myCADsite.com got started in 1999.  Yes, that long ago.  I had started teaching AutoCAD classes at the Design Institute in Las Vegas.  The problem there was that they didn’t have any course materials.  This was my first training  job, and although I hadn’t gone to school for teaching, I knew my subject.  So I started writing.

I taught 4 levels of CAD there and after a while, I had a nice collection of training guides.  It was around that time that I started dabbling in websites, so I put the two together and “myCADsite.com” was born.  The name?  That was a tough one – a lot of the good ones were taken, so I drew my inspiration from a local business we dealt with, “My Mechanic”.  And WOW – was that first site ever an eyesore!

Once I had it up and running, I found that there was an audience for a free AutoCAD course.  Go figure!  So I started updating the site as newer versions of AutoCAD would come out and adding new tutorials.  What you read today on the tutorials is based on AutoCAD R14 – and if you followed my techniques then, almost all of them would work on 2012.  That is why I’ve always stressed the Command Line.  The only use for a blackboard when I was teaching was to write, in big letters, “Watch your Command Line!”

With the newer versions, you have ribbons and other fancy interfaces, but I still train with the keyed-in commands. They rarely change; interfaces do.

Today, myCADsite.com is still free to use and has helped thousands of people the world over get started in new careers or upgrade their job prospects – and like all knowledge – it should stay free.  I make a small amount of money from the CD Sales (still only $19.99!) and when people click on my sponsors’ ads.  This gives me the incentive to keep the site going.

I am now in the process of bringing myCADsite into the new era of Social Networking.  I have a Facebook page (please “Like” me!), and Twitter account, and now this blog is here.  I don’t know where it is going, but if it’s like the rest of the time I’ve spent on myCADsite, it will be a lot of fun!

Thank you to everyone who has helped make myCADsite the success it is.

- Art :    CAD-Guy@myCADsite.com

PS: If like myCADsite, you’ll love myPHOTOSHOPsite – same format for learning Photoshop.