What is a CAD Designer?
Explore the CAD Designer Career Path
CAD Designers use software to create technical drawings for complex projects. These designs may be: surface modeling (2D), 3D images, or solid modeling. CAD Designers work on: civil engineering projects, architecture, electronics, fashion, cars, or medical equipment designs.
The Day-to-Day as a CAD Designer
CAD Designers use software to create technical drawings for complex projects. These designs may be surface modeling (2D), 3D images, or solid modeling. CAD Designers work on: civil engineering projects, architecture, electronics, fashion, cars, or medical equipment designs. CAD Designers work on a team with Engineers, Architects, Scientists, and Designers. CAD Designers work a typical 40-hour workweek and rarely work overtime unless there is a problem with a project.
CAD Designers can find work at architecture firms, mechanical manufacturing facilities, civil engineering companies, construction companies, the fashion industry, electronics and tech companies. They usually pick one area of expertise such as architecture, engineering, fashion design, interior and exterior design, game design, or industrial design. They can find work freelance, full-time, onsite, or remotely.
On a daily basis, you can find CAD Designers doing tasks like establishing timelines and budgets for their design projects, using AutoCAD to create plans and models, keeping up with CAD trends, arranging and attending meetings with collaborators and managers, creating models or drawings with CAD software, optimizing workflows with their team and other teams in their company, gathering reference information from other teams or clients, making revisions to drawings, or keeping a database of design records.
What Skills Should CAD Designers Have?