There is no such thing as a standard "AutoCAD test." They just want proof that you know how to use it, I think. For my first job, I was given an autoCAD test as well... all it consisted of was drafting a very simple plan of a room from a sketch. Easy as pie, if you do know AutoCAD.

Thanks,

I wasn't expecting there to be a 'standard' test per se.

I think I know my way around cad relatively well, but it's been so long since I've worked (going on 5 months) that I'm a little apprehensive about my ability and knowledge.

Was it just basic 2D drafting? Were you required to manage layers, xrefs, weird paper space things?

i had a 3d cad test..... for exhibit engineering..... better practice

Mine was real easy... just 2d, it was almost offensive how easy it was. No idea what kind of test you would have to do... I'm sure it varies according to what kind of work you'll be expected to do. And I wouldn't worry to much, 5 months isn't that long, I'm sure you will do fine. Good luck, and I hope you get the job!

Thanks!

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Am I late to the party? The one autocad test I was asked to take by a potential employers was a simple drafting assignment after which I had to bring in some xrefs and scale the whole thing in paper space.

i took an autocad test once when i was applying for a job while still in school.

the firm had a app that asked you 50 questions or so about blocks and attributes and wblocks and other stuff. no drafting at all. thankfully, i failed. ended up at a better place anyway.

seems to me that a firm that isn't willing to teach is not worth working with.

As a follow-up:

I took the test Monday. It was harder than I thought. Overall, the technical aspect was very easy...the actual drafting and xrefing. What tripped me up was reading from text instructions. The end product was a completely unusual abstract shape. The instructions also included some strange tasks like setting the units in the plot dialog box from 1:1 to 1 unit;2inches or something, which I've never bothered with, and plotting window when from a paper space layout. The 'thing' I drafted ended up looking okay, but half size when plotted because of the window and units commands (???). I dont know. I was just following directions and now I dont know if I effed up or what. It was weird.

i remember one taks that seemed simple but tripped me up was something like:

'create a .75" border in paper space and put it on the ttb layer.'

I wasn't sure how to ensure that the border was exactly .75" from the edge of the paper and also knowing that that it would be exactly .75" from the paper edge because the of the bleed. So, I ended up just making a rectangle tracing the paper edge and offsetting .75" in. Weird stuff like that where I thought the instructions omitted specific information.

I was probably overthinking.

I had both Autocad and Revit tests - they are becoming increasingly more common now that employers need a screen when sifting through 300 or so resumes that lay claim to expertise in Acad and Revit. The trick questions are in there to separate the thinkers from the average people - they are after the top 2%

Hey, whadyaknow! I got the job.

Pay is hourly equaling $41600/year with no benefits. Thoughts?

Congratulations Larchinect!!!

Autocad test: What do you do when you see the message come up on the screen which says "Fatal Error"? S..t in your pants or say oh F>>k?

'oh F>>k'

Here we are a year later and I am in the same situation... A-CAD test tomorrow (haven't opened the program in over a year) for a position that pays almost 25% less than Larchinect that I am over-qualified for by 2 college degrees (requires an associate degree in drafting).

The times they are a-changin' indeed.

I've been using AutoCAD since 1998 (R13 or R14) and would probably fail tests like this. I've used blocks and xrefs, but not very often, so I could probably figure that part out, but I've only used paperspace once and haven't again. I've always just plotted to a jpg or a pdf then used Photoshop or InDesign to make boards. Never had to do CD type layouts for undergrad...

I have no idea what to expect. I feel like since the position only requires an associates degree and one year of experience, they can't expect much, probably just reassurance that applicants did more than list programs on their resume they are familiar with by name only. What I am concerned with is that is going to be more a test of speed and whichever candidate can get the most done within the hour wins. Seems like a silly way to decide who to hire, but then again, this is 2010 and given the topics of discussion as of late on this forum, it appears as it anything goes when it comes to hiring.

Good luck Cherith! Hope you get the job. Don't worry about shit pay. Better opportunities will come your way down the line. A survival job that's in the industry is still better than the one that's not.

Pretty sure I failed. It should have been fairly easy, but it was using AutoCAD Architecture, which apparently is nothing like AutoCAD 2006 which is the last version of AutoCAD I used.

