In many jobs the competent handling of the software autoCAD is a must. For beginners, there are good courses for less than 600 euros.
Courses autoCAD all test results for autocad courses 01/2015
Without autoCAD, nothing works at patrick payer’s workplace. The 34-year-old is a draftsman at muller-kalchreuth planungsgesellschaft in berlin and uses the software to design drainage channels and drinking water pipes, for example. "i turn rough drafts into true-to-scale, two-dimensional drawings for our engineers," says payer. "this is my daily bread."patrick payer learned how to use autoCAD during his apprenticeship as a draftsman. For all those who have not yet had the opportunity to become acquainted with the program in the course of their studies or training, there are further training courses on the subject.
Seven courses for beginners in the test
stiftung warentest tested seven courses for beginners. Price range: between 143 and 2,090 euros. Duration: three to five days. The providers in the test included chambers of handicrafts (HWK), chambers of industry and commerce (IHK), commercial educational institutes and an adult education center (VHS). The results are encouraging: in the most important test point, course delivery – where the content, its delivery and the teaching material were assessed – four courses achieved a high level of quality. Three of them were priced at less than 600 euros.
in demand in many jobs and industries
Computer-aided design, or CAD for short, is now used in almost all branches of technology. Competent handling of CAD programs such as the widely used autoCAD from autodesk is therefore a must for many professionals – whether architects, dental technicians, precision opticians, engineers or carpenters. In their early days, CAD applications were merely a tool for technical drawing. In the meantime, the third dimension has been added to the vast majority of applications. This makes the design of complex products in 3D on the computer possible.
Anyone who wants to take an autoCAD beginner’s course should know one thing: as a rule, these are inter-professional training courses. In other words: architects, carpenters and engineers learn together. Special computer skills are not required. However, the participants should be able to read a technical drawing. Depending on the subject, this could be the floor plan of a building or a representation of a mechanical component.
After the training, the course participants should be able to create drawings independently with the help of autoCAD, in 2D checklist. If you want to learn how to draw 3D designs with autoCAD, you need to take an advanced course tips. There are also job-specific offerings here.
Content: good or very good
In terms of content, all courses in the test did their job well or even very well. The instructors covered the central topics for beginners, gave an overview of the scope and structure of the program and went into common commands, functions and operating options.
The teaching of the content, i.e. the methodical and didactic design of the lessons, was not always quite as successful. Above all, the two commercial training institutes in the test – computer systems dipl.-ing. Thorsten kebel and man and machine – showed weaknesses here. Particularly important so that the participants can work independently with autoCAD after the training: the course participants must be able to copy what the lecturer demonstrates in front of the group via beamer at their own computer workstation and get plenty of opportunities to practice. The tasks should become increasingly complex and, if possible, take into account the different professional backgrounds of the participants. However, this was not sufficiently the case with the two commercial training providers in the test.
The exercises there remained simple and had little relation to the professional practice of the participants. At computer systems dipl.-ing. Thorsten kebel added that, on the whole, too little practice had been done. In the case of man and machine, the exercises were not evaluated in all cases and the solutions were not always discussed in the group.
Independent. Objective. Incorruptible.
Teaching material was not convincing everywhere
Well-made teaching material can make a decisive contribution to learning success. At best, there is a clearly structured, coherent script with page numbers.
The documents provided by the IHK akademie schwaben and computer-systeme dipl were exemplary.-ing. Thorsten kebel gave. Here, course participants were given a 240-page training manual from the herdt publishing house. This made it easy to follow up on the lessons.
in two cases, however, the quality of the teaching material was very low: at the VHS marzahn-hellersdorf in berlin, the participants received only an unsorted collection of sheets. These papers were not suitable as a reference work for the time after the course. Similar at the elbcampus competence center HWK hamburg: there, the instructor only handed out a few uncommented drawings to practice on.
Course organization went well
There was nothing to complain about in the course organization. It worked well everywhere. However, the providers could improve their customer information: in some course announcements, for example, there was no indication that the courses were interdisciplinary. In addition, the course providers should be a little more willing to provide information in response to telephone inquiries.
The general terms and conditions of the contracts that our testers concluded with the providers were encouraging: our legal expert discovered clear deficiencies in the contractual terms and conditions in only one case, and that was with the dresden IHK training center. Among other things, the provider reserved the right to postpone course dates without having to provide participants with valid reasons for doing so. This is not in order.
When looking for a course, those interested in an autoCAD training course should always research alternatives to their desired provider and date. In our test, some courses were cancelled or postponed until later. The reason usually given was that there were too few registrations. Our impression: the range of courses on offer appears to be greater than it actually is. The providers presumably want to be present on the market and therefore offer more training courses than they are able to carry out.
courses autoCAD all test results for autocad courses 01/2015
Still far from being a professional after the course
Anyone who has completed an introductory course is far from being a CAD professional. After the course, the participants mastered basic working methods and were able to create technical drawings in 2D with autoCAD.
even for draftsman patrick payer, learning doesn’t stop despite years of practice with autoCAD. If he gets stuck, he looks in the manual of the manufacturer autodesk or searches an internet forum on the topic for tips. "or i simply ask a colleague," he says – and laughs.