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AutoCAD 2006 Help

COmtbiker12

Turbo Monkey
Dec 17, 2003
2,577
0
Colorado Springs
I'm in drafting this year and am really enjoying working on AutoCAD at school so, I downloaded the supposedly 30day free trial but after spending 5 1/2 hours downloading it (~350MB) and installing it its wanting me to have an activation key or license which I...don't have. Any suggestions on hwo to get one? Also, if anybody has one they wouldn't mind letting me borrow, I'd be quite happy. :) :thumb:
 

Mumbles

Monkey
Jul 17, 2002
236
0
Minneapolis, MN
COmtbiker12 said:
I'm in drafting this year and am really enjoying working on AutoCAD at school so, I downloaded the supposedly 30day free trial but after spending 5 1/2 hours downloading it (~350MB) and installing it its wanting me to have an activation key or license which I...don't have. Any suggestions on hwo to get one? Also, if anybody has one they wouldn't mind letting me borrow, I'd be quite happy. :) :thumb:
ask around at school? which version of CAD are you using for school? (i have access to 2002, but i dont think anything later than that..)
 

COmtbiker12

Turbo Monkey
Dec 17, 2003
2,577
0
Colorado Springs
I think its AutoCAD Lite (sp?) I'd say its probably atleast 2005, its in a new wing of the school and all the systems are on XP...think a teacher would give me one? lol
 

Mumbles

Monkey
Jul 17, 2002
236
0
Minneapolis, MN
COmtbiker12 said:
I think its AutoCAD Lite (sp?) I'd say its probably atleast 2005, its in a new wing of the school and all the systems are on XP...think a teacher would give me one? lol
they can probably give you a school license as a learning device... the program is way too expensive to expect students to be able to pay for it
 

MMike

A fowl peckerwood.
Sep 5, 2001
18,207
105
just sittin' here drinkin' scotch
While AutoCAD does suck donkey balls, it is a good way to learn drafting itself. If you are just starting out, learning the ways of projecting views and all that good stuff, getting bogged down with solids and assy's is too cumbersome from the get-go IMHO...

If you have a legitimate trial version... (and there are plenty out there)... I'd call AutoDesk.
 

COmtbiker12

Turbo Monkey
Dec 17, 2003
2,577
0
Colorado Springs
MMike said:
While AutoCAD does suck donkey balls, it is a good way to learn drafting itself. If you are just starting out, learning the ways of projecting views and all that good stuff, getting bogged down with solids and assy's is too cumbersome from the get-go IMHO...

If you have a legitimate trial version... (and there are plenty out there)... I'd call AutoDesk.
That's mostly what I want to use it for since I'm only in Drafting I (albeit I am the furthest along in my class having to constantly be the teacher's assistant and help others out and I have over 100% in the class :p :D ) and I downloaded it straight from autodesk/autocad's website. I'll give AutoDesk a call this afternoon.
 

stosh

Darth Bailer
Jul 20, 2001
22,238
393
NY
It's funny but in the architecture field Autocad is probably the only way to do Construction Documents.
There are some 3D programs but they haven't gotten to the point of being able to create fully working construction documents and a 3D version of a building.
 

SK6

Turbo Monkey
Jul 10, 2001
7,586
0
Shut up and ride...
Cooter Brown said:
AutoCad sucks donkey ballz, use Pro-Engineer Wildfire, full on solid models and the drawings derived from said 3-D solid models, besides, it's a lot more fun to make the models first
Irrelevant, the issue is Autocad. I agree though, that for 3 models and molds or machine design. Solid Works, Solid edge, Pro-e, and so on are certainly da bomb! But for 2d work, Autocad is more efficient. (Microstation as well)

The biggest issue is however that the newer draftsmen coming out of the schools have no concept of true drafting. It is REAL important to learn the rules of drafting, and then applying it to the application of Autocad.

In answer to the question, the school in all likelihood has a site license for Autocad, so that may be an option. According to the licensing agreement, if you run Autocad at work (or at school) technically you can have it at home as well, so long as they are not running concurrently.

I’ve been using Autocad since 1987, and have taught it as well at a community college in ’93.

The key thing is to learn drafting techniques, Autocad is simply a tool.
 

