The A&E CAD Training Center offers many different courses for your CAD training needs, both in traditional classroom settings as well as online. Below, you will find information about our instructor-led courses in a classroom setting.

Basic Computer Skills

These courses require you to have basic computer skills. You must know how to use the keyboard and mouse and how to work in the Windows environment including: file creation/deletion, directory commands and navigation, data entry and manipulation, and program execution. If you do not have these skills, consider taking ITSC 1006 Fundamentals of PC Use before attempting these courses.

Below is a list of the different courses we offer. Click on the title to see the course description.

Course Descriptions

All/3ds Max/AutoCAD/CAD Management/Certified/Civil 3D/Inventor/Revit/SolidWorks/

Tuition: $255
Contact Hours: 16
Description: This course provides a brief and fun, hands-on introduction to drafting and AutoCAD® for individuals with no CAD background who are considering taking the Essentials class.
Prerequisite: Basic computer skills.

Tuition: $995
Contact Hours: 80
Description: An introduction to computer-aided drafting. Emphasis is placed on drawing setup, creating and modifying geometry, storing and retrieving predefined shapes, placing, rotating, and scaling objects, adding text and dimensions, using layers, coordinate systems, and plot/print to scale.
Prerequisite: Basic computer skills.

Tuition: $995
Contact Hours: 80
Description: A continuation of practices and techniques discussed in the Level I course, emphasizing advanced concepts, including drawing template files, attributed blocks, layouts and viewports, tables, external references, dynamic blocks, named views, named coordinate systems, and 3D modeling.
Prerequisite: Successful completion of Certified CAD Drafter, Level 1.

Tuition: $895
Contact Hours: 40
Description: Students learn to create and edit 2D drawings using the latest release of AutoCAD®. This comprehensive and highly structured course covers: viewing and creating accurate drawings, editing existing drawings, managing object properties, creating and inserting blocks, applying dimensions, annotations, and hatch patterns, as well as plotting techniques and creating drawing templates. Emphasis is on the specifics of the tools in the software along with the necessary concepts and techniques that allow users to be productive, regardless of their drafting discipline.
Prerequisite: Basic Computer Skills and CAD Camp or prior experience with AutoCAD.

Tuition: $500
Contact Hours: 24
Description: This course is designed for the drafter, designer, engineer, or AutoCAD® user who has taken the Essentials course. This hands-on training concentrates on intermediate to advanced AutoCAD concepts and commands designed to increase productivity. Subjects covered include: productivity techniques, advanced object types, creating, using and extracting block attribute information, external references, collaboration tools, drawing standards, and menu customization, as well as an introduction to 3D modeling.
Prerequisite: Basic computer skills and successful completion of AutoCAD Essentials.

Tuition: $195
Contact Hours: 8
Description: This 8-hour course is designed for the industry professional. The update training covers the new features, commands and enhancements in the latest release of AutoCAD®. This lecture and hands-on course is designed so users can acquire those concepts needed to update and enhance their AutoCAD skills. Exercises cover the application of AutoCAD in a variety of industries.
Prerequisite: Basic computer skills and proficiency with the previous release of AutoCAD.

Tuition: $395
Contact Hours: 16
Description: This course provides experienced 2D AutoCAD users with an understanding of 3D AutoCAD®, including shading and rendering features. Content includes: basic 3D concepts, user coordinate systems, 3D viewing commands, solid model creation and editing concepts, model space and paper space concepts, producing 2D drawing sheets from 3D models, and an introduction to rendering, lights, materials, and cameras.
Prerequisite: Basic computer skills and successful completion of AutoCAD Essentials.

Tuition: $545
Contact Hours: 24
Description: This 24 hour course covers the essentials of Autodesk Civil 3D®. Students learn how to work with point data in Autodesk Civil 3D, how to create and analyze a surface, to develop a site, to model roads, corridors, and pipe networks, to work with survey data, and to import and export data. Hands-on exercises throughout the course explore how to create 2D and 3D production drawings.
Prerequisite: Basic computer skills and AutoCAD Essentials.

Tuition: $395
Contact Hours: 24
Description:
Designing Intersections & Cul-de-Sacs (8 hrs): In this session, students use Autodesk Civil 3D® to complete the engineering tasks on intersections and cul-de-sac designs. This courseware guides students through one possible design process from examination of existing site conditions to a final design solution.

Creating and Managing Plan Sets (16 hrs): This session explains the functions of the Plan Production feature; its interaction with the Vault and with data shortcut project management components of Civil 3D; and the creation of documents using the Sheet Set Manager. Other topics covered include Sheet Template creation; Matchline and Frame styles; generation of Plan; Profile; Plan & Profile sheets; and alternate uses for the Plan Production feature.
Prerequisite: Civil 3D Essentials.

Tuition: $895
Contact Hours: 40
Description: This course introduces you to the revolutionary parametric capabilities of Autodesk® Revit. As a true parametric 3D digital building modeler, Revit uses intelligent building components such as floors, walls, doors, windows, stairways, etc., rather than simple objects like lines, circles and arcs that represent building components, as in traditional CAD systems. Each component is linked through a high performance change propagation engine, allowing a single change in any model view to be propagated throughout all views, both parametrically and bi-directionally.

Students learn to use the software as an architectural design tool, then instruct the program to produce floor plans, elevations, schedules, and rendered views automatically on plotted sheets. This course covers an overview of Revit concepts including: the user interface, project set-up, designing with digital building components, producing drawing sheets, and detailing and documenting the project.
Prerequisite: Basic computer skills. Experience in the design and/or drafting of commercial and residential buildings is helpful.

Tuition: $895
Contact Hours: 40
Description: This course provides students with the essential concepts of the SolidWorks software.
Prerequisite: Basic computer skills

Tuition: $395
Contact Hours: 16
Description: This course provides students with the essential concepts of the SketchUp software.
Prerequisite: Basic computer skills

Tuition: $895
Contact Hours: 40
Description: This course addresses how 3ds Max is used in various industries, such as the entertainment industry. Focus is on developing the basic skills required to navigate the program’s various modules. The student explores computer generated modelling concepts, such as parametric and primitives, spline, sub-object, mesh and patch, and NURBS. The course also covers basic lofting techniques, Boolean Operations, and introduces 3ds Max systems, such as particle systems, space warps, and forward and inverse kinematics.
The student explores basic computer generated animation and image concepts and approaches, such as scene composition, camera and lighting concepts and techniques, material mapping and placement, and rendering concepts and techniques. The course covers animation time concepts and techniques, followed by an introduction to Track View concepts and Post Processing (special effects) concepts and techniques.
Prerequisite: Basic computer skills.

Tuition: $895
Contact Hours: 40
Description: This 40 hour hands-on Autodesk Inventor™ course covers solids, parts and assemblies, editing of 3D models, creation of part drawings and plotting of part drawings. This course offers a comprehensive solution to those seeking to enhance their 3D design projects by incorporating Inventor’s 3D parametric feature based and adaptive technologies. It brings the designer up the learning curve from the basic 3D parametric technology to assembly modeling and finally to part drawings.
Prerequisite: Basic computer skills. Experience in the design and drafting of machine parts and assemblies is helpful.

Tuition: $455
Contact Hours: 24
Description: This 24-hour course introduces students to concepts of CAD management, including skills and responsibilities involved in managing a CAD installation. Topics include discussions of system topology, network licensing, installation optimization, customization, standardization techniques, and file library management.
Prerequisite: Customizing AutoCAD or equivalent.

Tuition: $395
Contact Hours: 16
Description: This course is designed to meet the needs of experienced AutoCAD® users who want greater understanding of the customizable features of AutoCAD. Learn how to create script files and slide shows, how to customize toolbars and pulldown menus, how to program mouse buttons and accelerator keys, how to create image tile menus, and get a brief introduction to AutoLISP functions.
Prerequisite: AutoCAD Advanced, or equivalent.

Tuition: $495
Contact Hours: 24
Description: This course provides instruction on programming concepts using AutoLISP. Learn about data types, variables, expressions, evaluation, program files, functions, getting user input, list manipulation, looping, branching, data type conversion, entity database access, and file handling using AutoLISP. Discussions include the Visual LISP Interactive Development Environment, with special emphasis on the troubleshooting and debugging features available in Visual LISP.
Prerequisite: Customizing AutoCAD or equivalent.

Tuition: $495
Contact Hours: 24
Description: This 24-hour course introduces students to the Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) programming language for AutoCAD. Students are introduced to components of the development interface, VBA project files, creating simple user forms, object-oriented programming concepts, methods for creating and modifying AutoCAD objects, and writing event handlers.
Prerequisite: Customizing AutoCAD or equivalent.

Tuition: $195
Contact Hours: 16
Description: For CAD users who want to sharpen their skills in using the UNIX operating system. Topics include how to move around the command line, useful UNIX tools, how UNIX interacts with CAD systems, editing and modifying files, how systems talk to each other, and how to share files in the context of CAD design.
Prerequisite: Basic computer skills and previous AutoCAD experience.