Which CAD software?

[Space Ranger]

4 hours ago, Adam Poultney said:

I am learning with CATIA which is made by Dassault Systèmes as part of my Aerospace Engineering course at uni. It's awkward and fiddley.... But worst of all.... it's French!

 

 

Only joking we love our French neighbours

 

 

Or do we..................

Neil Gaunt of AIM uses CATIA as well. You’re in good company.

[bootneck]

2 hours ago, busnproplinerfan said:

That'll help, sure beats trying to carve that radio from a block of something. Have to try this. When I do, good chance I'll be bugging with questions. You just used the free option right? Thanks,

Yep, the free option has virtually all the facilities of the full program.  The only limitation that I have found is you can only have 10 files/projects open at a time. 

 

You can; however, produce many more files/models/projects than that, you just have to disable anything more than 10.  It is very easy to enable (make editable) and disable files just by selecting the relevant file, in the menu on the left, and switch.

 

 

I currently have 114 files on the go but only have 9, of the 10 allowed, editable at them moment.

 

 

 

HTH

 

Mike

[busnproplinerfan]

29 minutes ago, bootneck said:

Yep, the free option has virtually all the facilities of the full program.  The only limitation that I have found is you can only have 10 files/projects open at a time. 

 

You can; however, produce many more files/models/projects than that, you just have to disable anything more than 10.  It is very easy to enable (make editable) and disable files just by selecting the relevant file, in the menu on the left, and switch.

 

 

I currently have 114 files on the go but only have 9, of the 10 allowed, editable at them moment.

 

 

 

HTH

 

Mike

Thanks for the info. Hoping I can find someone local to print after. Printers have various tip sizes right? how small do you need in order to make the frame on the queen mary for example.

[bootneck]

That's possibly the easiest to do yourself.   I only started CAD a year ago, followed by the purchase of an Anycubic Photon S six months later and now I am churning the stuff out.

 

Mike

[busnproplinerfan]

12 hours ago, bootneck said:

That's possibly the easiest to do yourself.   I only started CAD a year ago, followed by the purchase of an Anycubic Photon S six months later and now I am churning the stuff out.

 

Mike

Baby steps for me, It's just another tool in the tool box. Will be useful.

[speedy]

I’ve just completed the 16 part video tuition for fusion360. My first question is how do I create a sphere?.

[Plastic Bonsai]

10 minutes ago, speedy said:

I’ve just completed the 16 part video tuition for fusion360. My first question is how do I create a sphere?.

Draw a 180 degree arc about one of the axes and then make a body of revelution? Just done the 16 myself - there is a lot more to find out but it's almost fun.

 

[bootneck]

5 hours ago, speedy said:

I’ve just completed the 16 part video tuition for fusion360. My first question is how do I create a sphere?.

Hi Speedy,

 

there's probably a proper 'experts' way and then there's mine.  Herewith how I do it:

 

Once you have opened Fusion 360, created a sketch and select the plane/axis

Select the Circle icon in the top menu

 

Draw a circle

 

hit E on keyboard, to extrude the body

 

type in the distance to extrude, in this case 13.59mm

 

Once the body has been extruded (ensure the Bodies tab is highlighted), it needs to be rounded off with the Fillet command [F]

Select the end of the body, same place as done with the E and select F this time

 

type in the dimension, again it is 13.59 for this example

 

We now have half of the spere.  Select the other side of the original sketch, to do the same in the opposite directiion

 

same again, enter the dimension 13.59mm.  Note -  ensure that the dialogue box on the right shows "join"

 

follow up with the F command again and enter 13.59mm

Te Dah!       

 

 

cheers,

Mike

[hendie]

2 hours ago, bootneck said:

Herewith how I do it:

 

Mike, a simpler method would be: Once you have drawn the circle, add a centerline (either through the circle, or from one quadrant to the opposite quadrant. as long as the centerline passes through the center of the circle you're fine).  Select REVOLVE and choose the centerline as your axis of revolution,  and the circle as the body to be revolved, and the set the degrees of revolution to 180 degrees.

 

 

[bootneck]

There you go,  I said there would be a proper way, and that an expert would come along.  I've just tried that and it took less than a minute to achieve.

Thanks very much Hendie!  

 

Mike

[albertross]

Hi All,

 

A bit of an introduction, I'm a long time Autodesk 3D CAD user, (1998), short time SLS printer owner (Dec 2021), not really a user yet, of an Elegoo Mars 2 Pro.

Hopefully joining this group I can share my wealth of CAD knowledge which is virtually all 3D solid modelling, (we leave surfacing to those that can't do maths), whilst using the collective here for improving my 3D prints.

I have run the test print and printed a small few parts with reasonable success. Will share images etc  when I find my photo sharing site.... now where did i put it....?

