Teaching QCAD

Drop in here to discuss whatever you want.

Moderator: andrew

Forum rules

Always indicate your operating system and QCAD version.

Attach drawing files and screenshots.

Post one question per topic.

User avatar
ryancousins
Premier Member
Posts: 367
Joined: Thu Mar 19, 2020 3:47 am
Location: Michigan, USA

Re: Teaching QCAD

Post by ryancousins » Mon Nov 01, 2021 9:03 pm

As I was reading viewtopic.php?f=32&t=8848 I realized there is a separate scale field that appears in the options toolbar for adjusting the viewport scale rather than the global layout scale. I probably noticed this before but forgot about it. It would be really cool if this would also appear if a viewport is selected after it has already been placed. I know it is the same as the scale in the property editor when a viewport is selected, but having at the top would be nice, especially if you could have the same dropdown of scale options to start with as the global dropdown. :D

User avatar
Husky
Moderator/Drawing Help/Testing
Posts: 4931
Joined: Wed May 11, 2011 9:25 am
Location: USA

Re: Teaching QCAD

Post by Husky » Mon Nov 01, 2021 9:26 pm

ryancousins wrote:
Mon Nov 01, 2021 12:44 pm
But when I explain steps to my students, everything has to be really explicit. But I think most of them should be able to figure this out. Some of them really struggle with math!
I agree that there is a inconsistency but Andrew is aware of it and handles the issue as a Feature request.

https://www.qcad.org/bugtracker/index.p ... &closedto=
Work smart, not hard: QCad Pro
Win10/64, QcadPro, QcadCam version: Current.
If a thread is considered as "solved" please change the title of the first post to "[solved] Title..."

User avatar
ryancousins
Premier Member
Posts: 367
Joined: Thu Mar 19, 2020 3:47 am
Location: Michigan, USA

Re: Teaching QCAD

Post by ryancousins » Mon Nov 01, 2021 9:29 pm

I thought there may have already been a request out there for this. Thanks, Husky. I wish we could replicate a few Andrews. :x

I spent a little more time this weekend digging into JavaScript and looking at the QCAD repository on GitHub but the earth might collide into the sun before I’m ready to try and solve some of these things on my own!

Tom59
Newbie Member
Posts: 3
Joined: Mon Nov 08, 2021 3:58 am

Re: Teaching QCAD

Post by Tom59 » Wed Nov 17, 2021 2:43 am

Wow....

I did "Technical Drawing" at school, about 50 years ago and I also used a drawing board, tee square, ruler and pencil.

There, were two of us in the class that got it. we were streets ahead of everyone else. When we had tests or exams, sometimes I would get 100% and he would get 99%, and sometimes he would get 100% and I would get 98%. No one else came close to us. Ever.

I left school and became an electrician on the advice of my guidance teacher and my dad. I and sometimes wondered if I should have tried to follow a drawing based career, such as architecture or something similar instead.

Fast forward 50 years........ I will be retiring in a couple of years and would like to take up a woodworking hobby, which would include producing drawings at the design stage. I am finding it quite (very) difficult to find a CAD programme that I can easily understand and use. I found QCAD a couple of weeks ago and so far, it appears to be the one that I will stick with.

About 15 years ago, I went to a local college, for a taster session of AutoCAD. Unfortunately, the instructor was more interested in having numerous smoke breaks.

If I'd have had the facilities and a good teacher like you, back then, my future could have been so different.

Maybe your students are averse to effort, but you will have one or two stars who will make it all worthwhile for you.
Windows 10 and QCAD 3.26.4

User avatar
ryancousins
Premier Member
Posts: 367
Joined: Thu Mar 19, 2020 3:47 am
Location: Michigan, USA

Re: Teaching QCAD

Post by ryancousins » Wed Nov 17, 2021 4:04 pm

Thanks, Tom59. I do have a few students that seem to be doing well. Even if they never use CAD again in their adult lives, I'm hopeful the process will help them visualize and pay attention to detail into the future. CAD brings a new level of precision that most students aren't used to so I think that is valuable.

I hope you find QCAD helpful in your hobby. I don't think it can be beat on a price/feature ratio. If you ever want to use a 3d modeling program, you could also check out SketchUp. The web-based version is free and is used by many woodworkers to mock up their designs, and there are tons of good tutorials out there, some even meant specifically for a woodworking audience.

User avatar
lphilpot
Senior Member
Posts: 119
Joined: Mon Oct 30, 2017 4:03 am
Location: Deep South USA

Re: Teaching QCAD

Post by lphilpot » Mon Nov 29, 2021 12:32 am

I think this is awesome!

I, like Tom59, was in high school in the early-mid 70s and took a "mechanical drawing" class taught by our auto shop teacher. It was fun, but by that time I had pretty much learned about as much from books as I did in the class. By this time (I'm 62) I can't remember what I learned! LOL

I worked in IT for 24 years before retiring last May and have a pretty good idea of what can be involved in just setting up and maintaining a CBT learning environment ...not to mention the actual teaching. Your enthusiasm and hope that something 'attached' to the training will stick with your students is phenomenal.

Seeing all those computers in a classroom brought me back to the numerous week-long classes I attended while in IT. Trouble is, they were never as interesting as (Q)CAD... usually boring stuff like MS Server 2012, EMC Avamar, (Sun) Solstice Backup / EBU, Citrix, Veritas Volume Manager ... good riddance to that! :)
Len
QCAD Pro

Post Reply

Return to “Chat”