Autocad in Africa

You used to be able to get student copies of the program (cheaper than the full kit).

That would be more convenient

There are many CAD programs other then Auto-CAD. Some of them have student or versions that are reasonably priced. Maybe able to find an old version for free. Download it. Learn by using it. Until you need more bells and whistles that the Pro versions offer.

I think AutoCAD has some good tutorials under the help tab. I haven't used AutoCAD very much but most other software has the same thing. I would just go through the tutorials, they should give you step by step instructions and teach you all the features of the program.

I was self taught on AutoCad. Just sat down and starting working with it till it did what I wanted, that was 20 years ago and although I don't use all the short cuts, I can get my cad done as fast as the next guy.

Don't be afraid of it, you can't hurt it's feelings, and it won't bite you.

Good luck

Laby

Not sure where you are in Africa? I would suggest you take a good look at Alibre Design. They have very easy to use 3D Cad with 2D as well. All available in basic format free. The more advanced systems including CAM are bought at much lower rates than Autocad products. Frankly unless you are running hectic projects, like building an airliner, you will do very well with the free version. Their tutorials are all excellent and simple to use. 3D is the way to go.

Hi, Just want to help you. I have electronic copy of books: 1)Autocad 2009 for dummies 2) Autocad 2009 no experience required. These are where I learned my CAD, I can share them with you if you want.

This site has lots of tips,

Some time ago I downloaded AutoCad Lite for free. It do have most of the functions working and a help functions.

It is good training material but cannot be used for production work because save is disabled.

Downloading that on a slow or small cap may be a problem.

You could look for an older version (even dos) and practice on the basics first.

for example CadVance, ultimate Cad. TurboCad also had a potent dos package which can be downloaded for free (I hope).

I use Turbo CAD they have free 90 day trial period that you can down load it for.

AutoCad University is a collection of online classes you can take, hundreds of them. They are free and also have handouts you can print to go along with each presentation. Download a free trial version of AutoCad before starting.

Many of the posts have not bothered to read what OP has asked.

He is not bothered about the cost, so cheaper cad programs is not the answer.

Also he says internet connection is poor at his location, thus to suggest online teaching sites is not the correct answer.

Ok. OP: I am also self taught ACAD user. My suggestion, use ACAD book and do experiment page by page command by command religiously each command. You will learn it very easily.

The OP is posting on an internet-based forum so it's not totally ridiculous to suggest websites as learning resources.

It will be partially ridiculous to disagree with you. hehehehehehehahahahah

I hope, your internet connection is not snail fast. It took more than a year to reply my post. huhuhuhuhu

Google search "learn AutoCAD"

http://www.we-r-here.com/cad/tutorials/index.htm

youtube has hundreds of videos