What Can You Do with a Computer Aided Design (CAD) Certificate?

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With a Certificate in Computer Aided Design (CAD), you can find work across a variety of industries. Architectural and engineering drawings can be used to build buildings and engineer the equipment that makes other equipment. With expert CAD skills, you turn a designer’s ideas into 2D drawings or 3D models. A team then uses your renderings to bring those ideas to life. As a CAD Drafter, you could play an important role in the development of buildings, automobiles, and infrastructure.

Before the rise of the digital age, engineers and product designers had to draw out their ideas by hand. Rough sketches do not always translate ideas well, so the next step was to create a physical model. If the material needed to be changed, or the dimensions were off, it had to be redone. This took a lot of time, effort, and energy. Thanks to the advancement of technology, there’s a better tool to assist designers—computer aided design.

What Is Computer Aided Design (CAD)?

As the name suggests, computer-aided design, or CAD, allows users to design and modify 2D drawings or 3D models through computer software. CAD offers modern architects, engineers, and designers many advantages:

  • Efficiency — Instead of developing a physical model, which takes more time, you can create a digital model that takes the same design parameters into account.
  • Productivity — Because work can be produced much more quickly with CAD, higher-quality products can be created at a cheaper cost.
  • Easy Modification — Need to switch the material of a product or optimize a certain part? It’s much easier and quicker to modify the design with a few mouse clicks than to recreate an entire physical model.
  • Collaboration — CAD designs can be saved and shared and stored in the cloud, so it’s easy to collaborate on a design with different members of your team.

What Industries Use CAD?

CAD software is widely used by engineers, particularly mechanical and aerospace engineers, civil and marine engineers, and electrical engineers. Architects and interior designers also use CAD to envision what a building or room could look like. Similarly, landscapers and urban planners use CAD to design outdoor spaces or reimagine sections of a city. Game designers, filmmakers and animators also use CAD to imagine characters and scenes.

What Careers Could I Get with a CAD Certificate?

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Drafting

As a mechanical drafter, you create detailed drawings, schematics, and blueprints for the manufacture of tools, equipment, and machinery. For example, if you worked for a manufacturer of medical devices, your drawings would include detailed information on the size and shape of each component and how they should be assembled. Your skills could be used by manufacturing companies, carmakers, and aviation and aerospace organizations.

Civil and Marine Engineering Drafting

Civil engineers develop the infrastructure of your community. The roads and bridges that you cross each day exist because of the work of civil engineers. As a civil drafter, you would create digital drawings of sewer systems, highways, and bridges that include estimates of the materials used, the cost, and how long it will take to construct. Alaska is a good location to break into civil drafting as it’s among the top-paying states for civil drafters. With all of its shipyards, Alaska is also a good locale for marine drafting, which allows you to create renderings for the construction of sea vessels.

Electronic and Electrical Engineering Drafting

As an electronic drafter, you could craft intricate diagrams of wiring and assembly models for circuit boards found in your oft-used electronics. You also create layouts of the internal components of electronics for assembly and repair. Similarly, you could work as an electrical drafter, where you would create wiring diagrams for the installation of electricity in commercial buildings and homes.

Architecture and Interior Design Drafting

As an architectural drafter, you draw up the plans for foundations, buildings, and structures. You include cost estimates, note the materials to be used, and create a timeline for construction. You study local building codes and regulations and keep them in mind as you draft structural models. Alaska is also among the top-paying states for architectural drafters. But if you prefer to design the inside of buildings, you could find drafting work in interior design. There, you create 3D renderings of different room layouts and style concepts for a home or commercial building.

Game Design and Animation Drafting

To explore another creative side of drafting, you could consider the game design and animation industries. You create 2D or 3D animations that can be used as elements for a video game, or as scenes for a short film.

Are you interested in pursuing a career in this versatile field? Take your first step at Charter College. We offer a Certificate in Computer Aided Design that will teach you the basic design techniques and principles of CAD, how to create visually appealing documents and presentations, and the critical thinking and problem-solving skills necessary for a CAD career. For more information, call 888-200-9942 or fill out the form.