cad

[cellery stick]

hi all, just wondering if anyone can recomend a 3d cad program that is fairly easy to pick up and not to pricey. i have a fair bit of experience on autocad 2005 lt but this is only 2d.
thanks in advance
cellery stick

 

[MarkMG]

http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=15736

 

[decepticon]

why not give us a bit of a clue what you plan to use it for so some sensible suggestions can be given
cheers

 

[NigelAylesbury]

What’s your budget?
Some times you can get "education and/or home use" licenses.
https://www.journeyed.co.uk/index.php/cat/c8_Construction---CAD.html
I have the Pro/E Wildfire 3.0, and I haven't made it fall over yet, but it’s not for the beginner. I have 10,000 hours on this……
I would point you in the direction of Solidworks.
The real issue here is what are you going to do with it?
2D drawings?
Proper drawings with full parts listings?
3D assemblies, exploded views etc...?
Model up people’s kitchens? Trust me, until you start charging for your work, you wouldn’t believe how often you get asked to do this.
Fancy rendered views?
And so it goes on….

 

[rkde]

Solidworks basic starts at about £3000-£4000 but there are education versions if you can get it - normally from a distributor. I use full versions of solidowrks with all the rendering and I think with the service it works out about £9000-£10000 per seat

If its for Micky mouse type work then I think del cam cad is free and functional. Also google sketch up for simple 3D. Then maybe look at inventor or a basic pro engineer...

 

[cellery stick]

cheers for the replies. i have a fair bit of experience of of auto cad as i use it in work. i do most of the fabrication drawings and layouts for the company i work for. the thing is it is only 2d. what i realy want to do is get some experience of 3d. im starting to pick up a bit of private fabrication work and the cad is very handy, people like to see a nice picture of what yor going to provide them with. anyway im starting to think about starting on my own so being able to provide professional drawings from home will get me one step closer. anyhow cheers again, nice to get some usefull replies, thanks lads.

 

[rkde]

Stick with 2D and my company can do the renders for you saving you time and maybe even money as you wont have to spend mega money buying software... I think you will find we are quite competitive with our costs

 

[graffian]

Isn't all Autocad 3D!
Not as easy to do 3D as solidworks/proE/Catia though.
This is a drawing I did in an early windows version of autocad.

 

[rkde]

Most autocad is 3D but the very basic is just 2D and does not give you the UCS and surfacing tools. I have done a lot of work in autocad when I started out, drawing assembly robots in 3D and it was a painful process I wouldn't want to do again.

The above product is nice and simple and say suited to autocad 2d/3d. Times have moved on now and so has the software. I once drew an original mini in autocad it took several months and then weighed just over 3gb of data.

 

[Dune]

Your version of Autocad must be very basic even Diet Cad (Auto cad lite) has 3d and rendering. You can get a legal copy of 2010 lite for less than a grand

 

[graffian]

Most autocad is 3D but the very basic is just 2D and does not give you the UCS and surfacing tools. I have done a lot of work in autocad when I started out, drawing assembly robots in 3D and it was a painful process I wouldn't want to do again.

The above product is nice and simple and say suited to autocad 2d/3d. Times have moved on now and so has the software. I once drew an original mini in autocad it took several months and then weighed just over 3gb of data.

3GB! I had a big 850MB disk when I first got autocad;-)

 

[rkde]

LOL it was my whole hard drive back then. Sad to say the files never left the drive