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Various comments. Not sure but Bricscad has Blockify that makes objects into blocks. You could get the outer boundary of the "arrows" which will be a pline and make a block then hatch. Another I think I have is draw an arrow which is 1 object. Just enter like start and end point. It may be a dynamic block. So just enter a couple of lengths and arrow is drawn.

This might have a few more features

thank you

Thank you for your guidance guys. I'll try my best with trial and error since I'm an amateur at best.

Civ3D has tutorials that you can run as hinted "Civil" you can download a 30 day trial version. You can rent month by month also. Like others I have never been certified but then I have been using CAD for more than 40 years. What is more important is understanding what your doing with the CAD, in the case of Civil that you understand say surfaces/contours and for roads, template shapes and vertical grading design. Then onto drainage and sewers. Having some one to guide you can be very handy, online or school classes in CIVIL design are rare, normally provided by consultants. You do though need to learn the basics, how to draw objects line, circle, arc, pline, hatch and dimension 1st. Where are you in the world ? Some one may have a contact that can help you. Beer money talks.

Good evening, My husband is looking into learning Auto Cad I am trying to help him find the best option to do so. I am completely illiterate to all of it. He superintendent on the civil side. he has 15 years experience as superintendent but would like to get Auto CAD certified. how or where should we start looking for a program. Thank you in advance for your advice.

Ahh, beat me mhupp, anyway here is mine (defun c:tnx (/ a b) (setq a (getreal "\nPlease enter the value of the angle: ") b (if (not (equal (cos (/ (* pi a) 180.0)) 0. 1e-10)) (/ 1 (/ (sin (/ (* pi a) 180.0)) (cos (/ (* pi a) 180.0)))) "Undefined" ) ) (if (= b "Undefined") (prompt "\nThe value is Undefined ") (prompt (strcat "\nThe value is: " (rtos b 2 6) " ")) ) (princ) ) This is considering you are using decimal degrees, added a restriction if Cos function equals 0.0

Is that the right formula? 1/Tan(73) = 1.0878 (defun c:foo (/ x a) (setq x (getreal "\n Input Angle: ")) (setq a (/ 1 (tan x))) (prompt (strcat "1/tan(" (rtos x 2 2) ")=" (rtos a 2 6))) (princ) ) ;; http://lee-mac.com/mathematicalfunctions.html#trigonometric ;; Tangent - Lee Mac ;; Args: x - real (defun tan ( x ) (if (not (equal 0.0 (cos x) 1e-10)) (/ (sin x) (cos x)) ) )

"I currently run a CNC plasma machine" There is so much stuff out there if your doing the drafting for say holes and slots automated to be super fast, eg 10 holes with spacing, double line offset for hole, just ask. If it does not exist can normally be put together within a day. Simple little lisps and save a massive amount of time. The obvious a base plate with 4 holes, Len, wid, off, rad, pick a point all done.

Thank you not only for your analysis of Penn-Foster and the AutoCAD coursework but also for your kind words. Good luck in your future endeavors.

I just finished the Penn Foster AutoCad course. Got a 96% overall score. Much thanks to ReMark and everyone else on this forum. It was pretty frustrating and would have been MUCH worse without the info I got here. I'm not sure that I would recommend Penn Foster to others. If I did, I would send the person straight here along with the recommendation. If you muscle through it you'll have a decent entry-level understanding of the program I guess. It's WAY more of a time and energy commitment than I expected, and a good chunk of that is not directly related to using the program. There are extensive "old-school" manual drafting chapters you start out with (you'll need to freshen up on geometry formulas) and it seems to take forever to even get access to downloading the program. After completing all that and accessing AutoCad 2017 you go through a long book with lessons, then jump into the 5 projects you finish with. First 3 projects are pretty brutal, then a couple much easier ones. The projects wouldn't be that bad, but the directions are very difficult to understand. It's all text based direction with not much visual reference at all. That's where 80% of your time goes, figuring out the instructions, not actually using the program. Anyways, if you NEED some type of cert for AutoCad and want to work on it on your own time with no in-person classes, Penn Foster works. Just be ready to be persistent though a pretty heavy dose of frustration.

Penn-Foster, in my opinion, is not worth the money. It is a diploma mill (or "certificate" mill). First off, in the way of full disclosure, I will tell you I did not learn/study AutoCAD by way of Penn-Foster although as Cad64 so graciously mentioned, I have helped dozens of their students with the projects Penn-Foster assigns as part of their coursework. What is Penn-Foster charging for their AutoCAD based certification course now-a-days? Just curious. The major complaints from students who have sought help here at CADTutor are 1) instructors who do not reply to their emailed questions, 2) instructors who lack specific knowledge of a discipline, 3) a tendency to point the student at CADTutor to get answers to their questions, and 4) project instructions that are erroneous, missing information or just plain wrong. Why AutoCAD and not some other CAD program? What other avenues of instruction have you looked at for learning AutoCAD? Where do you live (United States, UK, other)? Do you have a specific discipline in mind such as architectural, structural, civil, mechanical, other? BTW...I learned AutoCAD mainly on my own starting back in 1985 when courses were barely being offered by AutoCAD resellers and nowhere else. But over the years I took advantage of other methods to expand my knowledge. In conclusion, I'd be happy to answer any other questions you may have on the subject.

Well, the good thing about penn foster is that you have your own personal instructor here at CadTutor. His name is ReMark and he has helped countless members through the various projects. Take a look through this Student Projects section and you will find many threads covering the penn foster projects.