SK6

Turbo Monkey
Jul 10, 2001
7,586
0
Shut up and ride...
stosh said:
It's funny but in the architecture field Autocad is probably the only way to do Construction Documents.
There are some 3D programs but they haven't gotten to the point of being able to create fully working construction documents and a 3D version of a building.
Actually, there are a few out there that are not only 3d, but are rather intuitive and do not bog down Autocad. Instead of being a block based system, it uses a database (Access) for parametric designs. Again, Autocad for this application is better than SolidWorks and similar CAD programs, due to the nature of the field. In this instance it’s piping and ductwork.

The program for anyone interested is QuickPen.
 

MMike

A fowl peckerwood.
Sep 5, 2001
18,207
105
just sittin' here drinkin' scotch
That was sort of my point. Drafting with say, Solidworks before you know how to actually draft, is a bad idea. Learning to draft the "hard" way with AutoCAD is a good way to start. You're just using ACAD instead of a pencil....

sirknight6 said:
Irrelevant, the issue is Autocad. I agree though, that for 3 models and molds or machine design. Solid Works, Solid edge, Pro-e, and so on are certainly da bomb! But for 2d work, Autocad is more efficient. (Microstation as well)

The biggest issue is however that the newer draftsmen coming out of the schools have no concept of true drafting. It is REAL important to learn the rules of drafting, and then applying it to the application of Autocad.

In answer to the question, the school in all likelihood has a site license for Autocad, so that may be an option. According to the licensing agreement, if you run Autocad at work (or at school) technically you can have it at home as well, so long as they are not running concurrently.

I’ve been using Autocad since 1987, and have taught it as well at a community college in ’93.

The key thing is to learn drafting techniques, Autocad is simply a tool.
 

SK6

Turbo Monkey
Jul 10, 2001
7,586
0
Shut up and ride...
MMike said:
That was sort of my point. Drafting with say, Solidworks before you know how to actually draft, is a bad idea. Learning to draft the "hard" way with AutoCAD is a good way to start. You're just using ACAD instead of a pencil....

yup! :thumb:

I think I'm like the last generation having learned on a drafting board. My first 3 years in this field consisted of nothing but the board. This is also when lettering counted! I can still letter real well! :thumb:
 

MMike

A fowl peckerwood.
Sep 5, 2001
18,207
105
just sittin' here drinkin' scotch
I can't letter to save my life. I took techncal drawing high school (1984) grade 8). That was obvioulsy manual drafting. Then the first 3 years of university, i had to take 3 more drafting courses (all manual, excpet for 2 lectures each semster which were on ACAD 9)

But I have never actually worked (at a job) with a drawing board. Which is good, because though my drawings were always correct, they looked like hell. I'm left handed....I can't write or draw freehand to save my life.
 

SK6

Turbo Monkey
Jul 10, 2001
7,586
0
Shut up and ride...
MMike said:
I can't letter to save my life. I took techncal drawing high school (1984) grade 8). That was obvioulsy manual drafting. Then the first 3 years of university, i had to take 3 more drafting courses (all manual, excpet for 2 lectures each semster which were on ACAD 9)

But I have never actually worked (at a job) with a drawing board. Which is good, because though my drawings were always correct, they looked like hell. I'm left handed....I can't write or draw freehand to save my life.

I know the feeling!! It took me a few years to actually learn to letter properly. I had 3 years of drafting in high school, so since 1981, I've been doing drafting. My lettering really sucked. Isucked so bad I had to use Leroy lettering my 1st year working.
 

spookydave

Monkey
Sep 6, 2001
518
0
Orange County, CA
MMike said:
I can't letter to save my life. I took techncal drawing high school (1984) grade 8). That was obvioulsy manual drafting. Then the first 3 years of university, i had to take 3 more drafting courses (all manual, excpet for 2 lectures each semster which were on ACAD 9)

But I have never actually worked (at a job) with a drawing board. Which is good, because though my drawings were always correct, they looked like hell. I'm left handed....I can't write or draw freehand to save my life.
I'm a lefty too. And my first 3 years at Hughes I only did board drafting. Lettering is always hard for us leftys because we tend to drag our hand though it.

I agree with everything you are saying about learning how to draft first.

I have only used AutoCad where I have worked. I just got a copy of Solidworks and am trying to learn it on my own time.
 

SK6

Turbo Monkey
Jul 10, 2001
7,586
0
Shut up and ride...
spookydave said:
I'm a lefty too. And my first 3 years at Hughes I only did board drafting. Lettering is always hard for us leftys because we tend to drag our hand though it.

