undergradly.
Major · Engineering Tech

Modeling the parts before anything gets cut or poured

CAD/CADD Drafting and Design Technology trains you to turn an engineer’s sketch into the 2D drawings and 3D models a fabricator, builder, or manufacturer actually works from. Across 128 colleges, 701 students completed the credential last year, mostly at community and technical colleges. Median earnings five years out land near $61,244.

Schools offering
128
Annual completions
701
Typical degree level
Associate's + Bachelor's
Median earnings (5yr)
$61k

About this major

CAD/CADD Drafting and Design Technology prepares you to apply technical knowledge and advanced computer software to the creation of engineering drawings, 3D models, and design simulations. The CIP definition emphasizes engineering graphics, two- and three-dimensional design, solids modeling, engineering animation, and the auto-CAD techniques that sit underneath them. Coursework typically covers drafting standards and dimensioning, blueprint reading, materials and manufacturing processes, parametric solids modeling, and a heavy rotation through Autodesk AutoCAD, Inventor or SOLIDWORKS, and increasingly Revit or Civil 3D depending on the program’s industry orientation. Most days, students sit inside the software and learn to translate intent into a model that another technician, engineer, or fabricator can read without a phone call.

The major rewards a particular kind of mind: someone comfortable resolving messy ideas into precise, tolerance-aware geometry, who can hold a part’s function in mind while picking a fillet radius, and who has the patience to chase a revision through twenty drawing sheets without losing the version. A baseline interest in how things are physically built — how parts mate, how assemblies tolerate stack-up, how an engineer’s sketch becomes a buildable spec — matters more than artistic talent. Students often arrive from drafting electives in high school, manufacturing or construction backgrounds, or first-generation engineering pathways looking for a faster credential than a four-year engineering bachelor’s.

Nationally, the major is small and concentrated in the trade-credential tier. The packet shows 701 completions across 128 colleges, with the largest single producer being Trine University at 35 bachelor’s completions and the rest weighted toward community and technical colleges like Johnson County Community College, Valencia College, Minnesota State College Southeast, and Pennsylvania College of Technology. The closest entry-level destinations span Architectural and Civil Drafters at $64,280, Mechanical Drafters at $68,510, and Electrical Drafters at $73,720 — wages that show the field is paid, but also that growth is splitting between BIM-fluent roles and shrinking pure-drafting work.

Section 3 · Careers

Where this major leads

Occupations most often associated with this major, from the federal BLS+O*NET crosswalk. Job-growth projections and median wages are national.

Occupation Median wage Job growth Typical education
Architectural and civil drafters $64k +4.1% Associate's degree
Mechanical drafters $69k -6.5% Associate's degree
Electrical and electronics drafters $74k -5.6% Associate's degree
Drafters, all other $62k -6.9% Associate's degree
Section 4 · Earnings

Earnings at a glance

Median graduate earnings from the federal College Scorecard, 5 and 10 years out.

Median 5-year earnings

$61k

Associate's vs Bachelor's — early-career earnings

Associate's

$59k

Bachelor's

$72k

Who this major is for

You may thrive here if a day inside SOLIDWORKS, AutoCAD, or Revit sounds like focus rather than tedium, you already enjoy the assembly logic of physical things — how a bracket meets a plate, how a circuit lays out across a board, how a site grades to a road — and you want a credential that gets you working faster than a four-year engineering degree. The data points to two clean entry routes: a community-college associate’s like the ones at Johnson County Community College or Valencia College, or a longer bachelor’s at a technically oriented school like Trine University or Pennsylvania College of Technology. If your target is one of the four BLS drafter occupations on this packet — wages between $62,010 and $73,720 — the shorter credential plus an Autodesk Certified Professional or SOLIDWORKS CSWA/CSWP certification is often enough to get hired, and many states fund this exact pathway through Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act dollars at the community-college level.

Reconsider this route if your real goal is to design the products or buildings rather than document them; that work runs through mechanical engineering (CIP 14.1901) or architecture (CIP 04.0201), not this technician CIP. Pause as well if three of the four career destinations on the packet — Mechanical Drafters at -6.5%, Electrical at -5.6%, and the catch-all category at -6.9% — feel too soft for your risk tolerance, because the field is actively reshaping under BIM, parametric modeling, and AI-assisted automation. The honest reality is that pure 2D drafting is shrinking and BIM-, model-, and data-fluent roles are growing, so a student who only wants to learn AutoCAD line work is heading toward the weakest part of the market. Finally, weigh the bachelor’s-versus-associate’s gap in this dataset — about $13,600 in median earnings — against two extra years of tuition and time out of the workforce.

Section 6 · Where to study

Top colleges for CAD/CADD Drafting and/or Design Technology/Technician

Ranked by annual completions at the associate's or bachelor's level — a proxy for program scale.

