Training Courses
2D Essentials
In this foundational course, you’ll learn how to create, edit and organise your 2D work in Vectorworks. We’ll cover the Vectorworks environment, as well as the foundational principles that set everything else up.
Pre-requisites: None.
Who is this course for? For anyone who is new to Vectorworks, whether you have experience with other CAD packages or starting from scratch. Whatever your experience, each skill is taught in a structured way, provided with lots of practice.
By the end of the day… you’ll be able to draw anything in 2D. You’ll have the core of Vectorworks under your belt, from the basic toolset through to some powerful productivity methods and shortcuts.
We’ll cover these three areas:
Industry Essentials
This course is specific to your version of Vectorworks (Architect, Landmark, or Spotlight). We’ll cover the industry-specific tools and techniques, producing paperwork, as well as an introduction to 3D.
Choose which version of Vectorworks you want to learn…
Gain advanced skills with industry-specific tools, such as walls, doors and windows for the Architect user. In this course we take your skills up a few notches and explore tools, such as creating schedules of items (like windows and doors), importing and exporting, as well as how to work with other architectural objects. This course is geared towards Building Information Modelling (BIM).
Pre-requisites: This course requires 2D Essentials knowledge.
Who’s this course for? The Architect track is for architects (of course), but also interior designers and anyone who works with buildings, such as interior lighting designers, or even people working with ships, like naval architects.
By the end of the day… you’ll have a complete grasp of using Architect in 2D with all the necessary skills to produce 2D drawings. You’ll gain more powerful methods to boost productivity, and techniques to consistently achieve quality results from project to project.
This track covers these three industry-specific areas:
You’re not restricted to just the Vectorworks objects. We learn to how to pull in objects from SketchUp, allowing you to pull-in models you’ve already created or have access to.
Gain advanced skills with industry-specific tools, such as plants, trees and hardscapes for the Landmark user. In this course we take your skills up a few notches and explore tools, such as schedules of items (like plants and trees), importing and exporting, as well as other intelligent Landmark objects. This course is geared towards Building Information Modelling (BIM).
Pre-requisites: This course requires 2D Essentials knowledge.
Who’s this course for? The Landmark track is for garden designers or landscape designers, whatever the scale. But it’s also for architects who need to do landscaping within their design.
By the end of the day… you’ll have a complete grasp of using Landmark in 2D with all the necessary skills to produce your paperwork. You’ll gain more powerful methods to boost productivity, and ways to consistently achieve quality results from project to project.
This track covers these three industry-specific areas:
Gain advanced skills with industry-specific tools, such as lights, trusses, and cabling for the Spotlight user. We’ll take your skills up a few notches and explore creating schedules (of lights and cables), importing and exporting, as well as other intelligent Spotlight objects.
Pre-requisites: This course requires 2D Essentials knowledge.
Who’s this course for? The Spotlight track is for lighting designers including those doing theatre, TV, events or rock-n-roll shows, as well as event and exhibition designers.
By the end of the day… you’ll be able to create lighting designs; present all your needed plans, elevations, and sections, as well as produce all the necessary schedules for your project. You’ll gain more powerful methods to boost productivity, and ways to consistently achieve quality results from project to project.
This track covers these four industry-specific areas:
3D Essentials
Learn the essential skills and tools to create and edit 3D models in Vectorworks. We’ll cover the basic modelling tools, parametric objects relevant to your industry, and how to create presentations of your model.
All the essential skills to create and edit in 3D. This course will teach you how to use 3D models for visuals and 2D for elevations, plans, and perspectives.
Pre-requisites: This course requires 2D Essentials and Industry Essentials knowledge.
Who’s this course for? The Architect track is for anyone who wants to use communicate 3D designs to their clients. It’s for those who want the efficiency of having 2D drawings generated from your 3D model, without having to do everything in two separate apps. Vectorworks lets you do it all.
By the end of the day… you’ll be able to model your buildings in 3D using both the plug-in tools and the general modelling tools. Combined together you can make any building. You’ll know the tools to create and reshape walls, windows, doors, and roofs. You’ll be able to import models from other apps, create plans, elevations and sections from your design, as well as create different perspectives of your 3D model for presentations.
This course divides in to these three areas:
All the essential skills to create and edit in 3D. This course will teach you how to use 3D models for visuals and 2D for elevations, plans, and perspectives.
Pre-requisites: This course requires 2D Essentials and Industry Essentials knowledge.
Who’s this course for? The Architect track is for anyone who wants to use communicate 3D designs to their clients. It’s for those who want the efficiency of having 2D drawings generated from your 3D model, without having to do everything in two separate apps. Vectorworks lets you do it all.
By the end of the day… you’ll be able to model your buildings in 3D using both the plug-in tools and the general modelling tools. Combined together you can make any building. You’ll know the tools to create and reshape walls, windows, doors, and roofs. You’ll be able to import models from other apps, create plans, elevations and sections from your design, as well as create different perspectives of your 3D model for presentations.
This course divides in to these three areas:
Learn how to make 3D models of your landscapes and gardens using general modelling and specific industry tools. Use 3D models for visuals or 2D elevations, plans & perspectives.