I agree with everything you are saying about learning how to draft first.

I have only used AutoCad where I have worked. I just got a copy of Solidworks and am trying to learn it on my own time.
I have the training manual for solidworks if your interested.


send me a PM
 

Rockland

Turbo Monkey
Apr 24, 2003
1,871
265
Left hand path
spookydave said:
I'm a lefty too. And my first 3 years at Hughes I only did board drafting. Lettering is always hard for us leftys because we tend to drag our hand though it.
Ah memories. This was my experience as well. The bottom of my left hand would just end up black. We had the eraser dust to try and avoid the smudge.
 

Archslater

Monkey
Mar 6, 2003
154
0
Indianapolis
stosh said:
It's funny but in the architecture field Autocad is probably the only way to do Construction Documents.
There are some 3D programs but they haven't gotten to the point of being able to create fully working construction documents and a 3D version of a building.
Actually, I'm an architect at a midsized firm (65 people) and we use Cadvance for Construction Documents. Although it is not nearly as popular as Autocad, it works well. We are looking at switching to Revit, which is a fully functional 3d Construction Document program. In recent years, several companies have developed successful 3d CD programs: Microstation, Revit and others.......
 

stosh

Darth Bailer
Jul 20, 2001
22,238
393
NY
Archslater said:
Actually, I'm an architect at a midsized firm (65 people) and we use Cadvance for Construction Documents. Although it is not nearly as popular as Autocad, it works well. We are looking at switching to Revit, which is a fully functional 3d Construction Document program. In recent years, several companies have developed successful 3d CD programs: Microstation, Revit and others.......
We looked at revit as well and really liked it. However we felt the down time may be to much.
I'm all for it but some of the older people weren't to for it.
 

Archslater

Monkey
Mar 6, 2003
154
0
Indianapolis
We have been looking at it for awhile now, especially since we are a full service arch/engineering firm. Our IT person is also a registered architect, and he is getting ready to purchase one copy and do a pilot project with it for evaluation. Should be interesting.
 

COmtbiker12

Turbo Monkey
Dec 17, 2003
2,577
0
Colorado Springs
Thanks for the replies. I just got home from school (ironically enough I didn't have my drafting class today). Some more info, we're doing both hand drafting and AutoCAD. We'll do an assignment by hand, then do the same thing on AutoCAD. My lettering is HORRIBLE and probaby takes almost as much time as the actual drawings :p ;) I'll check out that mscrack site in a bit.

Ciaran, I actually wouldn't mind getting a copy if you're cool with that. :)


Thanks. :)
 

Ciaran

Fear my banana
Apr 5, 2004
9,839
15
So Cal
COmtbiker12 said:
Thanks for the replies. I just got home from school (ironically enough I didn't have my drafting class today). Some more info, we're doing both hand drafting and AutoCAD. We'll do an assignment by hand, then do the same thing on AutoCAD. My lettering is HORRIBLE and probaby takes almost as much time as the actual drawings :p ;) I'll check out that mscrack site in a bit.

Ciaran, I actually wouldn't mind getting a copy if you're cool with that. :)


Thanks. :)
PM me your snail mail address and i'll burn a copy for ya.
 

stosh

Darth Bailer
Jul 20, 2001
22,238
393
NY
caboverpete said:
I use autocad for civil/gis work and just wanted to mention that 2006 is a bloated turd and the bane of my existence. Thank god I still have 2005 to fall back on.
Care to explain why you don't like 06?
 

BigMike

BrokenbikeMike
Jul 29, 2003
8,931
0
Montgomery county MD
sirknight6 said:
I know the feeling!! It took me a few years to actually learn to letter properly. I had 3 years of drafting in high school, so since 1981, I've been doing drafting. My lettering really sucked. Isucked so bad I had to use Leroy lettering my 1st year working.

No Sir. I am in a Hand drafting class right now, and we just did a unit on Lettering. I had to fill up an entire 18"x24" page with the alphabet/0-9 and then get graded on it.

Thanks Technical Theatre! :rolleyes:

This is the second drafting class I've had in College, the first was a basic design course, but it covered basic drafting too. This one is ALL about drafting. Right now we are covering the basics.... Lettering, and Lines! I JUST DREW AN ENTIRE PAGE OF LINES!! Heavy weight, med weight, lightweight, layout, Center Lines, Phantom Lines, Dimention Lines, etc.....