College Location Assoc. Bach. Total
Trine University Angola, IN 0 35 35
Johnson County Community College Overland Park, KS 26 0 26
Valencia College Orlando, FL 20 0 20
Minnesota State College Southeast Winona, MN 20 0 20
Pennsylvania College of Technology Williamsport, PA 19 0 19
SUNY College of Technology at Delhi Delhi, NY 19 0 19
YTI Career Institute-York York, PA 18 0 18
Savannah College of Art and Design Savannah, GA 0 18 18
Academy of Art University San Francisco, CA 0 18 18
Hennepin Technical College Brooklyn Park, MN 17 0 17
Section 7 · Explore sideways

Related majors to explore

Drafting and Design Technology/Technician, General

1,386 completions/yr

Architectural Drafting and Architectural CAD/CADD

715 completions/yr

Mechanical Drafting and Mechanical Drafting CAD/CADD

353 completions/yr

Drafting/Design Engineering Technologies/Technicians, Other

47 completions/yr

Civil Drafting and Civil Engineering CAD/CADD

44 completions/yr

Electrical/Electronics Drafting and Electrical/Electronics CAD/CADD

30 completions/yr

3-D Modeling and Design Technology/Technician

14 completions/yr
Section 9 · Frequently asked

Common questions

What do CAD/CADD Drafting majors actually do day-to-day?
You produce the engineering drawings and 3D models that fabricators, machinists, contractors, and electricians use to build whatever the engineering team designed. The work is split between AutoCAD, SOLIDWORKS, Inventor, Revit, and Civil 3D depending on the industry, plus model checks, dimensioning, tolerancing, and revision cycles. The Bureau of Labor Statistics groups most graduates under Architectural and Civil Drafters at a $64,280 median wage, Mechanical Drafters at $68,510, or Electrical and Electronics Drafters at $73,720, all entered with an associate’s degree. Expect redlines, change orders, and a lot of back-and-forth with the engineers whose designs you are documenting.
How is this different from Architectural Drafting (15.1303)?
CIP 15.1302 is the broad, general-purpose CAD/CADD track — graduates feed mechanical shops, civil and infrastructure firms, electrical consultancies, and manufacturers. CIP 15.1303, by contrast, is architecture-specific and trains you for buildings work in Revit. If you already know you want to draw buildings, the architectural CIP is the cleaner pick; if you want to keep the door open across mechanical, civil, and electrical work — or you just don’t know yet — this general CAD/CADD track is more flexible. The packet shows 701 national completions for 15.1302 against 715 for 15.1303, so the two are roughly the same size.
Is the associate’s enough, or do I need the bachelor’s?
All four BLS career destinations on this packet — architectural/civil, mechanical, electrical, and other drafters — list a typical entry point of an associate’s degree. Many employers will go further and hire on a community-college certificate plus demonstrated AutoCAD and SOLIDWORKS fluency, especially when paired with an Autodesk Certified Professional, SOLIDWORKS CSWA, or CSWP credential. In this dataset associate’s completers earn about $58,689 five years out against $72,318 for the bachelor’s cohort, so the bachelor’s premium is real but not dramatic. The honest take: pick the shortest credential that builds a portfolio and gets you interviews, then keep stacking certifications on the job.
Is this field shrinking because of BIM and AI?
The arrows point in different directions inside the same major. Architectural and Civil Drafters show 4.1% projected growth, while Mechanical Drafters sit at -6.5%, Electrical at -5.6%, and the catch-all Drafters category at -6.9%. That spread is what BIM, parametric modeling, and AI-assisted tools like Autodesk Forma, generative design in Inventor, and SOLIDWORKS automation are doing in real time — squeezing pure 2D drafting and rewarding people who own the model, the data inside it, and the coordination workflow. The career ladder runs Drafter → CAD Technician → BIM or Design Coordinator → BIM Manager or Designer, and the ceiling is materially higher for people who move up the modeling-and-data side.
Where do graduates actually end up working?
The packet shows training concentrated at community colleges and technical institutes — Johnson County Community College, Valencia College, Minnesota State College Southeast, Pennsylvania College of Technology, SUNY College of Technology at Delhi, YTI Career Institute–York, and Hennepin Technical College — with a smaller bachelor’s pipeline through Trine University, Savannah College of Art and Design, and Academy of Art University. That mix points to two pipelines: technical-college graduates moving into manufacturing shops, contractors, and engineering consultancies as Drafters or CAD Technicians, and bachelor’s graduates from design-leaning schools moving toward product-design and visualization studios. Junior titles include CAD Drafter, Design Technician, Junior BIM Modeler, and Engineering Aide.
What if I want a more specialized CAD path instead?
Several siblings sit under the same CIP family. Mechanical Drafting and Mechanical CAD/CADD (15.1306) targets manufacturing and product work in SOLIDWORKS or Inventor. Civil Drafting and Civil Engineering CAD/CADD (15.1304) feeds infrastructure — roads, utilities, site work — in Civil 3D. Electrical/Electronics Drafting (15.1305) trains for schematics and PCB layout, and 3-D Modeling and Design Technology (15.1307) leans into product visualization. Pick a sibling if you already know your industry; pick this general 15.1302 track if you want the same software stack with the option to specialize on the job.