What CAD program do you all use?

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Re: What CAD program do you all use?

Postby bdring » Wed May 16, 2012 12:32 pm

I use Pro/Engineer Wildfire 5 and/or CREO. For 2D work I use the free AutoCAD clone Draftsight.

I can't imagine using a non parametric 3D design tool.

AutoCAD Inventor is a good tool and they have their Fusion product available free as a preview right now.

http://labs.autodesk.com/technologies/fusion/

All of the major players are going towards hybrid modeling and having the ability to mix file types. Fusion and CREO can have assembly models with parts from various CAD programs in the native format. Hybrid modeling allows you to work both parametrically and do direct changes to the solid model. I am not a huge fan of direct modeling, but it does allow you to work on the previously dumb file types like STEP. It is like Sketchup on steroids.
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Re: What CAD program do you all use?

Postby dwjp » Thu May 17, 2012 12:55 am

Likewise -- trying to design mechanical systems in Sketchup/Blender/etc. is driving me mad. I'm downloading the Fusion preview now (especially since it is available in OS X native, a very rare thing for MCAD). I'm worried I'll get attached to it (and they'll want $10k for a final license), since the license expires in a year!
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Re: What CAD program do you all use?

Postby Nick Brawne » Thu May 17, 2012 6:37 am

All those looking for a low cost solids package might want to look at ViaCAD.
http://punchcad.com/p-9-viacad-2d3d-v8.aspx

It’s a modeless, hybrid surface / solid modeler which allows for direct modeling, which means you don’t have to draw something, dimension it and then extrude. It is not parametric, but their is a history tree that allows you to go back and edit dimensions. The package has a really good export to STL which allows you to easily change and see subdivisions and facet count. It will also import and export all the main formats, but not Parasolids (SolidWorks).

The basic Mac / PC consumer version is $100, but is often available on special for less.

I have been using the Pro version for 10 plus years, and keep coming back to as I find it the most intuitive package available at a decent price.
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Re: What CAD program do you all use?

Postby gavztheouch » Thu May 17, 2012 8:30 am

At my last workplace I used Uni graphics NX6, while it was an absolute bitch to learn, I reckon it has become my preferred choice over solidworks which is more intuitive at first but then becomes limiting once you know how NX6 performs. To be fair Solidworks is still preferable for simple stuff and it is considerably cheaper.

I have tried Freecad and it looks promising I can see it won't be long until there is a credible opensource cad package out there, like Ink scape and Gimp are in the graphics world.
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Re: What CAD program do you all use?

Postby Liberty4Ever » Sat Jun 02, 2012 12:51 am

I've been playing with FreeCAD and it looks like it has promise and is developing fairly rapidly. I need to design 3D stuff to print on my Hadron as soon as I've built it. I also run Linux exclusively, so that's limiting my 3D CAD options. I'll probably try Openscad. I've done a lot of programming and probably am not as put off by the text based interface as most.

If anyone has a suggestion for a Linux 3D CAD program that outputs good STL files, I'd love to hear it.
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Re: What CAD program do you all use?

Postby royco » Sat Jun 02, 2012 2:13 am

I use Autodesk Inventor for all my 3D stuff (Home and Work) but was using Solidworks for a couple of years. Both are equally easy to use but Inventor's workflow seems to be better. Fusion is nice but havent used it much.

Diptrace for PCB/Schematics, not as feature rich as Eagle but its so damn easy to use. Freeware is full featured except its limited to 2 layers and 300 pin count.

CorelDraw and Inscape for 2D/Artwork
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Re: What CAD program do you all use?

Postby Olaf » Tue Jun 26, 2012 2:31 pm

DeweyOxberger wrote:I use LibreCad - it's open source, has a clunky user interface, and is a throw-back to Autocad from the 1990's. Still, it works and it has been fairly solid.

Also use LibreCad and quite satisfied with it`s functioning
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Re: What CAD program do you all use?

Postby Cre8ivdsgn » Tue Jun 26, 2012 6:41 pm

I suppose this question arises pretty often - favorite CAD packages and all. The irony is that today I am looking at upgrading my CAD software and its just making me... steamed.

Its the upgrade process. Some vendors are pretty reasonable: Surfware put together a proposal for me to upgrade that I can finally afford (I have been using Surfcam since 1996).

Autodesk (for autocad LT) is killing me though. Their current policy is basically to allow upgrades only from the last three years so 2011, 2010, and 2009. So that means that since I have 2005, I need to buy the full seat at $1050 or so. Interestingly, the full package at CDW is a bit less, I think.

I have used Alibre a good bit in the past. As the part count gets higher, it gets markedly slower. Otherwise it works pretty well. I have yet to look into what it would take to update that package.

I would be happy to look at Inventor, but the upgrade nonsense is just driving me batty.

I have one friend who does everything in Bobcad. And he does very complicated industrial automation designs. I suppose it is what you are used to. I certainly can't fault him for it considering my current predicament with Autocad LT.

If anyone has suggestions out there, I'm all ears!
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Re: What CAD program do you all use?

Postby TLHarrell » Tue Jun 26, 2012 8:04 pm

Why bother upgrading Autocad? I use Autocad r2000. I have no intention of upgrading as the current stuff has so much more licensing nonsense to set up and is just totally full of bloat. 2000 is fairly thin and light, and I can run it even on old Pentium 2 hardware if needed.
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Re: What CAD program do you all use?

Postby Cre8ivdsgn » Tue Jun 26, 2012 8:52 pm

I am finally upgrading an older HP xw4200 and of course I am going from XP to Windows 7 64 bit. I might be able to run Autocad lt 2005 under XP mode, but I simply need to blunder through the process and see if it works. I just thought that if I was upgrading the hardware, I should upgrade the software!

As a side note, I am close to Carnegie Mellon and my son is in a summer program for high school kids there. In one course he is taking, they are designing parts using Google Sketchup.

I need to make the transition to Windows 7 (my customers have) and I view this as an opportunity to update everything. Little did I realize how darn spendy it could be!
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