Site visit
See a live project and how the drawing becomes the building.
Home / Life @ CADD
More than a classroom.
This is the part that an online course cannot give you — and the reason people who could have learned this from a video still come here. A room full of people solving the same problem. A trainer who can look over your shoulder. Competitions, site visits, guest sessions, and a lab you can stay late in.
Events & contests
Now open
CADD Quest 2026
CADD Centre's national design competition, now in its 2026 edition. Learners across the network compete on real design challenges — one of the few chances to benchmark your work against people outside your own centre.
Registration details, categories and deadlines confirmed at the centre.
In their words
Hear from our learners.
The calendar
Events we run and take part in
These are real fixtures, not a generic activities list.
Competition
CADD Quest
The national design competition. 2025 and 2026 editions both ran.
Festival
BIM Festival
A network-wide BIM event — sessions, challenges and industry exposure.
Emerging tech
AI in Engineering sessions
Where AI-assisted design workflows are demonstrated and discussed.
Dates, categories and entry terms are announced at the centre. Ask an advisor or follow us on social for the current calendar.
The gallery
What happens here
Explore, learn, build and get in front of employers — all in one place.
Project presentation
Stand up, present your work, and defend the decisions in it.
3D printing lab
Take a model off the screen and hold the printed part.
Live class
Taught in the room, with a trainer who answers as you go.
Guest session
A practitioner from the field, talking about the work as it is.
Industry session
What employers are hiring for, from the people doing the hiring.
The lab
Licensed software on machines specified for the work.
BIM review
Models opened, clashes found, and the fixes agreed.
Technical competition
Timed technical challenges, judged on the work you produce.
Career workshop
CV, portfolio and the questions you will actually be asked.
Mock interview
Real technical questioning, and honest feedback afterwards.
Job fair
Employers in the room, with your portfolio in your hand.
Make it real
Design it. Model it.
Make it real.
There is a specific moment in a designer's education when something changes — the first time a part they drew on a screen comes off a printer and they can hold it. Suddenly wall thickness is not a parameter, it is a thing that snaps.
CAD model→
Design review→
3D print→
Physical part
