Key details

BricsCAD training for beginners, teaching skills for creating accurate, to-scale 2D drawings, plans and designs.

Hosted by highly experienced CAD instructors, this course has been developed to teach you rapidly. Sessions include:

• The BricsCAD interface
• Basic drawing techniques
• Working with, manipulating and altering objects
• Annotating the drawing
• Dimensioning
• Hatching objects
• Working with reusable content
• Layouts and paper space
• Drawing templates

Click here to see the full course syllabus.

BricsCAD Essentials training is arranged on-request, i.e. one-to-one training or a ‘closed course’ for your group. Your training can be tailored to take into account any existing knowledge you have, and the work you’re going to be doing.

In-class or online

This course is available in-class at eight centres or live online.

Windows or Mac

BricsCAD software is available for the Windows and Mac platforms, and BricsCAD Essentials training is available for both.

Our centres offer both Windows computers and Macs for delegates to use, so you can carry out exercises on the platform you’re familiar with.

Expert trainers

BricsCAD courses are hosted by experts in 3D design, CGI and the production of visualisations and rendered images. See Expert trainers.

BricsCAD training guide and certificate

Course delegates receive:

• A comprehensive training guide for BricsCAD, to refer to throughout the course, and to use as a refresher afterwards.
• An e-certificate confirming successful completion of BricsCAD training.

After course support

Following BricsCAD training, delegates are entitled to 30 days’ email support from their BricsCAD trainer to help with any post-course issues. For further details, see Support.

BricsCAD version

Training is based primarily on BricsCAD v26 running on Windows or Mac. It is relevant to users of BricsCAD v20 or later.

 

General information

Payment

Payment for BricsCAD Essentials training can be made by:

• Bank transfer. Please call 01527 834783 for our bank details.
• Card. Visa, Mastercard and American Express cards accepted. Payment can be made securely online or over the phone. Armada doesn’t record or store your card details.
• Buy now pay later. Available for private bookings; pay in 4 x interest-free fortnightly instalments. Facility provided by Clearpay. For details, see Clearpay terms of service.

Purchase orders

We accept purchase orders from UK registered companies with turnover in excess of £1m, and public sector organisations

Accommodation

See Accommodation local to our training centres.

Cancellations and postponements

If an on-request BricsCAD Essentials course booking is cancelled giving less than 20 working days’ notice, a cancellation fee is payable. View cancellation terms.

If an on-request BricsCAD Essentials course booking is postponed giving less than 20 working days’ notice, a postponement fee is payable. View postponement terms.

Terms and conditions

 

Expert trainers

BricsCAD Essentials training courses are hosted by:

• Andy Roe
• Wendy Sprakes
• Ricardo De Jesus
• Carl Portman
• Rod Cleasby
• Stewart Cobb
• John Billyard

Andy Roe

Andy has worked in CAD for over 30 years in roles including Draughtsman, CAD System Manager, Project Manager and Design Engineer.

In recent years, Andy has focused on developing and delivering training courses. He is a long-established Autodesk Certified Instructor (ACI), and he focuses primarily on Autodesk applications including AutoCAD, Inventor, Fusion, 3ds Max and Sketchbook, as well as Dassault Systèmes SolidWorks.

Andy continues to undertake project work to keep up-to-date with the latest technologies and practices. He specialises in modelling complex 3D designs from prototype to production, including the development of visuals and animations for a range of engineering projects.

Industries in which Andy has significant experience include aerospace, defence and automotive.

Wendy Sprakes

Wendy Sprakes is a Microsoft Master Instructor (MMI) and a qualified teacher (QTS).

Wendy began her working life as a CAD operator, working through the ranks of trainee draughtsman, graduating as a professional Mechanical Engineer, through to Project Engineer in the CAE Industry.

She then went on to qualify as a teacher, and has been hosting Microsoft Office courses since 2000. Wendy trains all applications in the Office suite, including Word, Excel and other, more niche applications such as Visio and Project, from beginner to advanced and customised level. Wendy has been a staff member, delivering IT and Project Management modules for Chesterfield College, and a course leader for Microsoft Project at Sheffield Hallam University for five years.

Away from training, Wendy is an accomplished jazz musician. Her music enjoys regular airplay on both regional and national stations including BBC and JazzFM.

Ricardo De Jesus

Ricardo is a creative and passionate Autodesk Certified Instructor with over 18 years’ experience delivering professional training to clients in the UK and overseas.

As a former architect with a strong foundation in visual design and technical drawing, Ricardo has expert industry knowledge. He is a skilled user of industry-leading software tools including AutoCAD, 3ds Max, SketchUp and Cinema 4D, and the most popular renderers used with these applications including Redshift and V-Ray.

He now focuses on training, passing on his knowledge to help learners master these applications. Committed to lifelong learning in digital design, Ricardo enjoys adapting teaching strategies to meet the needs of all learners.

Carl Portman

Carl Portman has been an Autodesk-accredited instructor for 25 years, a College Lecturer (City and Guilds 3D modelling) for 15 years and a CAD consultant for 35 years.

Carl’s background is in engineering. He has vast design experience in a wide range of industries, including automotive, aerospace and medical, and he continues to carry out project work for a range of clients. Projects that Carl has completed include designing complete car plants for Jaguar Land Rover.

Carl has expert knowledge of:

• A wide range of 3D design applications used in engineering, including AutoCAD, Fusion, Inventor, SolidWorks.
• Machining, CAM and CNC.

