Hello hivemind… long time listener, first time caller… and opening with a big question!

I’m looking to change careers, building on my existing 3D CAD skills & interests. I’m expecting to retrain (I have some money set aside and no current job) & go in at a low level, but I have a reasonably free choice as to exactly what to do.

I would like advice from people in the various industries that use 3D design/modelling/visualisation about what prospects there are in their fields, what skills & software packages are valuable, and what is not worth pursuing (both now and in the foreseeable future).

I used AutoCAD, self-taught, quite extensively 15-20 years ago, converting 2D engineering drawings on paper into CAD files (as part of a student job with a civil engineering firm) and developing my own 3D designs (both in my civils degree studies at university – I have an MEng, though I never used it – and as a hobby). This was AutoCAD v12, so WAY out of date, but hopefully the principles are still valid. I also dabbled with 3DStudio back in the day.

More recently I spent hundreds of hours working in the Source engine (as used in games such as Half-Life 2), creating custom game levels for Team Fortress 2 and Left 4 Dead. I’m pretty competent with this, but I don’t expect it to have any commercial value (I’m not looking to work in the games industry) – though hopefully it shows 3D design awareness.

In the last couple of years I have done some modelling in Google SketchUp, prototyping for game levels or speculative designs for 3D printed objects, though I am not an expert with it.

I’m aware that there are important industrial trends to be aware of, and the last thing I want to do is specialise in something that’s becoming obsolete, or badly-paid because it’s all off-shored or automated these days. I also don’t really want to rejoin the graduate tread-mill and enter a field where everyone is expected to ‘prove themselves’ by working extreme hours for little reward in the hope of some day making it up the ladder a.k.a. being exploited. I can afford to start on the recent-graduate end of the pay scale as long as it does rise adequately over the period of a few years as one gains experience.

Is architectural visualisation a dying profession?
Is everything being done in Bangalore/the Cloud these days?
Should I aim to learn Revit as well/instead?
Do pure CAD technicians ever earn good money?
Are there any particular basic qualifications that are worth getting first, or is it better to get training on/through the job? I’ve looked briefly at City & Guilds course, which seem potentially worthwhile to get started?

I’ve been impressed by the hive mind’s wide knowledge before, so I’m hoping there’s a few people out there who can help. No pressure then 😉

There are some crossovers with what I do up there, nothing in as much detail though. We use some visualisation but mostly do the simulation that runs behind (so actual decision making calculation stuff rather than show the answer you want to see)
If you have an aptitude for questions and decision logic it can be quite a rewarding field or you can get battered like any entry level guy and leave quickly 🙂
We do stuff like this

Not massive on the 3d creativeness but all the logic behind the thing is in there. There are some MSc’s on Operational Research that may be of interest (bit more maths though)
We also were involved with this
[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pg_2R_mOp6g[/video]

On some mining jobs we have come across Unity
http://unity3d.com/
which is being used to represent big project stuff in mines and training tools. So much more in the actual Engineering space than games really.

It’s all a bit random really and my perspective is from Australia currently but a lot is about what you feel comfortable heading into as you seem to have a really solid grounding in a few areas.

In terms of off shore lot’s is going there but there are lots of companies who are not going to allow their work off shore or who see the value in someone who can actually sit with them and do the work. But then again the value in design is the design not drawing it out really so you probably want to aim higher than CAD Tech.

If you want to earn good money using CAD or 3D modelling skills then you need to have specific or specialist design (creative or engineering) skills. Almost anyone can be taught how to use a 3D software package to a high standard, so as a result, unless you use it to perform as part of another role or function then the money will probably not be great. I know people who are freelance retail, exhibition, product, interior, CGI designers who use packages like Cinema 4D, 3D Studio Max etc. All are making good money (50k upwards) but it’s taken them years to get to that level and the CAD part is simply a tool for them to do jobs that demand much more experience than just CAD skills if that makes sense? Architectural visualisation would be difficult to get into – too many architectural graduates with these skills working for virtually free to gain experience at the moment.

I’m using Solidworks and Autocad as tools for my job as a project engineer in the plastics/chemical industry. Both are equivalent to standard hands on tools in order to be able to visualise/make sure it’ll fit before its built. If I was recruiting – its something I’d look for in a candidate but only as part of a well rounded skilllset.

What agent007 said sounds right. We’ve recently recruited an architect grad specifically to bring some 3d capability into the office & in the 2 weeks advertised we probably had interest from 40 people who could use revit or archicad. Most weren’t put off by a starting salary of £18k.
But that’s in west Yorks.

Thanks all

Those responses all make sense – that’s exactly what I’d feared re. architectural visualisation, and pretty much what I’d expected in general… so it looks like I’d have to pick a field, start at the bottom and train up in other aspects of design. Well, I’ve been in ‘design’ for a while so that’s do-able…

I’ve got 15 years of design studio experience including PM-ing and managing a team for chunks of that, and the commercial-reality-experience that entails (e.g. pitching, deadlines, managing client expectations vs what’s practical to achieve etc.) so I’m hoping that’s worth something over a wet-behind-the-ears novice. Trouble is it’s in web design/front-end dev, which I’m now entirely sick of and don’t want to do any more.