JZ - Automation Journey

2026 Week 18: AutoCAD Self-Learning Week 2 Summary

2 min read

2026 Week 18: AutoCAD Self-Learning Week 2 Summary

Overall Learning Goal
Acquire practical AutoCAD skills and pass the Elementary CAD Certificate exam from the China Society of Drafting by the end of June 2026.

This Week’s Input

  • Studied 6 days
  • Daily study time: 4 hours
  • Total: 24 hours
  • Overall progress: ~40%

Key Learnings This Week

  • Became familiar with several advanced drawing and editing commands, including:
    • DAL, DLI, DAN, AR, SCALE, FILLET, XPLODE, JOIN
  • Discovered useful techniques:
    • Rotating objects clockwise by entering negative angles
    • Changing arc direction using negative angles or the Ctrl key
    • Using the ALIGN command to draw a triangle when only one angle and its opposite side length are known
    • Controlling polygon orientation by drawing the first side from left to right (top point up) or right to left (top point down)

Important Improvements

  • Much more comfortable with both basic and advanced drawing/editing commands
  • Can now independently draw moderately complex 2D shapes

Challenges & Solutions

  • Challenge: Drawing arcs remains the most difficult part, especially accurately controlling their direction and position. I still lack a reliable, repeatable process.
  • Solution: Plan to watch more tutorial videos and develop my own systematic method for drawing arcs.

Next Week’s Plan

  • Start a second training course to fill in any gaps from the first one
  • Organize and refine all my learning notes so far

Weekly Reflection

This week I started thinking more systematically about how to approach drawing complex shapes. I broke it down into four steps:

  1. Decompose — Break complex shapes into basic 2D elements (lines, circles, arcs, polygons)
  2. Analyze — Look for geometric relationships between elements and check if arrays can be used for repeated parts
  3. Draw — Use auxiliary lines, center marks, and centerlines to help locate points accurately
  4. Trim & Annotate — Clean up the drawing and add necessary dimensions and notes

This structured thinking has helped me feel more confident when facing new drawing tasks.

Connection to Career Goal
As I participate in the PLC automation training program in Hangzhou, learning AutoCAD is becoming increasingly valuable. The ability to accurately read and create technical drawings is a fundamental skill for an Automation Technician. I believe this foundation will serve me well when working with automation equipment and systems in the future.

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