If so how many years and what versions? Just curious.
About a whole year for me. Started out with 2002, then 2004, 2005, and now 2007.
Oh, yeah. And I started with R.12 in high school. R.14 in colege then 2000 second semester. Durring my carreer I've used the following:
Turbocad ($100 downloaded from the website and absolute shiznite. The boss was the cheapest ever)
Autodesk-
AutoCAD 2002, 2004
Mechanical Desktop 2004, '05, '06
Inventor 8, 9, 10
Vault 3
Currently:
Bentley- by day
Microstation V8 2004 Edition with ASA addon for Concrete Reinforcement Detailing
Autodesk- by night (my wife and I have an Architectural Drafting/Designing company, so they're purchased registered versions. At around $6000 a pop, that's a necesary note. My home copy of Inventor 10 isn't, as I don't use it for contracting yet.)
Architectural Desktop 2006 (PC), 2007 (laptop)
*edit*
I forgot to calculate (yeah, it's that bad) how many years I've been CADing. A square dozen. 8 years professionally.
I'm actually at my job right now where I use AutoCAD every day ;)
Been using it since high school...started on Release 14 (no, I'm not that old, our school was just behind the times).
Got my Associate's in Drafting/Design in 2002. Over the years I've used everything from 2000 to 2006.
Right now I'm working for an engineering firm doing steel fabrication drawings for them. Only been here a month and a half though.
I geuss starting out with R7 on a 286 machine puts me as an old user? lol. Skipped some releases over the years, I think I went 7, 9, 11,12,13, and then into the 2000 versions. Now days, I only run LT on my laptop ;)
Bob Myers
I never spent alot of time on AutoCAD. Used Pro-E, ThinkDesign, Soild Edge though. I use Inventor 8 right now.
lol... geez, I'm a rookie. :D
4 years of R14. My name is listed as the CAD artist on a patent somewhere (vacuum actuator for school bus air brakes, boring)
I started with a brand spanking new version of Architectural Desktop 2005 in Fall of 2004. I'm still using it. I wish I had the opportunity to learn it in high school, it would have helped. I also use Microsoft Visio and Adobe Illustrator for simple things.
As far as 3d modeling for architecture, I just upgraded from VIZ 2005 to VIZ 2007 and I also use SketchUp 5 (sooo much faster, just doesn't look quite as nice, but for most things it is great) which you can get a free version from Google now (although it is lacking some features, most notibly the "sandbox" tools. I will upgrade to version 6 when my license expires. Now the Architecture school recommends FormZ as well, but I haven't even played with it.
Autodesk must love all of us. Autodesk software I have owned:
Architectural Desktop 2005
VIZ 2005
VIZ 2007
Revit (never really did more than mess with it, got it in a package deal with Architectural Desktop 2005 and VIZ 2005 then my license expired)
OldRaven, I didn't know you did Architecture. Want to hire me? :D Actually I've been shifting more to Urban Planning lately. I'm thinking of getting my Masters in that.
Been using Solidworks for about a year now.
Started on my 5th year with Pro/E.
I wish I coulda gotten some more experience with Inventor/Mechanical Desktop/ etc...unfortunately I did not. Limited use with Inventor, and it's just different enough from AutoCAD that it tends to frustrate me, but it's definitely a cool program.
Yes, Autodesk has it made. And if I had a choice, this Microstation trash would be tossed for ACAD again. ASA has an addon for Autocad, but the companies we contract to use Microstation, so we're stuck with it.
We have six clients now, two comming up in the next couple of months, and two more waiting for initial meetings in the next week (one is commercial, which is new for us). If this keeps up I may have to give up the day job thing. We've already been talking about perhaps hiring someone, down the road. But since I am away from home all day, it has been decided they will either be a girl or a hunchback. ;)
I don't know how to use ADT with 3D Architectural. I can get so far, but certain parts I have to teach myself. Pretty much, when I get to the roof, I'm completely out of my element. But we're designing our own Craftsman 1 1/2 story for a place on a lake, so I'll be sucking it up and learning it this time. It's the perfect project for training myself.
