Monday 27th April 2020.
Manchester, UK
Today marks the first day of learning CAD and the start of my second week of studying Interior Design.
I’m tracking pretty well in terms of overall timings for section 1 of my course (out of 4 sections total). KLC have a useful study calculator that you can use to estimate when you’ll complete each section. Based on the hours/days I put in, it told me I should finish Section 1 in two and a half weeks. Given all the distractions around me I think that might be pushing it, but let’s see!
Learning CAD is the ideal rainy day activity during lockdown
Thanks to the serious sunshine and mild weather we’ve been getting, I moved the curriculum around slightly last week. I’m told it’s quite the rarity in Manchester to have a week of solid sun. Which is exactly why I focused on tasks that I could do outside in the garden – like drawing up plans, studying the history of design and learning about colour theory. I’m still waiting on that Amazon order with half my course equipment that I ordered weeks ago. Fingers crossed that arrives soon so I can reach my goal of completing Section 1 at the end of the week.
So with the grey clouds descending upon Greater Manchester this week, I’m starting the wonderful indoor task of learning how to use the all-important CAD software. I’ve written a separate post on which CAD software I’m using and why I chose it, because there are quite a few options available. Without knowing anything about CAD, it can be hard to know where to start.
First thoughts on Vectorworks
Today I started with Vectorworks – which is the program I’ll be using for my 2D drawings and plans. Then I’ll then be learning SketchUp for 3D rendering further down the line. Today I managed to get through the first 3 lessons on Vectorworks. I was feeling pretty chuffed about that, until I realised there are still 11 lessons to go! So I’m really just starting to scratch the surface. But I feel pretty reassured about the fact that a similar Introduction to Vectorworks course at KLC takes 3 days to complete.
The good news is that I actually find Vectorworks really intuitive and easy to learn so far.
I’m already an advanced user of Photoshop and I know most of the Adobe suite pretty well, so I think that’s actually been a huge help. Studying with KLC gives me access to a free student version of Vectorworks and I’m using the latest 2020 software. While the lessons are using a slightly older version, so far everything has been the same with the exception of some fancier logos. So watching a lesson filmed in 2018 and recreating it on my 2020 software hasn’t caused any issues at all.
Because I’m watching videos and copying the actions on my own computer, I’ve set my iPad up next to my laptop so I don’t have to switch between tabs constantly. It’s been a huge help and saved a lot of time. I’d highly recommend it if you’re doing any online learning for software. It doesn’t have to be an iPad, of course. I’m sure a phone would be just fine.
In other news…
To finish on some other (completely unrelated) news, I spent the entire day yesterday sanding a dining room table. So today I’m so physically exhausted that I can barely lift my arms and/or head. Again, that’s a story for another time. But in a nutshell – a 2-hour project has become a probably-4-day project thanks to some very sturdy wood wax that doesn’t sand off. And also thanks to my inability to find any useful solutions on Google – who I’m no longer friends with.
I’ll report back later in the week with an update on how CAD is going! And the sanding. Because now I’m stuck with a table that’s 3/4 finished, blistered hands and no will to go on.
Kamila