Hi all,

Things are looking up, it turns out the "Closed Weekend" is this weekend, not next weekend - plus there was a rail strike (called off when it was too late to change people's arrangements) so we all got to go home for this weekend on Thursday after lunch.  Great!

 
(A Closed Weekend is one where all students and all but grounds staff and security HAVE to go home - and we get travelling expenses to enable us to do so)

 
The only down side to this is that we were going to have two days on the section (i.e. CAD) and those days were Wednesday and Thursday - but due to the rail strike, Thursday on the section was cancelled, so more tests and form filling - but at least is wasn't as boring as the first day.

 
The other good news is that I seem to be having no trouble with the CAD evaluation tests, other than needing to know how to interpret the diagrams (only needed telling once) and the occasional info on say... how to zoom in and out - different in CAD to say Cinema or Wings, or PhotoShop, and stuff like that. 

 
The down side to this is that the tutor seems unprepared for such speed plus the other CAD person on this intake knows very little about computers, never mind CAD-like things, so he takes say... an hour compared to my ten mins.

 
This is boring for me as I have nothing to do for hours on end, but a) the other chap isn't stupid so he may speed up as he gets used to things, and b) the other guys on CAD said "Don't worry, we'll make sure you're challenged!"

 
Hmmm...

 
The tests included Literacy and Numeracy tests, but I needn't have worried about them, as for me they were incredibly easy - I may have miss-spelled "disappear" - since I often have to think about that one, and I was a little concerned about the maths question on percentage, but either it was an easy one or the ease of the rest of them instilled me with sufficient confidence (and luck) that I now know that I got even that one right.

 
So basically - if I got any of the questions wrong it would only have been through whizzing through them, although I did deliberately slow myself down and go back over them all to check... I think they were okay...

 
P.S. One guy in CAD was making a monkey in 3D - stylised, but still it's encouraging, maybe I'll have another go at my Bat's face, see if I can get anywhere with it...

 
Can Wings save files so they are visible in CAD's Inventor, I wonder???

 
(That – Inventor – was what he was using for the monkey)

 
My last worry is that the tutor said all there was in job prospects is "CAD Technician" and the way he talked that's a basic grunt job, with no (or very, VERY little) chance of improvement.  Depressing.

 
Enough waffle (or too much)

 
Oh, and in order to introduce a teasny speck of On Topic-ness, I even managed to have quite a bit of time after course work to practice (or play -depends on how you look at it! Lol!) with Bryce.  I've been rendering loads of angles of a few models, and trying different lighting etc - FUN!

So...you've got the job and they are training you? Or is this still a selection process?

Thing to remember that like much in engineering one door leads to another, I have a well thought about systems engineer working for me who started out as a CAD guy, he just absorbed other information from the work he was doing and moved on. I started out working with radios and now lead a bunch of code monkeys (sorry software and process engineers :) ), and so it goes on....

At one time 3d stuff was part of my job (using 3ds max in a fast prototyoing team for product visualisation) now it's a hobby only again, the pro bit has gone - but it was great for a little while to have a hobby of many years and get paid for it :), I still make the odd extra bit of cash outside of the day job doing this but I don't actively pursue it - it's generally favours for people who know me.

It is nice to hear that you are getting along so well in school.  What program are you using for CAD?  Autocad?

Autocad used to export in .dxf format, probably still does. Mike and Sharon Custer (Sams3d) do stuff in CAD..not sure how much help they'd be, but you're not alone.

Numeracy? Isn't that what they have on the back of fortune cookies? good numbers and lucky numbers and stuff?..;)

Quote - So...you've got the job and they are training you? Or is this still a selection process?

It's not a job - well not yet anyway.  It's a course at The Queen Elizabeth's Foundation Training College for Disabled Adults.  But they try to get you a work placement (and this CAD course has a very high rate of success at that, I think it's 87 - 97%) and they also help you get a job at the end of the course, there's about a 75% chance of that coming off.

It's better than nothing anyway.

Quote - It is nice to hear that you are getting along so well in school.  What program are you using for CAD?  Autocad?

It's AutoCAD 2006.  And we get a book the size of the Bryce Bible.

pakled, dfx, yes rings a faint bell.  Wings doesn't convert to that... unfortunately.

true..heretical moment here, but Blender will convert that format to .obj. It's good for that much, at least..;)

Oooooo - thanks pakled.  Nice to know.