Rod Cleasby

Rod has over 25 years’ experience working as a designer, visualisation expert and artist. His specialist areas include architecture, interior design and the production of photorealistic 3d virtual environments. 

AutoCAD, 3ds Max and SketchUp have been the mainstay of Rod’s professional work for 20 years. He is also an expert in:

– A wide range of renderers including V-Ray, ART and Arnold.

– AI tools, such as Midjourney.

– Photoshop.

Rod has extensive training experience. He has worked as a Senior Lecturer at the University of Westminster on their Computer Visualisation course, and he is a long-established Autodesk Certified Instructor.

Away from his professional work, Rod is an accomplished artist and musician, and a prolific writer of novels, novella, poetry and prose.

Stewart Cobb

Stewart began his working life as a junior draughtsman, and progressed through to Design Director leading a studio of designers working on both 2D and 3D projects.

He then worked for himself for over 25 years, completing around 100 design projects per year for a myriad of clients, including household names such as Vauxhall and McDonalds.

More recently, Stewart’s focus has been on training. He has been an Autodesk Certified Instructor since 2010, hosting courses in AutoCAD, Revit, 3ds Max, AutoCAD Plant 3D, Civil 3D, AVT and Advance Steel. He’s also an expert user of Trimble SketchUp and a range of renderers including V-Ray and Twinmotion.

In between courses, Stewart uses these applications professionally when carrying out project work for clients. Using the applications regularly helps him to keep up-to-date with the latest technologies and practices.

Outside of work, Stewart enjoys music (he runs the sound desk for a number of local bands), reading and playing with any new piece of technology he can lay his hands on!

John Billyard

John has used CAD software for over 35 years, providing high quality engineering and architectural designs to a wide range of clients

He has provided training in the applications he uses for a similar length of time, and for the last 15 years, has been commissioned directly by Autodesk to provide consulting and training services to their corporate client base.

John hosts courses in various Autodesk applications including AutoCAD, Fusion, Inventor and Vault. He also trains Dassault Systèmes’ SolidWorks, Trimble SketchUp and Epic Games’ Twinmotion.

He takes pride in keeping pace with the latest industry design tools and technologies; enabling him to meet the challenges and demands of an ever changing working environment.

Course content

The BricsCAD interface

• Features of the ribbon
• The Quick Access tools
• The command line
• Keyboard shortcuts
• Interface themes
• Menu options
• Navigation and viewing tools
• Zooming and panning

Basic drawing techniques

• Drawing lines, arcs, circles and rectangles
• Grips
• Esnaps and grid
• Ortho
• Polar tracking

Saving your work

• Auto-backups
• Other file formats, DXF, etc.
• Disaster recovery

Working with, manipulating and altering objects

• Units
• Dynamic input
• Using Inquiry commands
• Using measurement tools to find length, area, etc.
• Selecting objects, select similar
• Moving, copying, rotating, mirroring and scaling objects
• Arrays
• Trimming and extending objects to defined boundaries
• Creating parallel and offset geometry
• Joining objects
• Filleting corners between two objects
• Chamfering corners between two objects
• Stretching objects

Drawing organisation

• Using layers
• Changing object properties
• Matching object properties
• Using the properties palette
• Using linetypes

Working with layouts

• Using page setups
• Using layouts
• Scaling drawing views

Annotating the drawing

• Creating multiline text
• Creating single line text
• Using text styles
• Editing text

Dimensioning

• Creating dimensions
• Using dimension styles
• Editing dimensions
• Using multileaders

Hatching objects

• Hatching objects
• Editing hatch objects

Working with reusable content

• Creating and inserting blocks and symbols
• Editing blocks and symbols
• Using tool palettes
• Working with groups

Layouts and paper space

• Understanding model space and paper space
• Creating layouts
• Creating and using viewports
• Setting viewport scales

Plotting your drawings

• Plotting drawings
• PDF output
• Multiple sheet drawings
• Using plot styles

Drawing templates

• Creating drawing templates
• Using drawing templates

 

Live online training

Online training lets you participate in a live BricsCAD course from your place of work or home.

We do everything possible to make your online training experience as close as possible to actually being in the classroom. You can:

• See and hear our trainer, and the other delegates participating in the course…
  
• Watch our trainer demonstrate techniques in BricsCAD.
• Interact by speaking, using chat, or raising your ‘virtual hand’ if you need assistance.
• Share your screen with our trainer, and allow them to take control to explain something.

Like our in-class courses, online BricsCAD Essentials courses…

• Are presented by expert instructors.
• Give you plenty of opportunity to carry out assisted, practical exercises using BricsCAD.
• Offer 30 days’ email support from your trainer.

All you need is an Internet-connected computer with…

• BricsCAD installed.
• A webcam and audio capability. If your computer running BricsCAD doesn’t have these, you can use a second device, such as another computer or tablet. See Hardware recommendations for live online training for further details.

If there’s anything you’re not sure about we’ll do our best to help you. We won’t, however, be able to assist with your BricsCAD installation.

We provide everything else…

• Links to download the files, resources, etc. you’ll use in your course.
• A training guide. For most courses, you can choose from a printed copy that we post to you, or a PDF.

In the week before your course, we’ll send you an email containing everything you need to prepare for and participate in the training. We’re available in the days ahead of your course to assist if you need any help.

Please note that we are not able to record scheduled online courses for privacy reasons.

When you attend live online training, you’re participating in a real course, hosted by a real trainer, in real time