CADD -- Students and Professionals (Mech and Arch)

[MTLT_17 26]

Hello Fellow CADD People

I am a starting student at the Saskatchewan Institute of Applied Science and Technology (SIAST) -- Currently enrolled in the CADD course.

I am giving a shout out to those out there in the community who are in this feild, to colaborate skills for BAT, SC4 and CADD.  Also welcome to join in the conversation are, Engineers and Architects.  As well as the general prison population that we call Simtropolis.

Questions I would like to throw out there as of right now.

- Where did you go to school, and how high in the feild of Design have you gone?
- Are you profficient in the CADD programs; AutoCAD, Inventor, 3Dmax?
- Would you be interested in sharing skills and knowledge to help others with the following:
     - 2D drawings
     - 3D modeling
     - Importing and lot design
     - Design Aspects of Buildings

Thank-you for visiting this post I hope it will not only help me out, but help many of thse who are in this feild and may want to expand on what they already know.


Marshall Tomlinson

Hi, Marshall.  Welcome.  This will get more attention over in the BAT Open Discussion section, so I am moving you over there.  I hope you will find some favourable response among the modelers.  If not, PM me, and I'll try to advise you as to where you might find more discussion.

[budweiserdude23 80]

I guess the big question is what would you like to collaborate on, need help on, etc... and the point of this thread?

You'll get my answers, I hope you do me the same favor in responding to my question.

School---University of Michigan-Dearborn, made it through 2 years of mechanical engineering before I switched to business administration,  made it to senior status, did not graduate. Hated school and desk jobs. Went into HVAC and have worked my way through tool boy to apprentice to master.

2D drawings- Took 3 years of Engineering drawing/CAD. I can read any blueprint and schematic.

3D- My experience is limited to Gmax. Picked it up on the fly. I was curious to see iif I could model, apparently I can to some effect.

I'll give you a little backround. I'm an HVAC tech and due to the nature of my job, all technical aspects of building construction are a necessary skill if you're ever to excel. Thus, I've been to many classes not to earn a degree per say but to enhance my knowledge of construction, HVAC, plumbing, electriccal, etc....

As far as SC4 terms, it's a hobby I've recently come back to. I can model..modding wise I've yet to try it full effect but at one time I could mod a little bit.

[Xyloxadoria 1,099]

Yep that would be exactly what i do.

I go to a high scool in Kansas. I am a senior and I am specaling in arch insted of mech They a specalized CAD program and i am one of the best in that program. I use 3ds Frequntly but i also use CAD.

To get a 2D drawing from CAD into gmax there are a few steps you must follow.

First you make a basic 2D drawing, rember to make all your shapes closed objects or splines. After that select the entire drawing and region it. You must now save it as a .dxf file Here are some examples of what your drawing should look like

I tried CAD out for a medeterainan house (well importing it into gmax, i had to stay occupied somehow when i finshed my work)

This is the house plan:

And this is the plan for a garden that accompines the house it would be placed on a seprate lot near the house:

Sorry for the poor quaitly theese images were resized form very high resolution

Anyway one you have the plans like they are above saved in dxf format it is time to import it into gmax. (If you are importing from 3dsMax you would save in .dxf format as well.)

When you import it into gamx, what you will have to do is use the extude modifer to give a 3rd dimension to your drawing. And you can do whatever esle you want to thoose then extuded shapes.  The advantage of using cad is that you can make more detiled drawings working with splnes is eaiser to do in the cad interface.

Onto lot design. One other good feature about cad is the abitly to make custom roads patios or other such items easily. All the lot editor tools work just fine (the tree glitch in the picture below was created by the game and not the usage of CAD) you can add things just like you normally would. 

As for design aspects, 3DS has some great tools that make detail for your building. You can use them in gmax but you cannot modify them, so make sure that what you have is what you want before you transfer, becuse you will be limted to gmax modifres once you do so.

Here are some pic of how the projct tured out

The House:

And the Garden:

TH

The garden textures arrent that grat as this is just a beta version.

As you can see from the above pictures, the plan above resmbles what happens in the end.

[1ajs 49]

i have sucesfuly taken a model from auto cad to gmax. lol umm i graduated from highschool with a drafting certificat i am trained in auto cad and inventor 10 and a bit of revit (a mix between inventor and autocad layout wise)

now if only auto cad worked in linux

[DuskTrooper 314]

Well, personally, I have taken about 3 years of CAD centered classes in High School; Architectural Graphics, CAD I, and CAD II (the special technical ed classes, that is). We went into 3d modeling in AutoCAD in year II, but, we didn't really get too deep into it.

[ardecila 124]

I have two semesters of AutoCAD.. but since I learned gmax myself before that, AutoCAD was a snap. Recently, I have been using drawings available from the HABS, tracing them in AutoCAD, and extruding them in 3dsMax to form the basic outline of a building. Also, I can use the HABS drawings and obtain measurements for things through AutoCAD's Dimensioning, then use those dimensions to build things in Max.

[USMC 0]

Jeez. My high school didn't even have enough room for us all, let alone CAD courses. I'm jealous!

[Simfan34 11]

Looks fantastic.

[bixel 1,223]

I am not going to make any statement unless you tell me you are here to hire people.

[1ajs 49]

my school pays 5grand a year for licens for all the computures for all of autodesks software! and the teacher would burn a copy for the students to borow if they wanted to play with a program at home as long as it was for educational purposis lol i gues the students at my school are spoiled lol. the teacher even has an agreement with one of the coligis only have to take 2 of the cores the first year the others are optional some exceptions on math and chemistry... depending on your grades ect lol. cad work is fun. any one here besides me played with revit?

[josefmayor 8]

I'm at Hillsborough Community College for the A.A. Architecture Degree! lol I'm taking Architectural Design I whcih will cover 2d, 3d and AutoCad!

[ianpaschal 77]

Originally posted by: MTLT_17

- Where did you go to school, and how high in the feild of Design have you gone?quote>

I go to Pioneer High School and exhausted their drafting curriculum my first year by testing out of all the prerequisites.  This means that my junior year I spent the whole year doing my own personal work for school credit and working on submissions for architectural visualization contests.  My senior year I may be doing an internship/job with an advertising company that does mainly heavy 3D graphics.

Originally posted by: MTLT_17 - Are you proficient in the CADD programs; AutoCAD, Inventor, 3Dmax?quote>

It's been a while with AutoCAD but I have done a lot of work in Inventor and a similar program called CATIA.  Both of those, as you are probably aware, are solid modeling programs used to create machine parts.  I don't have a lot of personal interest in these, but sometimes I prefer their method of drawing (using constraints).  Most of what I use them for is Robotics Club when we design the robot, as well as an internship in which I needed to use CATIA to model aircraft engine components.  3dsmax though is really my forte.

Originally posted by: MTLT_17- Would you be interested in sharing skills and knowledge to help others with the following:

     - 2D drawings

     - 3D modeling

     - Importing and lot design

     - Design Aspects of Buildingsquote>

n

Yeah sure, what I know I am happy to share.

I would also like to say that Superstar, one of ST's finest has started his own site for a resource to 3dsmax users, specifically in the way of buildings.  I highly ecourage people interested in getting some video instruction on the basics to 3D Polygon Modeling CAD.  There are already several good videos and may more to come.  Check it out:

www.the3dresource.com

 

-Scipio

[Gn_leugim 853]

this thread was dead since 2006 ^^ and it pop up and it's active again ^^

[ianpaschal 77]

didn't look at that. I just saw it was there and took the oppertunity to brag