Where to start?

[Anonymous]

Hi everyone.

I've recently been made redundant from my job & I'm wondering where to go from now. I've got a New Zealand Certificate in Civil Engineering but I'm a bit stuck in the dark ages with regard to draughting & design using CAD so see this as an area that I should look to upskill in as even the jobs I'm otherwise over qualified for all seem to require it now.

Civil 3D seems to be the most appropriate package that I could do with knowing so I'm wondering if this is an appropriate place to start or should I start with AutoCAD & work my way up to it?

My other question is to do with getting the SW. Ideally I want to be able to learn from the Autodesk online resources so I can work through it in my own time & as fast as possible but it looks like the only way to get an educational copy of the SW to learn with is to be enrolled with an educational institution. Is this correct or can I get approval for this somehow?

Any advice would be gratefully appreciated.

Thanks

Brian

[Joe-Bouza]

Autocad knowledge is helpful to leard civil3d but you can learn them simutaneously. If you plan to stick with civil work I would encourage lrearning it. Don't know what SW is

[Jeff_M]

Joe, SW would be SoftWare....

[neilyj666]

You can get a 30 day trial but that is not ideal.I think autodesk did something for people in your situation but not sure if they still do

[jmayo-EE]

Civil 3D runs on top of AutoCAD. You will need AutoCAD skills to be successful with Civil 3D.

If you get the demo versions get AutoCAD first. Start with the tutorials that come in the AutoCAD Help drop downs. Use YouTube to assist where you struggle or want more info. After you have a good working knowledge of drafting lines, curves, polylines, text, dimensions, page layouts and plotting you should be ready to go to Civil 3D and do the same.

There are also great blogs with additional info, great tips, tricks and workflows.  

[AllenJessup]

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@neilyj666 wrote:
You can get a 30 day trial but that is not ideal.I think autodesk did something for people in your situation but not sure if they still do

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No. The program was cancelled.

Allen

[AllenJessup]

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@Anonymous wrote:

 it looks like the only way to get an educational copy of the SW to learn with is to be enrolled with an educational institution. Is this correct or can I get approval for this somehow?

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That's about it and I believe it has to be an accredited institution. You might look for a vocational training outfit and just take a class in AutoCAD. Then you could download the free trials.

You might also investigate if there are on-line courses that would qualify you for the student software.

Allen