AutoCAD is a very popular and versatile CAD application that is used by most drafting offices worldwide. However there are too many parts in a typical steel structure, and too many drawings to be made to make it an efficient solution for steel detailing by itself.

Parabuild can run inside AutoCAD, it helps to automate the drawing of structural steel in 3D and will automatically generate output like shop drawings and CNC data. Unique features such as customizable template-based parametric connections, SmartArray, Context Modeling, Propagate and dimension placement optimization make Parabuild a very effective and performant steel detailing software solution for detailers, fabricators and structural engineers.

Parabuild is fully integrated into the AutoCAD interface. Parabuild objects can be manipulated by basic AutoCAD commands including the Object Property Manager, making it easy for those familiar with AutoCAD to learn and use Parabuild. Automatic dimensions drawn by Parabuild use the built-in AutoCAD dimensions which allow for easy editing and customizing of the dimensions on shop drawings and general arrangement drawings.

Other applications that are based on AutoCAD such as AutoCAD Mechanical, AutoCAD Architectural Desktop, and CADWorx can be run on the same AutoCAD alongside Parabuild, and data from all these applications can be stored along with the structural steel in the same DWG file. This allows you to combine your steel detailing software with your preferred applications.

Many steel detailers already know how to use AutoCAD, but for those who do not, a big advantage of AutoCAD is the number of learning resources available for it. The software has been popular for very long and the number of learning resources and community has kept growing during all this time.
Below you can find a small selection of those resources.

Autodesk Academy

AutoCAD tutorials

The Source CAD

Click here to access 70 free online video lessons with quizzes (More are offered with a subscription)

Udemy

My CAD site

CAD Tutor

Tutorials 45

Click here to access Free tutorials (online courses are paid)

All About CAD

Computer Aided Design Guide

CADSetterOut

Draftsperson

1 thought on “Learning AutoCAD”

  1. Thank you for sharing your knowledge on using AutoCAD of structural steel. It helps us a lot because the use of AutoCAD because it allows us to enter the full details and we can also easily find out if something is wrong and can be replaced immediately.

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