Author Topic: CAD recommendations  (Read 33956 times)

Offline bry1975

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 417
  • Country: gb
    • http://www.satintime.co.uk
Re: CAD recommendations
« Reply #25 on: June 03, 2011, 09:44:47 PM »
Have any of you tried Qcad on Linux os it's free seemed quite good last time I used it?

Offline quantumeer

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Posts: 19
Re: CAD recommendations
« Reply #26 on: June 04, 2011, 09:45:39 AM »
I use QCAD (the free "community edition") on Linux. It works fine for me. This edition has not been updated in ages, so is probably as you remember it.  Because of this, and the fact that it is not tracking updates in linux, the LibreCAD fork is probably the future of the free version.  It is said to be working now, but I have not tried it.

Mark

Offline bry1975

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 417
  • Country: gb
    • http://www.satintime.co.uk
Re: CAD recommendations
« Reply #27 on: June 04, 2011, 07:52:46 PM »
Thanks Mark,

I'm an ex Autocad user I guess like most of us on here.

I think the best Autodesk package I used would've been Mechanical desktop 3 or 4 it was an educational version but was quite good even started to use parametric 3D modelling etc etc.



Bry

Offline Bluechip

  • Madmodder Committee
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1513
  • Country: england
  • Derbyshire UK
Re: CAD recommendations
« Reply #28 on: July 18, 2011, 04:02:48 PM »
At the present time there is no contest.


Solid works which is the main 3D modelling program but expensive, read 5K to license has released a cut down 2D version called Draftsight for free,
no strings attached, and nothing crippled.

Add to this they have put loads of tutorials on Youtube showing various features that you can't go wrong.

http://www.draftsight.com

John S.


Hi Folks ..

OK, so full of wild enthusiasm, I download the thing, validate it, but it don't ekkle.

W7 says 'The program has stopped working and is looking for a solution' BLLX, it never starts.
When I click the icon all I get is the logo wotsit.

Anyone use this with W7/64 bit ??

Looked at the FAQ's re: system requirements, I got more than the min. but it don't say if it's to run on W7/64 ??

BC
I have a few modest talents. Knowing what I'm doing isn't one of them.

Offline dickda1

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 161
Re: CAD recommendations
« Reply #29 on: July 23, 2011, 11:55:41 PM »
This is only vaguely related, but is truly amazing (and free).

Try Photofly

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

Take a bunch of still pictures around an object (machine part, a person or a building), ship them up to the Autodesk cloud super computer.  It will return to you a 3 dimensional image.

You have got to try this.

-Dick
sunny (mostly) San Francisco, land of looney people, sane politics and occasional earthquakes.
Skype: VladTheChemist

Offline rotorhead

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 165
  • Country: england
Re: CAD recommendations
« Reply #30 on: April 06, 2012, 08:44:06 AM »
Hi Bluechip,

Did you get Draft-Sight to work in your W7 x64.

Just downloaded it, and the PDF instructions pointed to by JS.

It seems to work OK so far, maybe you needed some .net libraries updating or installing....

Anyway hope it worked eventually.
Chris
Sunny Scunny,
North Lincolnshire.

Offline Bluechip

  • Madmodder Committee
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1513
  • Country: england
  • Derbyshire UK
Re: CAD recommendations
« Reply #31 on: April 06, 2012, 09:35:19 AM »
Hi Bluechip,

Did you get Draft-Sight to work in your W7 x64.

Just downloaded it, and the PDF instructions pointed to by JS.

It seems to work OK so far, maybe you needed some .net libraries updating or installing....

Anyway hope it worked eventually.

Hi Chris ..

Strewth ... blast from the past ...  :lol:

I have 2 PC's, one a Toshiba Laptop, t'other an ACER in a box.

Both on W7 Home Premium 64 bit, both have far more than the minimum CPU/Storage requirements ...

Could not get any sense out of it on the Tosh. but it works fine on the ACER ..  :scratch:  :scratch:

OTOH at one time I could not get CuP Alloys site to work on the ACER, just got errors. But it worked OK on the Tosh.
Now CuP Alloys site works fine on both. More friggin'  :scratch:  :scratch:  :scratch:

No, I can't use Draftsight. Not had much of  fiddle with it though .. one day maybe ...

