definitely learn solidworks or something in that vein first

that, and as a prior skill, learn to draw by hand on paper orthogonal and isometric views of 3d objects.

cad is another theory building excercise, but instead of being about processes, its about objects. you want to start from a strong manual/first principles base

If you're more interested int the result than the process, Onshape or Fusion are great, free (with use restrictions) parametric CAD. And both support scripting, to some extent.

Both have really great documentation/examples.

Note: This is probably a dead-end; it is not on the same level as SolidWorks, Fusion etc.