I had the same issue when I went back to school, I'd been using AutoCAD 2008 with the old interface, but the school was using version 2010, it took me awhile to figure out I could just switch 2010 to use the old standard AutoCAD interface instead of the new one. I couldn't find where anything was on the new interface!

Acad 2010 has a new interface? Does this change how acad processes input commands? All of acad's features are accessible through the command line. Does Acad 2010 have some kind of a microsoft word ribbon in it now?

@steel, I think it still has the usual text input, but all the graphical menus have changed. Donno, like I said, I switched to the old interface right away because I didn't have enough time to re-teach myself AutoCAD in studio.

^ yeah it's almost exactly like word now, at least on the version I used today. All of the drop-downs have been turned into button icons on a tabbed ribbon. The command line is still there, but finding simple things I was used to on the drop-down took forever. They also hid paper-space under some weird icon in an odd-location. Then there are all of these floating windows with design-center crap and properties that continually get in the way.

I'm sure, if I was working somewhere, it wouldn't be an issue to take the time and get things arranged the way that works, but during a timed exam, it was really annoying, esp. since I knew that normally the tasks would have been really easy.

Cherith, I'm sorry to hear that the test went poorly. Sad part is that it would probably take you up to 2 hours to fully familiarize yourself with the new version. Perhaps they were just testing your basic ability to work within autocad, and you've actually passed. Acad tests are dumb.

Thanks. I'll find out within a few days. All I can hope for is that the other people were more incompetent than I was!

It was a strange exam- more of an AutoCAD clean-up than actual drafting. Largely it was making blocks, section tags and keyed notes which seemed like a weird thing to ask, since those things are usually already made in the office library, not something you would invent during the course of a job. Considering I have never made an annotative room tag from scratch, I was at least pleased that I was able to figure it out on the fly. Floor plan was already drawn, but all on one layer, so you have to put everything on appropriate NCS layers, also something that an office would probably already have established.

Maybe they need someone to make an office CAD library!?

Oh, you'd be surprised. Hopefully everything comes together before any major sets are issued. But typically each new projects comes with an unhealthy dose or reinventing the wheel.

Oh yeah, I know that from experience.

Section tags, keyed notes, annotative room tags, NCS layers? I hope not all jobs require knowing whatever those are for new grads...I've never heard of some of those, or I've never had to draw them. I guess it doesn't help when you went to a school that thought it was ok to stop teaching AutoCAD classes for awhile and because the sophomore studio professor liked Microstation.

During the faculty meeting on whether or not to stop teaching AutoCAD, one of our snobbier profs said, "We're a design school, if they want to learn CAD they can go to a technical school", and the idiot that actually was teaching the CAD course said, "I'm fine if you stop offering the class".

That, and that same AutoCAD professor (with a Ph. D. mind you) I did have couldn't even add his own dimensions...it can't be 10' from the ground to the eaves of a roof, and 14' from the eaves to the peak, and still be 25' from the ground to the peak. Of course, this is the same guy that, while teaching a human behavior course decided the week before the final project was due (which teams had been researching and working on for a few weeks alread) that he was canceling the project and instead we would all write and essay on how well we thought the class went.

So, how do we learn this stuff if we haven't worked for a firm yet? LOL

Autocad is meant to be done with the command line. Any other way, and your wasting time.

sameolddoctor try telling that to Autodesk! The most frustrating thing was not being able to find paperspace. Not having accessed it through a command but just clicking on the bottom toolbar where it said MODEL or PAPER, I had no idea what to do when that area of the toolbar no longer exists. Instead it's hidden as a button that look like 2 rectangles, which then launches a window that allows you to click on the paperspace window, which seems somewhat redundant.

Milwaukee08- I actually learned how to use AutoCAD at my first job. My undergrad didn't offer a course nor was it permitted to be used in studio if you knew how; Everything had to be hand drafted. I ended up having a friend spend an hour teaching me the basics before my first day and then learned by doing. Probably why my knowledge of the program is limited to the most basic tasks required to assemble a CD set. We also had someone who was basically the CAD person, so he had made the detail library, a script that loaded layers, etc so making room tags was a new one for me today!

Illustrator on the other hand, that is a test I could pass in my sleep.