Sample Lesson Notes (PDF 1.8MB) 
Sample Video Demonstration (Flash 44 MB) 
Download Course - $149
Training videos (23hours) plus PDF manual.
Basic DVD Course - $199
2 DVD set of videos (23 hours) plus 205 page PDF manual
Premium DVD Course - $349
Adds 90 days of personal support, feedback, reviews and drawing evaluation by email to the base DVD package.
AutoCAD 4 Online Training Course - Rendering and Customization
In this 64 hour, online CAD training course, students will learn to create photorealistic rendered images of a variety of objects and environments including interior and exterior architectural perspectives and walkthroughs. New concepts include: render settings, working with cameras, setting up views and backgrounds, working with premade and custom materials, interior and exterior lighting techniques, landscaping and entourage, and setting up motion path animations. Students will also learn techniques for customizing the user interface, creating custom tools, and defining custom commands and macros.
Detailed Online Course Description
Students will create photo-realistic rendered images of both Exterior and Interior, Architectural Environments, utilizing cameras, custom materials, sunlight systems as well as custom, daytime and nighttime lighting solutions for both projects.
The course begins with an exploration of the rendering environment and a discussion on model preparation. Students will begin their Exterior project, assembling the part files and assigning their first materials. After placing cameras to obtain architectural style perspectives, students will specify custom background images and discuss layout procedures and view controls. Students will continue to create and assign materials to their exterior project learning to control texture map placement and orientation with UVW mappers.
The next phase of the project is to design daytime and nighttime lighting conditions using a mix of Sunlight systems and User lighting. Students will continue to refine their materials with advanced mapping techniqes and learn how to create custom landscape objects with opacity mapping techniques. The final project is a set of Interior renderings for a Kiosk in a larger retail environment. Students will create several camera views, create and assign custom materials including landscape objects, advanced metals, glasses, water and neon lights. Students will design custom lighting solutions for their project and learn to use Global Illumination and Final Gather to create realistic lighting.
The final phase of the Interior project will involve the creation of a 10 second, architectural walkthrough rendered with realistic texture mapped materials, and full lighting with shadows. To end the course, students will learn a series of basic to intermediate level customization techniques. Interface options, Workspaces, Profiles and Startup routines will be explored in depth. Finally, students will learn how to use the Customize Interface Editor and work with CUI files. Students will create a custom dimensioning toolbar including a new, custom, macro command with a user defined button image.
The video demonstrations for this course were recorded with AutoCAD 2010 as shown in the demonstration video samples at right. All rendering methods shown will work in versions 2008, 2009 and 2011 as well. Course notes and handbooks are available for all four versions.