The local adult school have courses referred to as Beginner’s CAD, Advanced CAD and Remedial or Upgrade CAD taught semester. They are all given in one classroom by same instructor using the Educational version of Autocad. The low level CAD is taught every semester and the remainder on alternate ones for the same $30 cost. I take the second semester to learn what is new or now used with the latest release. The problem in these second semesters is that they go “down” to basics too far, and essentially they expect to teach again what you already know. There is zero instruction as to XREF's, drawings in Paper Space, plotting parameters, etc. and other items which are used on an everyday basis. The bad part in these courses is that you really need to have firsthand some high school quality drafting instruction or ability. They are designed for substituting in the software, not how to do or create anything. The classes are open to those from 18 to 80, and the younger set has as much troubles in learning as the older ones do. Unfortunately, there is a high dropout rate after the first five weeks, caused by counselors which are just trying to fill a classroom instead of learning the abilities of the student.


One word of warning for the downloaders. I do not know how prevalent, nor know to which product this applies to but I find out from a friend who is a download junkie that he got some “30 Day Free” products which also set a cookie into the computer. The cookie will not permit any competitive product installation or use. It will not permit an installation of anything other than the current release full version. He got hit by this in TurboTax a few years ago, and had to reformat then, and no one knew how to rid it.

Wm.