Dave BC





« Last Edit: April 06, 2012, 02:19:36 PM by Bluechip »
I have a few modest talents. Knowing what I'm doing isn't one of them.

Offline Lew_Merrick_PE

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 690
  • Country: us
Re: CAD recommendations
« Reply #32 on: April 06, 2012, 12:38:04 PM »
Jason -- The answer is, as always, it depends on what you need or want to do.  Remember that we sent men to the moon & back using pencils & paper with nearly all the calculations done using slide-rules and abacus!  In point of fact, the first hand-held (but not pocket) calculators were designed by NASA and built for them by HP and TI in 1967-68 (I made most of the injection mold and trim dies for the HP program).  I started working with CAD (Gerber IDS) in 1971.  As of 1994, I had used nearly 300 different CAD programs.

My work requires me (today) to switch back-and-forth among: Catia, SolidWorks, SolidEdge, ProEngineer (now CREO), UniGraphics (UG), and Alibre.  These are all 3D "solids" (a misnomer) systems that have varying degrees of "rules-based" (they like to call them "parametric" -- but, with the exception of Catia and SolidEdge, they are NOT) design systems.  I have also done a couple of design jobs using (Autodesk) Inventor.  For the most part, there are very complicated design systems that create really POOR QUALITY drawings!  The people in control of the CAD universe today have NO IDEA how dimensions SHOULD BE applied to a drawing.  SolidWorks and ProEngineer like to "rearrange" you dimension to suit somebody's total IGNORANCE as to how dimensions ought to be applied to a drawing.

Documentation is, for the most part, an after-thought.  CAD company supplied tutorials are, for the most part, trivial and incomplete.  This makes it hard for the "new to CAD" person to get a handle on things.  Spend some time looking at the User's Group Forums before you plunk down any cash.  This is where you assistance is going to come from!

To be clear, I believe that the CAD industry as a whole made a major mistake in swallowing the concept of "solids" as they did en masse in 1994.  They seem to have forgotten that geometry is comprised of: points, paths, areas, and volumes.  They have mistaken photo realistic for functional.  They seem to have forgotten that models, while they need to be accurate representations, they also need to be variable to represent various tolerance conditions in order to properly control overall fit-up.  They seem to never have known that drawings are inherently schematic in nature and, as such, often need to be exaggerated to convey information to those actually making the design a reality.  This is why I often tell people that I hate all the modern CAD systems.

Now, having said that, I often tell new (often start-up) businesses to start out (at least) using Alibre.  My reasoning here is simple.  It has nearly all the tools that the high-priced systems have for a total initial investment of $1100/seat (that is reputed to be coming down in the very near term) with an annual update & license fee running in the $300 range.  This buys you a reasonably powerful CAD toolset plus a basic CAM toolset that can compete pretty much head-to-head with SolidWorks or ProEngineer.  You are (dumb solids) compatible with both SolidWorks and ProEngineer and actually have more configuration and command structure control with Alibre than with either SolidWorks or ProEngineer.  The downside (other than a couple of known bugs in the current release -- which is also true of other CAD products) lies mostly in your having to figure out work arounds for some pre-programmed commands available in other CAD products.

For about $900 you can add the FEMdesigner product to Alibre to have integrated CAD/FEA capabilities.  I make no bones that FEMdesigner is a product that needs work before it becomes a designer's analysis tool (rather than an analyst's tool) -- and I am working with them to upgrade parts of their interface (and I get their products for free for working with them in this way -- just so you understand what my interest in the company is) to make it more useable for the designer.  If you can afford the pricetag (about $8500), FEMap is a more powerful and intuitive FEA analysis tool.

As I said, it depends on what you need from your toolset.

Offline Mayhem

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 130
  • Country: au
  • purveyor of mischief
Re: CAD recommendations
« Reply #33 on: July 02, 2012, 07:23:11 AM »
I have tried a couple and settled on DraftSight.  My main issue however, is getting the chamfer tool to work.  It just baffles me.  Fillets are fine but chamfers is a whole different story  :bang: