I am a mechanical engineering student in Florida. I am very interested in automotive CAD work. I wanted to see what people in the business thought the best schools are today for learning CAD? Also what is the most widely used program in the auto industry ... Catia V5?
I wanted to add to what elenor said. All the suggestions to what software is for what use are spot on. I'm in Detroit and I'm a digital modeler. I've been trained in AutoCAD, UG, IDEAS, Catia (V4 and V5) as well as ICEM. Obviously I've been around a lot of stuff and I can tell you that the job site may be the best place to get experience, but not to learn. Most of the time, when you're on the clock, you don't get much of a chance to experiment with the software to see what works.
Just like with everything else in life, there's more than one way to get your model. The way you go about creating the model depends on the software as much as the function of the model when you're done. There's designing "for change" and there's desiging for "get it done right now." There's two very different modeling paths to take depending on which one you want.
I work for one of the big three and I consider V5 my favorite software. I learned more in my four classes at community college than I ever did sitting through the "manditory" company training. In fact, the company I work for doesn't even use 80% of the functionality of the software - so of course they don't teach those neat tricks that set me apart from the average guy here. This is why I say you should look to a school for your education.
Because CAD modeling tends to lean towards a "technical" type degree, I'd say you should investigate local community colleges and see if they teach Catia there. AutoCAD would be your second search. It's more readily available and most little mom and pop tool and die shops use it because it's inexpensive to operate. If you were to persue a degree like I did, the school will usually start you on AutoCAD and work up to the "bigger" softwares like Catia and UGNX. Good luck and I hope I was helpful.
Originally posted by Soren de Vos: I am a mechanical engineering student in Florida. I am very interested in automotive CAD work. I wanted to see what people in the business thought the best schools are today for learning CAD? Also what is the most widely used program in the auto industry ... Catia V5?
