Thursday, October 18, 2007

So What Can You Do?

This morning I started my computer aided drafting class at the technical institute. And the instructor was taking the class (99% boys, 99% less than half my age) through some basic setup commands. A propos of the dimensioning setup, he commented, "You've got your choice of metric, engineering, architectural, or decimal dimensions. Since this is going to be a mechanical drafting class, we'll be using the decimal dimensions."

Huh? I thought I was taking a class to learn architectural computer drafting!

No chance to ask the teacher about it after class. Besides, what can he do? He's teaching what he's teaching, and I'm a non-degree student anyway. But I had to ask the faculty supervisor down in the office about something else, so I inquired of him-- am I in the wrong section?

No, not really. Turns out the AutoCAD 2008 class I'm taking is a prerequisite for both architectural and mechanical drafting. And apparently it's up to the instructor for the term which one he or she wants to emphasize. It's the luck of the draw.

Meaning that I need to be willing to be bored-- I mean, instructed by having to do up incomprehensible-- I mean, illuminating diagrams of pipe fittings and machinery, in order to get the commands down. That's the point of taking the class, after all.

The faculty supervisor said he could ask the course instructor to assign me something architectural for my final project. But I won't stake my life or my grade on it happening.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

That's funny - my first careeer was as a mechanical drafter/designer. I started off doing 3D exploded views of naval ship heating systems, then learned CAD and ended up drawing everything from oil gauges to electrical boxes.

It was a weird transition to go from board drafting to CAD.