CAD and Civil3d Training

[_Hathaway]

I am looking for some recommendations on both CAD training and Civil3d training that can be completed at your own pace while at your desk.  Preferably something we could buy and then run the appropriate staff through the courses at our pace.  We're looking for a basic Cad one and a beginner and intermediate one involving Civil3d.  I have found quite a few but would respect the opinion of those on here much more than an unknown review on a website.

[CivilFlow]

Hi...We have had luck with Autodesk-related courses on Lynda.com (now LinkedIn Learning).  There are several version-specific courses complete with exercise files and intuitive interface that remembers progress on whatever device you use to access content.  I hope this helps.

[rl_jackson]

Mike,

With the CAD only part I can't help you. If someone is in the field (drafting) they should have or have had some training from a college IMO. (I'm self taught from the monochrome days)

For C3D, I was lucky in a way as I had a firm that I worked for that did lunch and learns with the local Autodesk Retailer at the time. So Joe Hendrick and Cindy Davenport were in the office teaching the entire staff weekly, sure it was a lot to grasp, and that hour was generally two but it worked to get the basics in play back in 2007-8 and honestly would recommend that sort of training initially just for the novice user to get the basics down. You've been here (around) for a while as I have so you could probably do your own initial "Basic" training prior to hiring a consultant if that was the route you chose.

With respects to recommendations, I still learn on my own (make my own mistakes). But there are a few of them out there with "your own pace" resources and I'm sure if they wanted the business they would provide more review if you were interested and called. But never forget that AU and Youtube have a huge amout of information that cant be overlooked when it comes to $$$.

[_Hathaway]

Thanks RL. I learned CAD in college in 1990. The rest was all self-taught.

[wfberry]

It depends on the person receiving training.  If you have "newbies" I would suggest they do a few of the online tutorials that are included with the product.  THEN have some one on one (or whatever) training because by then they will probably have questions.

Bill

[jeff_rivers]

For Civil 3D I always liked the "Mastering Civil 3D 20xx" books.  They include a CD of tutorial drawings, and step you through all the elements of C3D in a logical fashion, with short, simple lessons.  E.g. the first lessons are creating and using points, the next few deal with creating an EG surface, then an alignment, and so on, until the student has created a finished design corridor with cross-sections, material tables, and so on.

None of the lessons are very difficult, and my only criticism would be that often the lessons show you what to do without explaining why you should do that thing.  

But it's great for getting a beginner with basic CAD skills up to speed on what the tools within C3D are and how to use all these new tools (alignments, surfaces, profiles, corridors, etc).

[JasonArtley]

GlobalETraining and Pinnacle Series both have these types of training sessions, and they work ok. Using books like the "Mastering" series or the Ascent stuff works well too. The tough part is that they are generic. They don't follow your exact workflows and don't use your Civil3D template. So the alignments, surfaces, labels, etc that you create in training won't look like what they'd look like on a real project. 

The other tricky part is that everyone learns in a different way. Some people need the book, some people need videos, some people need "over the shoulder" or classroom training. There really isn't a one size fits all. 

Ask your Autodesk Reseller what they recommend. Sometimes you might find they have a free or cheap solution they can offer. 

[jefflambert9091]

You could always make your own. 🙂

[_Hathaway]

That's the problem, we're always too busy working and making $ to stop production and create a training program. I have 30 years of Cad experience with the first 10 years being both survey and civil focused and the last 18, solely in survey. By proxy and inherent Cad knowledge I do know a lot about what the engineering techs/drafters do. I already train my survey techs in Cad, it's really an informal setting involving the various aspects of what we do. I have been asked to assist on the engineering side of things consisting of the staff of 6+ potential trainees at varying levels of expertise. Thanks to all the kind responses on here things are headed in the right direction.