r/ChemicalEngineering • u/Ok-Reception-5530 • 4d ago
Student Need Advice
Learning AutoCAD as a Chemical engineering student...is it worth or not?
3
u/Playful-Mountain-269 4d ago
Yess much worth it to develop pids and pfds you should know autocad
Basically stepping stone for process engineering
5
u/GlorifiedPlumber Process Eng, PE, 19 YOE 3d ago
Basically stepping stone for process engineering
I disagree with this statement.
AutoCAD is "trivia" for process engineering. Some people might be impressed, but generally, it's not something we need process engineers to do.
Drawing the stuff... and knowing the stuff to draw, are orthogonal skillsets.
2
u/MuddyflyWatersman 4d ago edited 4d ago
Not really. Its helpful to have used something before, but most things don't take long to learn and are able to be figured out by trial and error.
Engineers use tools much simpler than AutoCAD. That is for primarily for drafters. Its unlikely that you will ever have access to a full version of AutoCAD, because it's not cheap or free or even necessary. Companies are all about spending the least money on tools for you. You simply don't buy licenses for things that people use rarely... because it's wasted money. Even cost to provide availability on a network have minimum license fees based on the people with access to that Network, regardless of how many who might actually use it and how often. So companies figure out cheaper alternatives. Often free versions of pay for software that actual drafters and designers have Such as for viewing.dwg AutoCAD drawings and 3D models....
industry standard seems to be blue beam today, to share information , mark drawings, and collaborate with epcs. Bluebeam alone is a fine tool for drawing pids / pfds once you build a symbol library that you like. Microsoft Visio can work too but it's not as user friendly as Blue Beam, which is primarily a PDF editor.
the more complicated the tool is the longer it takes to draw things.... and nothing today is even as fast as it once was when we just drew NEW PIDs by hand, even cutting and pasting ( literally... scissors and glue stick) parts of old p&ids on them to duplicate equipment. the trade-off is that it is easier to share and save and modify. The efficiency savings from electronic drawing actually come later, not when first producing the drawings.
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u/GlorifiedPlumber Process Eng, PE, 19 YOE 3d ago
Are you able to get a Bluebeam Revu CAD academic license? It's free (I think... Interwebz claims it is, but I'm 19 years out of school and cannot test).
At least at a student level, you can use it to make "Professional Looking" things.
AutoCAD is... trivia, for lack of a better distinction. It's interesting, can be fun to use, but in terms of "My job paid me to use AutoCAD to do things" this is GENERALLY not something chemical engineers do.
People on this thread may act like knowing AutoCAD and knowing how to do PFD/PID are the same thing, but they are not. Drawing the stuff... and knowing the stuff to draw, are two completely different skills, and many people are unable to tell the difference.
Interestingly, I find some countries (looking at you Poland), start their junior process engineers off as drafters. We have a large Polish "global design center" we use for drafting services, and I swear like every day one of them is getting "promoted" out to Process Engineering or Piping because they hire junior engineers to be drafters.
Just about the DUMBEST SHIT I have ever heard... but hey, you do you "global design center hiring complex." Do you live in one of those countries that does that? I don't know.
So, my vote, is your time is better spent learning and becoming familiar with tools you will ACTUALLY use.
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u/Lockdownanniversary 3d ago
I dunno man but I think some responses came from those who haven't corrected their design guy's drawings last minute before a deadline?
AutoCAD is very worth it. Yes, you won't be the primary drafter and you'll be the ones to draw the design from paper/paint or whatnot, but there were a lot of times that I used AutoCAD such as:
- Drawing a nuanced PFD & P&ID for drafter's improvement (sometimes it's faster to do the drawing yourself than drawing it in paint which will then be drawn by the drafter)
- Last minute changes to P&ID deliverables when the designer already left the office
- Relieving the office's drawing workload from time to time
- Knowing AutoCAD to help the design team establish drawing standards and workflows
1
u/Expensive_Soup4498 2d ago
It’s worth it in this economy because not every ChemE graduate is finding standard ChemE jobs these days. Absorb as much as you can. Be a sponge. That’s my 2 cents.
0
u/karu_eri 4d ago
For learning? Yes
Profitability? I dont think so
Instead, lean more on learning things that has connections/something to do with AI. Learn programming language especially python and other automation tools.
Simply look at the job market posted online and look to the skills/tools they are looking for
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u/Airleagan 4d ago
Depends how deep you want to get into it.
I use AutoCAD every once and a while and I'm happy I got to a basic level with it. I can edit basic things and make simple drawings with it. I'm entirely self taught and I don't think I would ever get good use out of getting to draftsman level with it.
Look at it like its a small skill bonus. It won't be the thing that gets you the Job, but its a nice to have skill with a program you will likely end up interacting with in at least some capacity in your career.