By Elvis R. Sverko
Every software package has a number of features and commands that can be used. Some commands are used excessively, and some are rarely utilized. Some commands are quick and easy, while others may be complex with multiple options. But regardless of how often or how difficult a command is, in order to successfully use the software, you should know how to use them all, or at least be familiar with them.
So where does someone start when learning the software for the first time? That’s up to the instructor, who needs to plan out the best approach to teaching all the different commands, features and options. There needs to be a specific order to these topics. Whether that order is based on a typical industry workflow, or starting with some of the most common and easiest commands then working up to the more complex or hardly used, a plan on what to teach and when is important.
That’s especially true with CAD. When teaching Autodesk AutoCAD to students, there are many simple commands the students learn immediately. These commands (besides opening, saving, and creating a new drawing) generally include simple drawing techniques such as drawing lines, rectangles, and circles. And these commands are also usually taught first with just their default settings and options. For instance a circle is first taught with specifying the center point and radius, and later it’s looked at by using the two or three point approach, as well as other options. For these simple commands, there may not be too many options, so it can be a quick lesson to understand them all.
However, some commands are quite a bit more complicated. In fact, the Hatch command actually has an entire contextual tab on the ribbon appear when creating or editing a hatch. (The Hatch contextual tab was new in AutoCAD 2011; prior to that version, a Hatch and Gradient dialog box appeared with all the settings and options. The Command line (or Dynamic Input if toggled on) is also another way you can set the hatch options. In fact, you can still utilize these workflows in the most recent version of AutoCAD. If you like using the Hatch and Gradient dialog box, after you start the Hatch command, on the Command line, seTtings option, and the dialog box will appear. Or if you prefer to use the Command line (or Dynamic Inputs) for setting all your hatch options, start the command from the Command line by typing a dash in front of the command name, “-hatch”, and press enter. I don’t recommend these variances to the use of the hatch command because the Ribbon method is so very easy, and you never know if or when these other methods will cease to be part of the software.)
Anyway, back to planning on how to teach the Hatch command. Because there are many options to it, you need to tackle just a few at a time. And you also have to plan to have already covered some other topics in order for some of the hatch options to make sense, such as Annotative, Layer, and Draw Order. You may even consider skipping certain options to a command simply based on the type of course (Fundamentals or Advanced) as well as due to time restrictions.
Many other commands have a large number of options as well, and so you need to take the same measures when teaching those. So plan your teaching workflow strategically, or both you and the student will fail.
“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” – Benjamin Franklin