 

With regards CAD

 

On 1/11/2022 at 12:53 PM, Adam Poultney said:

I am learning with CATIA which is made by Dassault Systèmes as part of my Aerospace Engineering course at uni. It's awkward and fiddley.... But worst of all.... it's French!

 

Learning Catia, never mind. I'm sure they will let you loose on a proper 3D CAD package soon.  Dassault themselves make a better one.🤣. Catia's great for large companies especially when embeded with the complete Dassault package. As a stand alone 3D modeller I'd stick with Inventor or Solid Works or even better my free copy of Fusion.

 

For the majority (all) of the stand alone users on here a free version of Fusion360 will do all that you need it to do and more. As many have said do the tutorials and like all things practice. Try to make, join and blend (fillet) different shapes together, don't try and design the Titanic. as your first job.

 

As @bootneck has found out there are many different 'workflows' that end at the same result.  (CAD world, like most spheres (do you see what I did?) has its bull💩 bingo. My personal favourite was 'maximise your real-estate' or in layman's terms minimise the part tree.) Normally the simplest and quickest workflows are the best. Push through the dung and break it down into simple 3D shapes that get joined together.

 

Possibly the two bits of advice I will give for successful 3D modelling are :

• Always constrain your sketches fully and use the origin point  as reference wherever possible. (This will make for a robust model)
• Do not use projected geometry, it tends to fail when sketches are edited. (This will make for a robust model)

As previously mentioned please feel free to ask any questions. I do use Fusion for certain jobs , sorry work flows, at work so should be able to help.

 

All the Best

 

David

[wellsprop]

On 11/01/2022 at 17:50, Space Ranger said:

Neil Gaunt of AIM uses CATIA as well. You’re in good company.

 

On 11/01/2022 at 12:53, Adam Poultney said:

I am learning with CATIA which is made by Dassault Systèmes as part of my Aerospace Engineering course at uni. It's awkward and fiddley.... But worst of all.... it's French!

 

 

Only joking we love our French neighbours

 

 

Or do we..................

 

CATIA V5 for me too.

 

It's by far the most powerful and comprehensive CAD package out there - but it is not user friendly whatsoever.

 

Solidworks and Fusion 360 are quite nice and much more intuitive. @bootneck has shown how much impressive stuff can be made on F360!

[Jo NZ]

9 hours ago, wellsprop said:

 

 

CATIA V5 for me too.

 

It's by far the most powerful and comprehensive CAD package out there - but it is not user friendly whatsoever.

 

 

If you think CATIA isn't user friendly, you never tried Matra-Datavision EUCLID. After nearly 30 years I still remember it's crash message "Symbolic stack dump. Logging you out. Goodbye."

 

Added to that, all the error code descriptions were French translated to English by what must have been a Monty Python phrasebook. We learnt more by translating the French error header ourselves. I still have a French/English technical dictionary....

[bootneck]

But, as you state, that was over 30 years ago and software has improved tremendously since then.  The OP is asking about current software and we should focus on providing helpful advice on that.

 

cheers,

Mike

[Paul H]

Solidworks is good - I used to use it professionally in my previous career working in a superyacht design consultancy in London, but it's not cheap...  I now teach D&T (what used to be called CDT), and we use Autodesk Inventor and Fusion 360 in school as they do free educational licenses.  I still prefer Solidworks, but then I was using it for nearly everyday for about six or seven years so know it very well, but the ones I use now seem to work in a pretty similar way and the same principles apply.  Features such as the revolve and array tools can be especially useful and timesaving.

 

On 14/01/2022 at 23:42, albertross said:

Possibly the two bits of advice I will give for successful 3D modelling are :

• Always constrain your sketches fully and use the origin point  as reference wherever possible. (This will make for a robust model)
• Do not use projected geometry, it tends to fail when sketches are edited. (This will make for a robust model)

 

I haven't had issues with projected geometry that often however I usually allow for it in how I make any links / constrains, but fully and very strongly second your advice about using the origin properly and fully constraining sketches.  When teaching CAD to my students, this is one of the things I always try to instill in them early on so that it becomes second nature, for the very same reason that you state!

[Twobad]

I've read through this thread with interest. I'm a dyed-in-the-wool AutoCAD 3D solid modelling user, mainly for my 1:8 scale modelling interests (and if you can afford the exorbitant annual rates for the latest subscrition version I'd recommend it, but you will need to be well heeled at £2k/yr). The version that I have is getting very old now and anticipate moving to the free Fusion 360 eventually. My questions are: "Has anyone on here made that leap? How awkward is the transition and, given that packages come from the same manufacturer, how similar is the interface?

[hendie]

16 hours ago, Twobad said:

how similar is the interface?

