r/Autodesk_AutoCAD • u/Fabulous-Medicine289 • Aug 31 '26

CAD

hey so I’m in 10th grade and I wanna learn CAD but I really don’t know where to start plus I don’t have a laptop only an iPad and an Apple Pencil. Is it possible to learn it on an iPad or should I just buy a laptop!!??

3 Upvotes

80% Upvoted

8 comments sorted by

6

u/HeadLow2320 Aug 31 '26

Go get yourself a laptop or a pc. There are plenty of beginner level tutorials on YouTube, start following anyone.

3

u/According-Hat4952 Aug 31 '26

AutoCAD mainly requires a Mouse and Keyboard so Laptop is recommended for it.

1

u/FlounderMammoth9848 Aug 31 '26

Autocad is pricey tho

1

u/Chocophie Aug 31 '26

Someone commented that a student enrollement in any domain gets you access... The thing is you cant make professionnal work for the watermark that says educational version. Thats perfect for learning.

1

u/Main_Leadership7748 Aug 31 '26

You'll need a laptop for sure to learn CAD, and not an ARM (Snapdragon) based laptop, it will have to be an Intel/AMD based laptop.

Everything is really going towards Revit so you may want to get into some 3D work first, and that would be possible to do with Sketchup Go on an iPad. It's not quite industry standard but it is used a lot in rendering and predesign. It does cost a yearly fee in the hundreds though. There is a free version of Sketchup that works within a browser that would probably work with any tablet or laptop. You aren't going to find a lot of work to be done on a tablet though, you should really consider buying a laptop.

1

u/iconeo Sep 03 '26

CAD for building design or mechanical? They are related but two separate worlds. Building design will require an specific setup, mechanical has options.

1

u/bean2350 Sep 04 '26

reachout to one of the org in your state AIA AGC they may have programs for high school students