3D cad software which one

[meatbal80]

I need to get some 3d cad software, and i dont want to spend a bunch right off the bat. Any suggestions and what are any major drawbacks about each?

[gene]

look at aspire , download the free trial and see if you like it. It has hours of tutorials and plenty of support Vectric.com

[dlcw]

Aspire leans more toward a CAM (computer aided manufacturing) program. It has some limited CAD capability.

Programs like AutoCAD, TuboCAD, Rhino, etc. are full blown CAD (computer aided design) programs. Some of the CAD programs have trial downloads as well.

[zeykr]

There are lots of cad/cam options. If you'll tell people what you intend to use it for, they can probably make better recommendations.

Many folks use the vectric products for their drawing tools/ CAM and they work very well, but a few do need the power of full CAD systems like autocad or even solidworks.

[cnc_works]

For 3D CAD I highly recommend Rhino. Easy to pick up to do the basics, powerful enough to accomplish pretty well any drawing task including photo like rendering. Under $1000 and if you can somehow qualify for educational version, my son says it is only $150.

If I had a big budget and needed to learn a new program I would probably go for Solidworks.

[meatbal80]

My wife just went back to school, i think that rhino wins. But still undecided.

[bob_s]

I was asking the same question, And I went with Sketchup Pro - $50 per year if you are in school. The free version will do most of the same things. I went with it because of the amazing tutorials available from Google, and Fine Woodworking that are very applicable to what I wanted. I needed to be able to rough my art work in 3d even though I use CPP and Aspire to design and cut it. I found that the training for Rhino and most of the others was going to be very expensive, or time consuming. Just my opinion, I do think Aspire is a great program if you are not going to need full 3d. It is finely tailored to what we do with CNC 3 axis machines, and with the Vectic tutorials and forum the learning curve is remarkably painless.

[meatbal80]

where did you see that price for sketch up, i looked but didn't see anything?

[brian]

How does Rhino pro compare to Delcam powershape.
I know they probably differ in price,I was wondering if they were similar in form and function.
Brian

[fredtoo]

http://sketchup.google.com/industries/edu/students.html

[meatbal80]

thats a nice price but it says that the license expires in one year

[widgetworks_unlimited]

You may already know about this, but many folks getting into CAD don't and it makes a BIG difference in your successful use of CAD software...

CAD software is split into two camps... parametric modeling and nurbs/spline modeling.

The design philosophy and the way you create/define your model is totally different depending on which type of software you are using. Each type has it's pros and cons. Many jobs will be easy with one type and unbearable with the other type. Neither type is always the "right tool for the job".

If you're designing cabinets or engines, parametric models make it easy to make parts line up and gears work together. They are also easy to update with changes.

If you're designing car bodies or art sculptures, nurbs models will be better at defining "organic" shapes.

SolidWorks is by far the best parametric software but it costs $4-5k per seat. :mad: Check out Alibre, which is not nearly as good, but is more than adequate for most things and a great bargin at $100 and also offered in a free version.

Rhino is widely accepted as a fantastic nurbs package. I think it was $500-$1000 last time I purchased a license.

[michael_schwartz]

You may already know about this, but many folks getting into CAD don't and it makes a BIG difference in your successful use of CAD software...

CAD software is split into two camps... parametric modeling and nurbs/spline modeling.

The design philosophy and the way you create/define your model is totally different depending on which type of software you are using. Each type has it's pros and cons. Many jobs will be easy with one type and unbearable with the other type. Neither type is always the "right tool for the job".

If you're designing cabinets or engines, parametric models make it easy to make parts line up and gears work together. They are also easy to update with changes.

If you're designing car bodies or art sculptures, nurbs models will be better at defining "organic" shapes.

SolidWorks is by far the best parametric software but it costs $4-5k per seat. :mad: Check out Alibre, which is not nearly as good, but is more than adequate for most things and a great bargin at $100 and also offered in a free version.

Rhino is widely accepted as a fantastic nurbs package. I think it was $500-$1000 last time I purchased a license.

Being in the market for 3D cad software as well, the above information really helped out.

[adrianm]

thats a nice price but it says that the license expires in one year

For the sort of things that woodworkers do the free version of Sketchup is more than adequate.

Import/Export of different format files is the only stumbling block and there are plenty of free add-ons available to get round that issue.