Brief History

The Horn Drafting & CAD Center was started in Houston in 1966.   The first location was on the Gulf Freeway, and we taught over a thousand students a variety of courses in manual drafting:  Basic, Piping, Mechanical, Structural, Electrical, Topographic, Aircraft & Missile, Technical Illustration, and Construction Design.  Many of these early graduates have had long and successful careers in drafting and have moved up to management and leadership positions in many Houston industries and engineering companies.   We were among the first schools licensed in Houston, when the state of Texas passed regulations for proprietary schools in 1972.

Horn Drafting was the first school to offer Computer Aided Design (CAD) courses to the public, beginning in 1982.  We progressed through a variety of systems and settled on AutoCAD in the late 1980s.  We began adding CAD courses that used special piping systems as software became more advanced (Prime, Autotrol, Pro-Pipe, Rebis, AutoPlant, and recently CADWorx), so we have always been interested in providing the latest, and most advanced technology for our students.

All courses are currently being taught by Anthony Horn, who holds degrees in both engineering and architecture.  He has many years of drafting and teaching experience, and takes a personal interest in all students who attend his classes.   The class size is kept purposefully small, with a maximum of twenty students in a session, so that he can make sure that they all get the detailed attention needed to successfully learn this new field.  We use a combination of personal teaching and video training to teach the material.  Mr. Horn has recorded himself doing each exercise you will do in the course, and you can see how it's done first, then do it yourself step by step.  Along the way, if you need personal help in a certain step, he coaches you how to do it.  This learning process makes learning AutoCAD and the other courses easier and quicker to learn, and with better understanding and accuracy.  

In 2008, Anthony Horn authored the "CADWorx Video Training Course" for COADE, the makers of CADWorx plant design software.  This course is now used in their worldwide dealer channel for certified CADWorx (piping software) training.  We use the same materials here at the school, so students taking this course get the same training as professional designers in the industry.  This is the only school in the region offering this level of industry training.

Anthony Horn has trained drafters, designers, and engineers from a variety of Houston companies, including Kellogg Brown & Root, Lockheed Martin, Shell Oil Company, Mustang Engineering, S&B Engineering, Worley Parsons, Technip Upstream, Aker Maritime, El Paso Field Services, ABB Lummus Global, Schaffer Industries, Bechtel, as well as many others.