Gallery, Projects and General > The Design Shop
CAD - what you using?
PK:
--- Quote from: NeoTech on December 29, 2015, 08:28:48 AM ---Would say Fusion 360 is your best alternative atm, if you don't wanna become a pirate (yarhh)
--- End quote ---
Are many here using it? It seems pretty good, has built in toolpath generation, and the commercial licensing costs seem reasonable..
Most of the videos I've seen promoting it seem to end up having been sponsored by AutoCAD though, so it's hard to be sure..
raynerd:
Really interesting stuff, I'm quite surprised with the range of different software everyone is using. Does anyone else use inventor - like I say I am lucky enough to have genuine free access to this but it is tricky - but then like you have said, I expect they all take years of learning.
efrench:
--- Quote from: PK on December 29, 2015, 05:46:35 PM ---
--- Quote from: NeoTech on December 29, 2015, 08:28:48 AM ---Would say Fusion 360 is your best alternative atm, if you don't wanna become a pirate (yarhh)
--- End quote ---
Are many here using it? It seems pretty good, has built in toolpath generation, and the commercial licensing costs seem reasonable..
Most of the videos I've seen promoting it seem to end up having been sponsored by AutoCAD though, so it's hard to be sure..
--- End quote ---
I've used Visual Cadd in its various incarnations for 20 odd years, but it's only 2d.
I tried Sketchup and just couldn't find a way to make useful drawings.
I tried Onshape, but it had no ability to import dxf files, so it was a non-starter.
I have Viacad and it's user interface is closer to the 2d cad program.
I'm now using Fusion 360 and I like it much better than the other 3d programs. The CAM program is quite powerful.
Here's a rendering of the effector for my 3d printer:
And the finished effector, cnc'd and 3d printed:
philf:
--- Quote from: raynerd on January 01, 2016, 08:56:20 PM ---Really interesting stuff, I'm quite surprised with the range of different software everyone is using. Does anyone else use inventor - like I say I am lucky enough to have genuine free access to this but it is tricky - but then like you have said, I expect they all take years of learning.
--- End quote ---
Chris,
I used Inventor at work but not very much. I couldn't say it was very easy to use but an improvement over Mechanical Desktop which was Autodesk's previous 3d offering.
For 3d over the years I've used Medusa, Mechanical Desktop and Inventor at work and ViaCad and Autocad at home.
I'd love to try Fusion 360 but it will only run on a 64 bit operating system and I haven't got 64. I'd upgrade but I have some other vital software that won't run. Fortunately before downloading it told me my operating system wasn't suitable. I was keen to try it's 3d CAM.
99% of stuff I do doesn't need 3d and I'm happy with Autocad (2008) that I've been using for many years. A friend has done lots of 3d modelling in Autocad. This is a model of Lion - the loco he and I are building:
I haven't now got any examples from Inventor but it could produce photo-realistic output.
:beer:
Phil.
Anzaniste:
I went to night school to learn Inventor however I didn't manage to attend more than half of the classes nor did I make time to practise. I found it straightforward but hugely complex (of necessity when you consider what it is doing)
As I'm in my seventies I don't learn as fast as I used to!!! I reckon a young bloke like you, Chris, will have no real problems with learning Inventor but like all skills practise is the key to success.
I thought it was brilliant starting the drawing in 3D then producing 2D drawings to work from. A lot better than the Tech Drawing I did at Tech College 50 years ago
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