty much useless to me in a career sense and im not really sure where to go from here? I mean, I'll do what I have to do... but would like to earn a degree that will give me a strong foothold in Mechanical Design rather than spend the effort earning a cookie cutter degree in something of another field."ahh gata love schools"

I agree, architectural blows, lol. Myself, I went to Lincoln Tech for their drafting program. Good thing about that is you reach a point, and the class splits in two directions, arch and mech. I went mech and couldnt be happier.
Also, with just a 'cookie cutter' degree in drafing you can get you foot in the door to just about anywhere, doing anything...alot of design work is on the job training because each discipline is unique and has its own rules and regs and specs.
Good luck though man, and FYI, I started as a basic, cookie cutter drafter. Im now, after 3 years, a mechanical designer. Keep your head up!

haha well that's refreshing to say the least. Wasn't sure if I'd be able to work moving into the picture. Thanks a ton for the advice and ill be sure to post back when I get the ball rolling. Do you know of any other popular CAD related forums/websites/Emagazines etc kicking around? I cant seem to find much of anything searching.

Oh there out there, just gotta keep looking I suppose. Seems everytime I search a new problem or hangup I find a different site....but this one had the most hits so I actually signed up.
An yeah, keep postin' ya noob!