How many employed by Cad/Cam?

[fusionsx00]

used cad and cam at work before

solidworks, autocad for cad and surfcam,mastercam for cam also took some classes for them paid by my job

right now im using sketchup, autocad123d, tinkercad,slicer ,meshmixer for my hobby stuff

[dhc8guru]

10 years as a mechanical Designer. Currently doing medical device design with SW. Catia and SW in aerospace and oil previous to that.

[CommandingSloth]

Hey guys, I know this is an old thread, but I am currently taking CADD as a sophomore in high school, and was looking at maybe possible making a career out of it. What would you have for suggestions of how to get on the right track, and how to land a job in this industry? Also, was just curious how much most drafters get paid?

[Suburban92]

Depends where u live 40k to 60k is average here

[Suburban92]

Start small... build experience get ur feet wet then move up. Remember its not physically hard but mentally stressful deadlines to parts don't fit right

Design vs builders usually

[Iceberg86300]

Also, you need the job that fits you. Don't expect to be doing any solid modeling, unless it's 2d conversion. Drafting pay varies extremely from company to company, and also inside each company. Typically, every draftsman starts in the getting feet wet stage. Mostly doing revisions or conversions, where you have all the dimensions in front of you. A lot of engineers will do their own revs and turn them in to be checked, depending on the company regs. It's just faster than filling out a crazy form for document control to change one dimension. So you'll be looking at a lot of revision history and signature boxes/dates to begin with.

Useful classes would be a mechanical or general engineering program in college.

If you really don't want to go there, a few courses I suggest as a must: lathe and milling classes to get some hands on for what's possible to make on each machine, as well as what tolerance is attainable with out adding extra processes or extra hours on each manufacturing device.

Also a course that teaches that stuff from a book. As a draftsman you need to know the $ difference between +/- .0001, +/- .0005, +/- .005 which is the gold standard on a machined part, but for instance, the vast majority of the time the overall dimensions are fine at +/-.01 or higher. Or even ”saw cut OK” which will override block tolerances. Then you have one way dimensions like +.010/-.000. That is the same tolerance as +/-.005 on paper, but it's a usually a clearance fit. So if it's a 1.000” diameter +.010/-.000, the shop can probably use a 1” carbide insert drill, if it's 1.000+.000/-.010, well, that's just an odd tolerance, but it may be needed. In which case the easy carbide insert drill can't be used, and will require drilling with a smaller drill then using an end mill to interpolate the hole, or the use of an old or specially undersized carbide insert or end mill.

You're only a sophomore in high school, so you may not understand some of the terms I've used, but you need to, at some point. Most likely in a different class, in a more thorough fashion. But I didn't change anything so at least you get small look.

Regards,
Steve