CAD users, come from all walks of life, but there are some things every CAD user should know:

1. 1. 1. More Ram ≠ Faster CAD
      2. Graphic card driver updates are useful (but they don't fix everything)
      3. Always model tiddly:
      4. How to work with blocks
      5. ..and snaps to Improve Accuracy
      6. Xrefs,
      7. Grids,
      8. Purge,
      9. OverKill,
      10. ...and Layers!
      11. How to 🤓 read engineering drawings
      12. Patience is a virtue
      13. How to make a technical drawing...
      14. ...what the phrase "technical drawing" actually means.
      15. Isometric drawing
      16. How to use perspective
      17. Section views
      18. The joy of blueprints
      19. That 3D modeling is tantamount to 🧙‍♂️ witchcraft (to some people at least.)
      20. The realization no one will ever quite understand what it is you do for a living. (Apart from your fellow CAD nerds of course!)
      21. Haynes Manuals 😍
      22. That CAD is both 2D and 3D
      23. WCS vs UCS
      24. CAD vs CAM
      25. Primitive shapes rule CAD
      26. Union
      27. Subtract
      28. The almighty Command Line
      29. That Right-click (works just as well as Enter)
      30. Shortcuts
      31. Abbreviations, abbreviations, and abbreviations
      32. Your A-Z; ACB, BIM, CAD, DWG...
      33. 💋 K.I.S.S.
      34. Longing for the "good old days" when everything was ✍️ drawn by hand...
      35. ...and then remembering how much easier it is to correct a drawing now.
      36. Ctrl+Z (undo)
      37. Ctrl+Y
      38. Ctrl+Alt+Delete
      39. How to turn it off and on again
      40. F4
      41. Ctrl+S
      42. To ALWAYS 💾 SAVE a back-up
      43. That feeling of dread 😱 when you accidentally delete a file.
      44. Knowing that sometimes, it's just easier to start from scratch
      45. F1
      46. The Power of Google
      47. That it's OK to Ask For Help!
      48. The power of perseverance
      49. Counting polyline segments is a good substitute for counting 🐑 sheep.
      50. What it's like to dream of 60° geometry. 🛌^💤
      51. That there is ALWAYS, more than one way to do something.
      52. Knowing that, even after decades on the job, 👨‍🏫 you've still got things to learn.
      53. What the word "Entity" actually means (And all those other crazy CAD terms!)
      54. How to work with 👨‍💼 technical writers...
      55. Engineers 👩‍🔧
      56. Architects 👷
      57. and Designers 🧕
      58. Learning to love being called a "felt tip fairy" 🧚‍♂️ or a "CAD monkey" 🐒
      59. Critiquing IKEA and Lego assembly instruction manuals
      60. That sometimes you just have to make a trip down to the 🏭 factory floor...
      61. ...and other times you just want to👩‍🏭!
      62. The 👓 20-20-20 rule
      63. Send to print 🖨️
      64. How to batch print sheets
      65. PDF Export
      66. Attach raster 🖼️ images
      67. 📥 Importing and 📤 Exporting
      68. How to underlay PDFs
      69. The feel of a fresh 3D print
      70. Getting a little over-excited 🤪 about 3D printing and printing EVERYTHING. (brackets, bicycle parts, tiny dragons, spoons, a new part for your 3D printer...)
      71. The joy of seeing your design for the first time in real life.
      72. Laser cutting
      73. Occasionally adding a rubber duck or a 6th finger to a drawing. 👼 (Just to see if your boss is paying attention)
      74. How to render
      75. Solids, Surfaces, and Meshes
      76. The difference between a brep and a mesh
      77. Open-source models
      78. The 😎 power of the 3D-mouse...
      79. ...AND of Multiple 🖥️💻🖥️ screens
      80. That there is more to CAD than black and white
      81. Trying to avoid learning to Code...
      82. ...discovering the magic of LISP
      83. ...getting a taste for Diesel
      84. ...perfecting script -- Spoiler Alert: it's not as hard as you think!
      85. ...and learning not to be scared of coding after all.👨‍💻
      86. Customizations
      87. Partial CUI files
      88. ...💣 Full factory reset 🙄
      89. To not work 200km from the origin 👽 strange things may occur!
      90. Starting your project in relation to the origin and not 1644.2331,8709.347! 🤯
      91. Pick your units! 📏
      92. (0,0,0) = (x,y,z)

      93. = absolute

      94. @ = relative
      95. That inescapable need to take apart every pen 🖊️ that lands in your hand. (Just to see how the mechanism works.)
      96. It's OK to pick the pencil 👩‍🎨 up once in a while.
      97. The pen ✒️ is mightier than the sword ⚔️ and the mouse is mightier 🖱️ than both!
      98. The joy of graph paper
      99. Analyzing everything you 🚶‍♂️ walk past and working out how it could be modeled in CAD...
      100. And coming to the realization that CAD is a lifestyle, not just a job. 😊

Do you agree with my list of 100 things every CAD user should know? Do you think there is anything I left off? Let me know in the comments below!

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