Intermediate AutoCAD for Marine Designers

Instructor: Cliff Estes

In this six-week course, we will cover the steps and processes necessary to create good AutoCAD drawings, and you will learn to construct well laid out, clear and concise marine documents that builders can use to bid on and construct your designs. We will also define what constitutes a good marine drawing and a good marine drawing set. Finally, we’ll show you how to work with AutoCAD’s advanced features that truly are a cut above what might be termed “electronic pencil” drafting.

This course will not teach you to design boats. In fact, you should not take this course unless you have already achieved some experience in this area. If you don’t know what port, starboard, bow, stern, lines drawing, shaft log, etc. mean, you won’t be able to get much out of the course. In the first section of this course, since we are dealing with such basic concepts as paper/model space, line work, dimensioning, lettering, and hatching, we will deal with a widget. After that, it’s all boats.

Also, before you take this course, you should already have mastered the basic AutoCAD operations. Note: While some early sections offer reviews of polylines, splines, paper space and model space, these sections deal with their respective topics as a review, only. You should already be familiar with them in order to get the most out of the lessons.

This is not a learn-at-your-own-pace course. It has a definite beginning and end. We have organized each week’s material so that you can achieve the week’s work in one or two hours per day. You should be able to complete each week’s lessons by the end of the week. Doing so will mean that you won’t be left behind, since the course will only be available online for six weeks. If you are unable to complete the week’s work by the end of the week, you will be expected to make it up during the first part of the following week.

Those who complete the course will receive certificates and continuing education credits accordingly.

You will need to have access to:

• Any version of AutoCAD
• Microsoft Access 2000 or later
• email
• World Wide Web
• AutoCAD viewer for your browser.

Class outline

There are three main sections to the course. These are:

• Drafting Practices (Week 1)
• Marine Drawings (Weeks 2 & 3)
• Advanced Topics (Weeks 4-6)

Fees: $390

Continuing Education Credits (CEUs): Four
Learning Contact Hours: Six

Please note: This course will not teach you the concepts of fairing hulls or superstructures. We will offer a separate course for those who are interested. That course will utilize Rhinoceros as a tool for fairing hulls, keels, superstructures and other marine shapes.

Since plotting is specific to the machine you have in your plotter room, we will not cover that topic in this course. We do recommend, however, that you peruse the various AutoCAD newsgroups or your plotter manufacturer's website for more information.

Please Note: This is NOT a "work at your own pace" course. You will have assignments and exercises to complete each week.