<p>I am just getting into my Me courses at Purdue. What are some of the best cad programs to learn in order to gain some experience with drafting. I currently have Autocad 2008. Also, Is there a good instructional program on the market that will teach me how to use the cad programs?</p>
<p>For 2D drafting, AutoCad is pretty standard. </p>
<p>For 3D modeling, your choices will include Pro/Engineer, Solid Edge, Solid Works, CATIA, etc. There is no standard... the industry/company you work for will determine which program you will use. </p>
<p>As far as how to learn the programs... just pick something that interests you and just start messing around with it. There is very little conceptual stuff with CAD, it's just learning how to get the program to do what you want. Start pressing buttons and have fun.</p>
<p>My personal opinion is that you will be wasting your time. Unless doing CAD for a career is something you want, I'd find something more interesting to do.</p>
<p>You probably won't need to learn it on your own, as it will probably be covered in an introductory engineering course of some sort. If you plan on working as a CAD monkey during your college summers though, it might be helpful to learn a little bit on your own.</p>
<p>I think the best way of learning AutoCAD is just to become familiar with the program. Once you learn the conceptual basics (which shouldn't take long), the rest is just finding the right commands to type in.</p>