Need Tutor Resources

[chris2002rocklin]

I am disabled, trying to claim SSDI benefits while keeping from going stir crazy. By the time I get my benefits and medical coverage restored, I will still need at least a year or 2 before I can contemplate work or school.

I try to read topics that may help, but my computer skills (networking) are getting rusty and my plan to move to programming didn't work out because I was not able to get the work done to learn.

I have some products I would like to design, that I know how to design in my head, but I need to draft them properly so that I can use the drawings for proposals.

Some of the simple things I want to start with are speaker cabinets and maybe some guitar drawings for practice.


I also have some designs for LED bike light modules and other small products for cycling and music (guitar centric).


I have drafted a few schematics, and doing things on my own from scratch take so much time, that I think if I had a book with tutorials...if it is all online, my disabilities keep me from being able to sit at the display for more than an hour if that. I figure if I read quite a bit in between the actual sessions using the software, I think I can get it much better than now.

I am getting it, it just takes so long, so I am hoping for a book designed to teach, and with sample projects that it walks the student through. It can be industry specific, as long as it Ir detailed enough to really teach me drafting conventions.

Maybe there are basic CAD classes to teach conventions that have evolved since the days of moving to PC centric design drafting?

Any suggestions would be hugely appreciated. I might even consider design partners, because I really do have some cool design ideas for guitars, bike parts, bike light modules and more. I will go as far as share half of the patent ownership, but at least the right to license it for yourself, but not excluding me.

Thanks, Chris

PS - I am not delusional, I get good feedback from my verbal decriptions of the product ideas. At the very least, it would be a lot of fun drafting some bikes that Lance Armstrong would be jealous about.

:>)

[thebrian]

Chris,

Most of the tutorials, online and in book form, are application centric. That is they teach you how to use an application rather than how to draw to standards. I think a textbook/reference is what you are looking for. There is a book, is is my personal bible for this stuff, and it is used extensively in drafting classes. It is called Technical Drafting by Frederick E. Giesecke . Alva Mitchell . Henry Cecil Spencer (et al). It deals with  both traditional and CAD drawing, but its focus is on drawing standards, techniques, appropriate methods of representation etc.

It is a bit pricy, but if you have a good local library you can check it out before buying.

[SteveMS]

Chris, sorry for my late reply to your topic. You are to be commended for your efforts!

I would check out your local technical school. Down here in New Zealand we have polytechs and they teach CAD, generally it is AutoCAD, but the principles are the same. I do have some tutorials for DesignCAD and although I am still working on them (I have written these tutorials for many years now) I also intend to produce the same work for DoubleCAD. These works go through various subjects and items and each example steps up to something new. Send me your private email and I will forward some work to you, but it will be for DesignCAD, but it will give you an idea of my work and what I plan.

CAD on Chris!