Schools and colleges are an important and integral part of CAD International's client base globally. We've gained a great appreciation for the needs and requirements of teachers and students alike. In most cases we know exactly what you need.

Limited face to face teaching time and broad curriculum requirements limit what CAD software you can teach effectively. We have learned that it is generally better to have a great 'all round' product that's easy to teach and easy to learn, rather than several powerful (yet usually cumbersome) industry heavyweight products that may take all year for a students (and teachers) to figure out.

Support is one of the most important considerations. When you need to achieve something with your students and don't know how, you need to know you have help at hand. If the software fails and renders your class inoperable you need to know technical assistance is available fast.

Many schools, colleges or universities are using the wrong product. They often hesitate to change or keep up with the times due in part to a lack of willingness of the educator or due to budget or some other internal politics. It is worth changing if your current software is difficult for students to learn or isn't relevant to the industry topic you are teaching.

Experience and feedback tell us that the best current product for schools and colleges is typically RealCAD with its suite of applications for landscape design, architecture, engineering, animation, rendering and CAM. RealCAD is now CAD International's most popular CAD software sold in industry. The CAD online training courses also mean that you and your students can be up and running in the shortest possible time.

Rhino3D is also popular among educators requiring complex 3D curvaceous form modelling.

Check out the points in the review extracts below to see if they are relevant to your schools needs.

Key Points:

• CAD Certificate training available online for students and educators.
• Simple user interface makes explaining how it works easy, freeing up actual classroom time for design tasks.
• Uses standard Windows commands and shortcuts.
• Covers a broad range of tasks from 2D drafting and integrated 3D modelling, view projection, architectural design, landscape design, product design, mechanical design, drafting, and even full CNC machining. Also includes object animation, walk through animation, shading, visible and hidden line viewing, photo realistic rendering, simple CAD-Basic programming, design automation and digital graphics.
• Is the most popular CAD software from CAD International.
• Fun to use, keeping student interest levels high.
• Video tutorials and printable step by step class tutorials supplied with the software make learning and teaching easier. (Even without the CAD online training courses).
• Takes very little space on hard drive.
• Can be networked easily and is very non invasive with system files etc.
• No hardware lock (dongle) just a single license.
• Consistent command structure so once a student knows the basics they can transfer the knowledge to the rest of the software.
• Easy to edit and make changes to the drawing or design.
• All views update when changes are made to the model in plan or any other view.
• Easy creation of library objects.
• Easy set-up of perspectives and elevations.
• Recordable animated walk-throughs available.
• Integrated 2D drafting and 3D design modes.
• Reads and writes industry standard file formats including DXF.
• Excellent visualisation and 3D rotation of the design.
• Very simple NC control built into CAM software with many post processors.
• Can create a 2D drawing, 3D model, tool path and NC code all in the one package.
• Support is excellent and the tutorial supplied with the software is an excellent beginner's guide.
• Upgrades are very inexpensive.
• There is no costly maintenance contract. Annual Support Contract is only $195
  
• We recommend RealCAD as the best all round program. Suits schools needing a single program that covers all areas of design that is easy to teach.

Key Points:

• Wide range of modelling tools allow ANY shape to be created no matter how free form or bizarre the design.
• Relative Easy of use for its abilities.
• Rendering add-in included in the bundle.
• Inexpensive for a Lab license.
• Excellent curve capability (Better than any other).
• Ease of intersecting and blending of surfaces.
• Good web based support and backup.
• Large user base and plenty of teaching material available from the developers and from third party groups.
• Excellent ability to export in almost any file format for manufacturing or sharing of information.
• Excellent ability to rotate model and create shaded views etc.
• Excellent manual and starting tutorials.
• Evaluation available to download.
• Fast becoming the industry standard tool in industrial design, product design, jewellery design, ship design, car design footwear design, some games design and creature design for movie animation.
• Has full photo realistic rendering and animation available.

Rhino3D can be combined with RealCAD to provide 2D drafting abilities not found in Rhino3D alone