 

If you are comparing Fusion to Vanilla ACAD then the interface is completely different.  I used AutoCAD for many years (now SolidWorks) and have recently started delving into Fusion.  To be honest, I find the Fusion interface and workflow a bit kludgy and in some cases counter intuitive. That is purely a personal opinion however.

It is still the best of the free solid modeling packages that I have tried out though. I've been searching for a decent 3D package for several years now knowing that SolidWorks isn't going to be available to me when I retire and I've probably tried about a dozen different softwares so far - Fusion is the best I have encountered to date.

 

If only someone would release a freeware SW clone I'd be happy

[Jo NZ]

On 25/02/2022 at 09:20, Twobad said:

I've read through this thread with interest. I'm a dyed-in-the-wool AutoCAD 3D solid modelling user, mainly for my 1:8 scale modelling interests (and if you can afford the exorbitant annual rates for the latest subscrition version I'd recommend it, but you will need to be well heeled at £2k/yr). The version that I have is getting very old now and anticipate moving to the free Fusion 360 eventually. My questions are: "Has anyone on here made that leap? How awkward is the transition and, given that packages come from the same manufacturer, how similar is the interface?

I started using Fusion because it was free.... After being trained in 3D CAD I was confused until I realised that you start in 2D and extrude to 3D. Once I'd grasped that it became easy. Not necessarily easy for those never trained in drawing or CAD though.

[MarkSH]

I believe that Rhino 3D's user environment was based on AutoCAD, having used AutoCAD LT, it certainly feels very similar when using the curves tool.  At around £800 for a perpetual license I consider it a reasonable investment and when I lose access to it via my employer's version I will definitely be buying my own copy.

[Noel Smith]

RS Components have a free downloadable 3D CAD program named DesignSpark Mechanical.

It has been developed for rapid prototyping on 3D printers.

[Bejay53]

I used CREO for many years before I retired.

I am now learning FreeCAD and Fusion 360.

FreeCad is closest to CREO. I don’t find Fusion very intuitive, but never used ACad products before.

[Noel Smith]

Has anyone on here used the RS Components free program. Design Spark Mechanical?I

Would be interested to find out how good it is.

 

Also, when I worked as a high school technician, there was a popular 3D program named ProDesktop that schools and colleges used that was a free to use program from PTC. They stopped supporting it and started to push Pro Engineer Wildfire for Schools that was far more difficult to learn. It was being pushed as part of the CAD in Schools program through an organisation named DATA (Design and Technology Association) who supply various design and technology equipment and learning aids to UK Schools. I looked on the DATA website recently and it appears that the Cad in Schools initiative is no more. I guess that Pro Engineer Wildfire being more difficult to master was not taken up by schools as hoped and the Cad In Schools initiative was quietly dropped. 

Edited June 8, 2023 by Noel Smith

[gamblor916]

I'm hearing good things about Plasticity. It's cheap ($99USD) and powerful. I've seen amazing things already on Youtube. Plus once you buy it you own it, no stupid on going licensing.

[Twobad]

I'm a dyed in the wool AutoCAD exponent.  I've used it for 15 - 16 years, but it is ruinously expensive if you have to pay your own way. Of the other options available I'd only recommend 2:

 

Fusion 360, which comes from the same developer as AutoCAD, and for me is similar enough dip in and out of. It's full blown CAD software which can handle quite serious stuff. They offer a free licence for casual users and Autodesk (publishers of AutoCAD and Fusion 360) provide some good tutorial videos. 

 

Solidworks. Developed by Dassault (who also do CATIA which us used by the big boys like BAE Systems, Royal Ordnance etc). They do annual licences for about £110 provided you promise not to turnover  more than $2k in any year of business.

 

As an AutoCAD guy I'm hovering between the two as to which I'll adopt if I can't access AutoCAD at some point in the future. I'm divided by all the things in Fusion that hack me off, like the filleting routines, and the unfamiliarity of Solidworks. However,  Solidworks is used by an awful lot of people and Dassault have demonstrated some competency in CAD software. 

 

[Bonhoff]

Have used AutoCAD (Both LT and full fat) for the last 25 years but simply couldn't get on with Fusion 360.

 

Currently using Sketchup to model various items for my railway modelling - Have modelled a Hunslet 040DM for a future 009 gauge project and am now working on a vertical boilered tram loco for my dad.

 

I doubt it would be easy to do compound curved surfaces, but there aren't many on my subject matter.

 

Only issue might be the output files - Sketchup 2017, which appears to be the free version, doesn't have many options, but the guy who printed the Hunslet for me was able to take the ".DAE" output and convert it into something that worked.

 

Full Sketchup allows output to IGES and STL but you're paying for the privilege. 

 

IanJ