Thread: Whats the best

Fusion 360 is free for non profits startups and students. I thought sketchup was also.

I have not used sketchup. I tried it once a long time ago but it was so alien to me I gave up. I worked as a design draftsman for years so fusion was much easier to learn for me, but I would think if you are starting from scratch sketchup would be easier.

Mechanical modeling packages like fusion require you to get into a certain frame of mind and use certain work flows to achieve things. They work well if you use them all the time but for occasional use remembering and working out how to do stuff could be frustrating. Also while fusion is very efficient for regular stuff when you get into less conventional modeling (like controlled surfaces) it is quite frustrating.

I modeled up a space frame for a special boat trailer I'm working on and it was easy peasy, but then I started working on hulls and it's a nightmare. For furniture this isn't a problem, but if I were trying to model musical instruments or wooden boats I would not choose fusion.

2c

Yeah sketch up has a free version but ive heard they keep taking features out and putting it into the paid version


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yes I know resurrecting an old one.

I need to get someone local to draw up plans for a ex horse float into mobile shop but very unusual design.
When asking on FB should I ask for Sketchup/ CAD / or what... shows how little I know about this topic.

dunno why you wouldn't just start a new thread - seems unrelated to this thread really.

The answer is "it depends". What is the work product you want? Is it a set of drawings and files that you can then take to have manufactured(ie production ready drawings)? Is it just the plans alone, to your spec, where the person is purely documenting what you ask? Or is it the CAD files themselves, so that you can then go and tweak/revise for yourself?

It's not dissimilar to engaging someone to draw plans of a house. A plan is easy, when you can ignore engineering. Engineering a solution (and accepting the associated risks) is much harder/expensive. You just need to make sure you contract out the correct work, to get the correct outcome.

I have a stack of scaled pencil drawings and would like to sit with someone as they do them in 3D on a computer then tweak as see fit. this would then give detailed assembly plan for fabricator plus a cut plan, would all be 30mm sq metal tube and aluminium composite panels (same as caravans)