In the manufacturing industry, every component is usually designed using a CAD system. This is then transferred digitally to the machine control system for production. Against this background, a CAD course teaches the basic philosophy of design and advanced CAD/CAM applications.

The most important topics in a construction technology apprenticeship are:

• Create technical drawings for clients
• Represent parts of devices, mechanical systems or tools in drawings
• Precise compliance with and calculation of part dimensions
• Materials and production engineering
• Drawing and machine technology
• Electrical and control engineering

Although CAD (computer-aided design) can be used to design 3D models, not all courses focus on the creation of three-dimensional objects; instead, 2D is often used, especially in beginner courses. However, a CAD course is usually marked with 3D or 2D.

The tasks after the CAD training are:

• producing various technical drawings using a CAD program on the computer
• the revision of CAD drawings
• Add further changes during the planning phase
• Correct planning errors in the plan
• take over part of the necessary documentation

A basic CAD course is usually aimed at people who have little or no experience in using this program but want to acquire it. Windows user knowledge is often sufficient, but some schools also require basic knowledge of technical drawing.

The following activities can be carried out after continuing education, further training in construction technology:

• Plan projects
• Analyze functions
• Develop solutions in compliance with the standards
• draw the project on the computer in different views, e.g. in 3D
• specify the dimensions of the individual project parts and the surface finish of the parts
• calculate the weight, surface area or volume of the project parts
• Select suitable materials
• Estimate and order the required quantity of material
• List and order the required tools with the production manager or manufacture them yourself
• Check project prototypes (manufactured parts)
• monitor the progress of work
• Create assembly plan
• Create operating instructions, maintenance instructions and technical data for the component

Technical drawings or CAD drawings are usually created on the computer using CAD programs. Depending on the area of application and industry, a wide variety of technical specifications are required for the drawings, all of which must be incorporated into the drawing. Often an entire team works together on such a drawing and creates complex and absolutely precise technical models and drawings in many individual steps.

For continuing education, further training in CAD, you should have the following skills:

• Confident knowledge of English
• Good math skills
• High affinity for new methods and systems
• Creativity
• Communication
• Accuracy

The following points are important for CAD drawing:

• Named objects in a drawing such as layers, text styles, dimension styles, line types, etc.
• Labeling fields and detail blocks
• Labeling guidelines and methods
• Guidelines for drawing layout and plan set
• Conventions for object properties (VonLayer, VonBlock or explicitly defined)

Depending on the design technology course, different prerequisites are required of the participants. For basic courses that teach 2D design with AutoCAD, for example, basic PC user knowledge is usually sufficient. Please contact the respective providers for information on the exact admission requirements.

CAD courses for beginners teach the following:

• Apply CAD basics
• Create assemblies
• Explain data structures
• Carry out data transfer
• Carry out design according to design guidelines
• Perform construction of different shapes
• assign the various common types/forms of application and use and justify their use

A CAD draughtsman is a technical draughtsman - nowadays more commonly known as a technical product designer or technical system planner. As a specialist, they create plans and design drawings for technical systems and devices. In doing so, he implements the specifications of architects, designers or engineers. With the help of special CAD software, the technical draughtsman creates extensive and detailed plans in various scales. They work closely with various experts and specialists such as mechanical engineers, electrical engineers or construction engineers.