General

Been thinking of getting a CAD certificate in the future but I will do CAD as a hobby for now. I am curious what is the work environment like? Is there a lot of micromanaging? Is your job stressful at times?

Id say it depends on what you're doing and who you're doing it for. Every employer is going to be different but I had family that was good at AutoCAD and just did residential custom drawings like pools and add ons on the side. Also of course helps to know people who can push your work. If you're just getting started having credentials is pretty much necessary to get yourself out there and show that your certified.
This is coming from my experience studying mechanical engineering, I just work with solid works at the moment though. Also there are probably better places to ask like, I'm not a reddit user but there are probably some good subreddits out there with good advice.

Hi! So I’m just getting started and finished classes at college for autocad such as inventor and revit.

Admittedly, I made this thread in a hurry while in the bathroom before my shift started. So there are some missing details here and there. I've written this post during my existential crisis at work so I probably come off as desperate haha.

Anyways, I knew that talking about a niche industry on a fat fetish site wouldn't garner much attention. I deleted my Reddit account a few weeks ago for mental health reasons. I did discover there are some CAD forums though.

I have hemmed and hawed about becoming an engineer. (planes and boats are my special interests) However, I just don't know if university is for me and the math seems very heavy. Community college at least sounds feasible to me. I have dreamt of working in the maritime industry while designing but I would need a bachelor's to take masters in ocean engineering or naval architecture.

I unfortunately have no connections in this industry. I would have the live in the Seattle area for more job opportunities which the COL is high of course.

If I end up liking OnShape then I could also give AutoCad a try and purchase the $50 a month membership.

Ah, silly me! Solidworks is the one with the home-use membership.

Starting with community college to get all the general ed requirements and math skills down before transferring to where you actually want to go for an accredited degree from another university is a fantastic option if it's financially feasible for you, and it sounds like it would be really beneficial for you to get a head start in a career youd really enjoy. It's never too late to start either. For me, math was never my strong suit and taking covid online calculus definitely left me in a really hard spot to recover from but you persevere and build good study habits and you can get through it. A lot of engineers I know are like that. Sounds like it's something you should consider! Best of luck in the future too if you do decide to go that route.

When I was a land surveyor before the crash of '08, we used it to make the maps of the points we surveyed. We had a "gun" (laser sight) that would shoot a prism measured to be an exact amount above the point on the ground we'd be trying to survey, and those coordinates would all go into AutoCAD when we were done.

This was years ago though. I can't imagine the software is still the same. I found it easy enough to use at the time, though.