3D Cad tools

[Mikebits]

I often find myself wanting to create 3D drawings but most of the CAD software I have seen is very expensive. I found a really nice trial version of Rhino 3D and I really liked it. It was very intuitive, and I was up and making 3D drawings in no time. Only problem was that the software only allowed 25 saves which gets used quite quickly. So I wanted something that was not limited or crippled and would not break the bank.
I just found FreeCad today, and I installed it, but have not really figured it out yet. If you want to try FreeCad you can download it from this website.
https://www.freecadweb.org/wiki/?title=Screenshots

I was just curious, how many of you use a CAD tool for mechanical stuff, and what you use to create them. Don't bother listing pirated software, because I don't want to go that route.

One thing I found out is that with my Military Veteran status, I can purchase SolidWorks student edition for non-comercial use. So if you have used SolidWorks, tell us how you liked it. SolidWorks seems to be a common tool taught in the college system.

 

[DerStrom8]

I use SolidWorks all the time at work and absolutely love it. It has a steep learning curve but a huge number of features that make 3D modelling very easy (once you know how to use the tools). It's very powerful, but also requires a powerful machine to run it (don't even think of trying to run it on a computer with less than 8GB of RAM).

I have also heard of SolidEdge, but don't really know anything about it.

There is of course always Google Sketchup, but I never cared much for that one myself. It's free though, last I checked.

Matt

 

[jpanhalt]

I had Solid Works for many years as a student/faculty license. I never did like its "context sensitive" icons. I called them "jumping icons" and never could find the one(s) I needed where I expected them to be. My previous experience was with Vellum Cobalt, which was easy to use but the visual presentation was not as nice. The last version I had did not have color shading to give perspective. I migrated to the free version of Google Sketch-up and really liked it, once I got the hang of making "mates." Dimensioning was crappy on Google, but it was far easier to get a functional drawing on that than on Solid Works. My last version of Solid Works was 2007. Maybe it has become more user friendly, especially for us dyslexic types.

In about 2008, I tried a piece of 3D CAD software that advertised itself as "90% of Solid Works for 10% of the cost." As simple mate was impossible to do,compared to SW or Google. I ended up using SW for that project. I have not tried the commercial version of Sketch-Up.

John

 

[Ian Rogers]

I'm learning Blender... 100 times better than autocad but so hard to learn.... It is one of the best3D packages I've ever encounterd.... Physics, rendering you name it.... Millions of tutorials online... Game engine built in..

EDIT... Oh yeah.... Its completely free...

 

[Mikebits]

I took a look at that Blender, it looks like it is more for graphic art design in modeling people. Reminds me of Rhino 3D in that it looks like it uses NERBS. Does it? Can you use it for mechanical stuff? On the pricing page it said it was $234 annually, or was that for something else. If I can do mechanical stuff, it will definitely be worth checking out. The human models on the website looked really awesome.

 

[Ian Rogers]

It's open source... Any non blender add ons may cost but I doubt it..

An ex employee ( member of the forum ) has created ALL of my main components in blender... In fact he modeled a crane, an excavator and a fork truck in their entirety... So the answer is yes! It can do all the real world physics involved with these things aswell.... The excavator demo pushes a brick wall over.. It looks very good.... The crane picks up a weight and when it drops it, each time it falls differently!!!

 

[Musicmanager]

I bet you eat 'Yorkies' too !!

 

[jpanhalt]

Solid Works also has physics, which is included in the Cosmos package, if that is what it is still called. The academic version included Cosmos and had demos/tutorials of the physics. One of those demos was a "purse hanger" designed to hang a hand bag from a dinning table. The physics showed stresses and strains, which allowed redesign. It was neat to see.

John

 

[Ian Rogers]

I bet you eat 'Yorkies' too !!

What! The dogs..... Love em!! Two for tea!!

 

[Musicmanager]

It's good job my wife can't see this screen .. ... she'd have you incarcerated in the Tower just for thinking that !

S

 

[Mikebits]

The thing about Blender is it looks hard to only work in 3D mode. I am more use to working from the 2 D world, and 3D for final design view.
The attached image shows what Rhino 3D looks like, it has 2D viewports, and one 3D perspective view.

 

[Grossel]

I too tried to learn to use Blender. Get stuck when I didn't found how to align two objects, seems to not being possible.

 

[Ian Rogers]

You can configure blender however you want...

My spider crane base

 

[Mikebits]

Oh, that is cool Okay I am gonna give it a try, you convinced me

 

[Mikebits]

I installed it, it looks cool, but also hard. Reminds me of 3Ds Max. Ian, can I ask, do you use a forum for Blender, is there a spot for noobies?
Still trying to figure out how to change views So far all I figured out is how to make a flat square.
--------------------------------------------edit-------------------------------------------------------
I just figured out how to change the view. I was clicking on the wrong Menu- View button. There is one on the top (which is the one I was trying) and one on bottom left (correct one).


Thanks

 

[Ian Rogers]

Middle mouse!!! all the viewpoints are the numb pad 0~9... You can split the screen as much as you like..

Go online and do this tutorial... Its fun..