Computer Aided Drafting/Design
Drawing the landscape of tomorrow
CAD technicians are beginning to break out of the traditional doing work traditionally performed by engineers and architects, thus increasing the need for technical designers.
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Otis Peel didn't know what he wanted to do for a career choice, but after visiting with the instructor of the Computer Aided Drafting/Design Program at KC, he knew exactly what he wanted.
"I got laid off after four years with a local corporation," said Peel, 26, a graduate of Chapel Hill High School in Mount Pleasant. "I thought, 'Man, what am I going to do now?' I knew I was tired of getting burned and wanted to pursue a good career."
Peel visited with KC instructor Steve Baldwin after considering several other career options, and said he knew immediately that Computer Aided Drafting/Designing was something he would do well with.
"I've always been around nurses (my sister) and welders in my family. I wanted to do something different. Something creative," Peel said. "All of the professors here really help me out. They help me to learn the information that I need to know quickly."
Peel said that he found out about the KC Computer Aided Drafting/Design Program at the Pittsburgh Workforce Center.
"I really wasn't quite sure what I wanted to do, but after visiting with the faculty here, and learning what the career was all about, I was sold," Peel said. "I'd like to venture into the architectural side of it and do floor plans for some kind of design firm."
Baldwin, who has been an instructor at KC since 1990, said that incoming students should know basic computer skills and basic math and measurement skills.
"We used to use all of the hand-held measurement tools such as compasses and rulers, but it's all on the computer now," Baldwin said. "That doesn't mean that students shouldn't understand the concepts of these tools, though."
The KC Computer Aided Drafting/Design Program offers an Associate of Applied Science Degree, which is a two-year degree, or a Design/Drafting Basic Certificate, which is a one-year certificate.
KC also offers a Design/Drafting Advanced Certificate, which is also a one-year certificate but the completion of the Basic Certificate is required before finishing the Advanced Certificate.
"The value of the program here is unbeatable," Baldwin said. "Tuition is a fraction of the cost of a nationally advertised private technical school."
Another student, Jonathan Davis Burks, 21, said that he’d always been fascinated in designing and building things, and that the program at KC was a perfect fit.
“ I knew that I wanted to go to Kilgore since I was little because all of my family went here,” Burks said. “I figured since I liked to draw and I needed a career, I’d just become a drafter. I haven’t regretted it one bit since.”
Burks, a sophomore student from Henderson, said he has already received his certificate and is currently working toward his associate’s degree.
“If you love to draw and design things, then the KC Drafting/Design Program is the way to go, Burks said. “Before I came to KC, my drawings were nothing more than sketches. Now I have the knowledge and understanding about how to make drawings correct and useful so I ‘m not the only one who could read and understand them.”
Burks also said that the computer programs and technology he’s learning with at KC are state-of-the art.
Students are able to learn using the latest version of AutoCAD as well as the new 3D Plotter, which is a machine that actually creates a hand-held model based from students’ computer drawings.
BIG DEMANDS FOR QUALIFIED STUDENTS
Baldwin said that industrial growth and increasingly complex design problems associated with new products and manufacturing processes will increase the demand for drafting services.
Furthermore, he said, CAD technicians are beginning to break out of the traditional drafting role and increasingly doing work traditionally performed by engineers and architects, thus increasing the need for technical designers.
"Our lecture/lab format gives the student hands-on experience guided by experienced instructors," Baldwin said. "Computer-Aided Design is a way to build your mind’s ideas in the visual reality of a computer.”
Baldwin also said that employment opportunities exist for both women and men.
"Since all manufactured items and construction projects must be designed and drawn before production, the need for trained technical designer personnel will increase as the economy grows," Baldwin said. "Almost every type of industry and government agency employs designers.
According to Baldwin, technical designers convert ideas, sketches, specifications and instructions of engineers and architects into plans and details which are used in the production of machinery, equipment, structures, construction and products.
"CAD technicians also work with general contractors, building contractors, shop foremen and shop workers making corrections to drawings to reflect changes that were made in the shop or on the job," Baldwin said. "Much of today’s drafting is done with computer-aided drafting (CAD) and other software programs. The design/drafting curriculum teaches the student to draw objects in a traditional two-dimensional drawing format and as a three-dimensional model."
KC uses AutoCAD and Autodesk Inventor, the most widely used CAD programs in the world, to train students.
"You will learn how to prepare technical drawings and plans used by production and construction workers to build everything from manufactured products, such as spacecraft, aircraft, automobiles, industrial machinery, printed circuit boards, toasters, or toys, to structures such as houses, office buildings, roads and bridges or oil, gas and chemical refineries and pipelines," Baldwin said. "Drawings provide visual guidelines, showing the technical details of the products and structures and specifying dimensions, materials to be used, and procedures and processes to be followed."
Baldwin said that the job market currently is in need of qualified CAD operators in this area and even in more demand in the Dallas, Houston and San Antonio areas.
The most recent survey of KC design/drafting majors that graduated with a two-year degree or a one-year certificate, he said, indicated that there was a 100 percent success outcome rate for employment.
"With the downturn in the economy, now will be a great time to get trained in the Design/Drafting Technology Program at Kilgore College," Baldwin said. "When the economy returns, you will be ready to join the economic growth."
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"I really wasn't quite sure what I wanted to do, but after visiting with the faculty here, and learning what the career was all about, I was sold."
Otis Pell
CAD Student