Red_LX, stick with the Inventor. Once you get the hang of it, you won't have much use for Autocad again, so long as you're doing Mechanical modeling.
Unfortunately I have no way to use Inventor, I only ever got to use it at school. So unless I get a job at a place that has it, I really won't get to use it again.
I kinda feel at a disadvantage with not much 3D training and all. I feel like I'm great with AutoCAD, but when it comes to the 3D stuff, I'm really not very good.
I have very little CAD 3D experience as well. I am "supposed" to be learning Civil 3D for work, but you know how that goes. We are heading toward using ArcGIS and Sketchup for our 3D models anyways, so that may very well just stay a pipe dream.
Any ArcGIS users?
I pretty much started out with GIS, Socet Set 4.1 (pretty sure no one has heard of that :D ), creating 3D terrains and Topos for the DoD as soon as I got out of the Navy about 7 years ago. I got my first taste of ArcGIS 8.x then, via Unix and that was a very VERY frustrating event. I never touched it again until we switched over to the Windows platform when we used it everyday.
The irony of all of this is that although I have about 4x the experience and training with ArcGIS than ACad, my confidence as a user is completely reversed.
I use ArcGIS 9 ocassionally, but I'm not very confident with it at all. I took a class that helped some, but I usually let the GIS gurus mess with that and tell them what I need.
We use Auto cad 2000 i at work for customer Sales Drawings and what not but all of our design work is done with SolidWorks. I have used SolidWorks 2001 up to 2007. I also learned Pro E Wildfire in College. Once you have used either Pro-E or SolidWorks AutoCad is just for 2d stuff. I have 3 years of experience now with SolidWorks now and can model up just about anything. My last project at work was our new casting of our short lower unit for the Stern Drives we manufacture at Konrad Marine. So if you need any Cad work done let me know.
I did the design/Cad work for the lower unit on this drive as well as the standoff box it is mounted to and all the external steering
(http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o187/fastertbird/DSC_0420.jpg)
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I'm a liar... I just installed Civil 3D yesterday. :D
Andrew, that some sweet stuff there. I would like to do some mechanical design type stuff.
I started on CAD 2000 professionally, and have moved to ADT 3.3, then ADT 2006, then ADT 2007, then Revit 9. Then I quit the Arch. Firm and went to a industrial design firm. Currently working a lot for Texas Gas Co. which requires Microstation V8. YUK!!! Just started training in on Inventor 11. I first started learning CAD on release 10.
What did you think of Revit? I had a one year license I got with some other Autodesk products but I didn't mess with it much and the license expired before I could really do anything.
What's everybody using for add-ons, extensions, peripherals and what not.
I just found this place the other day. :D
http://www.cadforum.cz/cadforum_en/default.asp?tab=4
I use quite a few AutoLisps with keyboard shortcuts...
Just got this the other day... now I need figure out which commands are the lucky ones.
http://www.razerzone.com/Products/Gaming-Mice/Razer-Copperhead-Gaming-Mouse/
ASA addon, for Concrete Reinforcement Detailing.
I just customize my key commands in the pgp file. No extras needed.
No add-ons or extensions that I know of.
Being that I'm doing fabricated steel drawings, I don't really need any extra stuff for that.
Revit is a great program. You design the model electronically and pull your construction document info from it. The thing I liked the most was that kept all of the sheets, details, and views numbered for you so when things moved everything updated automatically. It works very smoothly compared to Arhitectural Desktop by far. Many firms are implementing Revit at this time as it is a superior product. That's why Autodesk bought it a few years back.
I learned AutoCAD 2000 (I think it was) in College and at my job now that I've been at for about 4 months I used AutoCAD Mechanical 2006 and now 2007. I taught myself about paperspace and sheet sets. And with 2007 they made the 3d alot easier so I'm making 3d things right now. But next week the company i work for is getting Inventor which will be better for 3d and I'll be trained in it by Autodesk. I used Solidworks also but only in college.