Pre-requisites: This course requires 2D Essentials and Industry Essentials knowledge.
Who’s this course for? The Landmark track is for gardeners, garden designers and landscape designers who want to present their work in 3D as well as 2D.
By the end of the day… you’ll be confident in specific tools and techniques such as landscape walls, digital terrain modelling, hardscape tools, as well as 3D modifiers, like adding a patio, path or road to your terrain.
This course divides in to these three areas:
Learn how to create and light your production using Vectorworks general modelling tools and Spotlight’s specific industry tools. Create brilliant visuals of your 3D model as well as elevations, plans, and perspectives in 2D.
Pre-requisites: This course requires 2D Essentials and Industry Essentials knowledge.
Who’s this course for? The Landmark track is for anyone wanting to create 3D models for visuals as well as creating plans, elevations and sections for presentation. It’s suited to anyone from the entertainment industry, such as scene designers, exhibition designers, as well as many other disciplines.
By the end of the day… you’ll be able to use all the plug-in objects to create 3D objects as well as use all the general modelling tools. You’ll know how to export your model to Vision and generate your plans, elevations, and sections of your design. If you change anything in your design, those plans, elevations, and sections will update.
This course divides in to these three areas:
All the essential skills to create and edit in 3D. This course will teach you how to use 3D models for visuals and 2D for elevations, plans, and perspectives.
All the essential skills to create and edit in 3D. This 2-day course will teach you how to use 3D models for visuals and from the models generate automatic 2D for elevations, plans, and perspectives that update when the model changes.
Specifically tailored for Interior Designers and Interior Architects.
3D Advanced
For those wanting to model more freeform or ‘Product design’ type objects then Nurbs within Vectorworks is the way to do it.
Pre-requisites: This course requires 2D Essentials, Industry Essentials, and 3D Essentials knowledge.
Who is this for? 3D Advanced is for those who want to find out what the extremes of what Vectorworks is for. It’s for anyone who has found there are things they can’t find a way to model or find difficult to achieve the results they’re looking for.
By the end of the day… you’ll be confident you’ll know exactly which parts of Vectorworks to use to create unique organic objects and confident in utilising those tools to achieve your purpose.
Renderworks Essentials
Create realistic visuals from your 3D model. A good visual is the coming together of a good model (you provide that), realistic textures, good lighting, suitable props, and a good viewpoint. This course will teach you each of these elements in turn to produce great visuals.
Pre-requisites: You’ll need to know how to model in Vectorworks to take this course. The 3D Foundations course is good pre-requisite if you’re inexperienced in modelling in Vectorworks.
Who is this course for? For anyone who wants to create visuals from 3D designs. Renderworks allows you to add shadows, transparency, reflections, refractions and many more elements and this course will enable you to use those techniques together to create realistic 3D renderings as well as more artistic styles.
By the end of the day… you’ll be able to create a beautiful visuals of your designs, whether that’s photo-realistic or more of an artistic style, such as a line drawings or sketchy styles. This course is foundational and more advanced rendering teaching is available upon completion of this course.
Within the course we cover these four areas…
Something else
Do you need personal training outside the scope of these courses?
Are you looking to build on the skills you already have and get to the next level?
…or do you simply not know what you need and want to talk about it?
Whether you’re a fast or slow learner, with our training you can learn at your pace. We can figure out the best tools and techniques to move you forwards. CAD School exists to help you take charge of CAD and do great work.
Steve’s thorough and well structured approach allowed me to develop my skills quickly and use the software proficiently.Craig Lawson, Snug Architects
For the first time ever, we are now offering ALL our courses online through screen-sharing. 1 day courses are now broken down into 2 separate 3-hour sessions, usually booked a week apart from each other. 2+ day courses take more sessions.
Learn ANY of our courses from your home or office. You'll receive real-time training and coaching from Steve and you get more flexibility to learn our courses at your own pace.
Our prices are honest, simple, and scale to your team size. Feel free to give us a call and book over the phone or start booking using this form.
| Price per day (6 hours) | |
|---|---|
| 1 person | £550 |
| 2 people | £660 |
| 3 people | £770 |
| 4+ people | £880 |
| One-to-one training by the hour is available for £110/hour |
| Venue |
Our place |
Your place |
Online |
|---|---|---|---|
| Note | Train at our CAD School offices near Winchester, Hampshire | Additional costs for travel and expenses | via screen-sharing i.e. 1 day courses are broken down in to 2 separate 3-hour sessions, usually booked a week apart. |
| Price per day (6 hours) | |
|---|---|
| 1 person | £660 |
| 2 people | £792 |
| 3 people | £924 |
| 4+ people | £1,056 |
| One-to-one training by the hour is available for £132/hour |
| Venue |
Our place |
Your place |
Online |
|---|---|---|---|
| Note | Train at our CAD School offices near Winchester, Hampshire | Additional costs for travel and expenses | via screen-sharing i.e. 1 day courses are broken down in to 2 separate 3-hour sessions, usually booked a week apart. |
Book training over the phone too.
