Interested in learning cad

[BigSki]

Originally Posted by yotapower07

So another ? To go along with this. What type of operating system? As it is right now I do pretty much everything Internet related on my iPhone. Obviously that's not going to cut it so I need to look into getting a computer too. Also are online classes an option or is it a classroom setting only type of deal. Being out the door by 4am and not getting back till around 3:30 and having 5 kids kinda puts a damper on things. Although I am willing to make sacrifices for the greater good. Engineering sounds like a good fit too. So many times, I look around the production floor and wonder what the hell those people were smoking when they designed the place. The seven P's need to be drilled into every kid in school.

Solidworks likes Windows 7, 64 bit. I using an HP Z400 work station, 3.2GHz quad core Xeon processor and a Quatro FX 1800 graphics processor. 1T hard drive and 16G of Ram. 3D models are memory hogs!

Your other question about on-line vs. classroom.I personally needed the hands-on help that a classroom/lab provided. I have a machining background so my mind already thinks in '3D' but this also caused me issues in learning how to orientate a new model. After a while I realized that the 2 quickest ways to make the base model were to either extrude a profile or to revolve a profile. Autodesk Inventor has more "primitive" shapes to start with but after having to adjust or modify the primitives to get the basic shape that you want, I found it easier to just start with a blank drawing plane.