Thread: Who likes which CAD package?

Originally Posted by .RC.

google sketchup....

Not sure if you were serious or not here RC but I am continually amazed at how good this program is. I use AutoCAD and sketchup pro, and often flick models between the two. At $500 bucks or whatever it is these days for the pro version, it is by far the best value for money available. I see people spend a day drawing stuff in autocad that would take a couple of hours in sketchup.

sketchup is the complete opposite of autocad. when you first fire up autocad its like losing your lunch money in the sandpit - eventually you find enough to get by. Sketchup is more like the sausage sizzle in front of Bunnies - mandatory.

Cheers

- Mick

Well Mick, I like it.... I bought Alibre Design (the cheap cheap version), but could never work out how to do much with it... So I use sketchup.. I actually never considered any home shop user purchasing a CAD that might cost much over a couple of hundred dollars...Let alone thousands...

I got a cheap (cough) copy of autocad from Hong Kong and used it for years and never liked it. Now I use the free version of sketchup for drawing parts for turning, woodwork projects, my pool deck, etc. I even used it to estimate the amount of spoil my pool excavation would produce.

Originally Posted by .RC.

Well Mick, I like it.... I bought Alibre Design (the cheap cheap version), but could never work out how to do much with it... So I use sketchup.. I actually never considered any home shop user purchasing a CAD that might cost much over a couple of hundred dollars...Let alone thousands...

Yeah, if it was just for my hobby use, I'm afraid the only thing I would consider is sketchup free . In fact even in some lines of business (home designers for instance), I reckon you could get away with sketchup alone.

I can see the advantage in some of the $$$ software if you need collision detection, etc. for lots of moving parts, or minimising wastage or laser cutting time, etc. but I couldn't imagine it being worthwhile for the home user.

I guess it all depends on what you need the software for.

Cheers

- Mick

Michael I have a discount offer on Turbocad if that interests you. They're offering TC Pro 19 Platinum in 64 bit for Win, for $600 instead of $1500. I don't know if that offer would be transferable but if so you're welcome to it. I bought a download copy a while back when I was wanting to try 3D but couldn't get on with it. So I get snail-spammed occasionally. I find QCad and Sketchup adequate for my modest needs.

Have a look at ViaCad.

Solidworks it ain't! But it only costs $100

ViaCAD 2D/3D | Consumer CAD Software | PunchCAD

Depends what you want from a 3D package.

Greg

I'm soo glad that I'm not the only one totally frustrated with CAD programs. I have tried cadcam,turbocad,sketchup,solidworks. I think that I must be, just too old(ie40), to fathom the idiosyncracys of these programs. I am so frustrated that I am going to purchase an old school drawing table and do 'the sh_t" old school. I reckon by the time I have worked out how to draw a parrallel line to the dimension I require I could have drawn it 10 times over!!!!

I have used TurboCad since Dos days. I used Auto Sketch prior to that (I think) My knowledge is not enough to recommend what is required here tho. I have tried 3D but realised I need to use it a lot more than I do to to get anywhere so I only use the 2D functions. The biggest thing I have found is that I have access to all my drawings and I know where they are. I can print out a copy to take out in the shed and later use the back to scribble measurements etc.

I did a floor plan of our previous house on paper. It got lost.

How do you decide which CAD / CAM package is best? I would class that question as very very dificult. I think you need to work out which will do what you want then see if anyone has any issues with the abilities of specific packages within these requirements.

I wish you luck with your selection.

Dean

Originally Posted by Oldneweng

I did a floor plan of our previous house on paper. It got lost.


Dean

I can relate. The computer is relatively easy to find.

It's probably worth looking at some of the online tutorials. Youtube has some and no doubt other places.

I first learned autocad in about 1990 at tech, but I frankly found using cad slower than a drawing board for many years. In the last 8 years though I've cottoned on to the workflows that make cad productive. Once the penny drops you can bang out stuff very quickly and the 3d does a lot of work for you, sorting angles and fits.

I sympathise with the problems casual or new users face. I wish there was a really good resource to get you into the right frame of mind to get going. If anyone finds one please do post it here.

I've settled on Rhino. There's only a few things that I don't like about it and they're things that on their forum generate enough heat that eventually they'll fix up, once their version 5 is released. For the most part, there's nothing you can't draw in Rhino, it is fantastically flexible and has a huge aftermarket of plug-ins, and is very flexible with file formats. If you really have to, you can use Rhino in conjunction with SpaceClaim, they work together well (SC reads and saves native Rhino, seamless round-trip). For naval architecture, Maxsurf saves and reads Rhino. Orca3D is an NA plug-in too. T-splines is a hugely powerful plug-in (but Autodesk bought it so they might cripple it). Lots of renderers for it, I bought Air for illustrative rendering, does what I need, fast. Lots of CAM packages for it too, I bought and like madCAM from Sweden.
Rhino is quite different from Solidworks in that it is non-parametric, so you can go and do what you want, but then, if 'design intent' (in the technical CAD sense) is important then SW does it, Rhino doesn't. But considering Rhino is 1/15th the price of SW, it is stunningly competitive against SW. Where Rhino can get expensive is when you get tempted by all the aftermarket plugins, and they are many. Oh yeah, SW does simulations, Rhino for the most part cannot, though kinetic simulations can be done with the Driving Dimensions plugin. But fluid mechanics sims - no. Rhino has about the best on-screen perspective view (native 3-point perspective, not clunky isometric like in SW), and nice silky 'ghosted view' - but no realtime Ambient Occlusion display, which is one of the things the forum members whinge about and the developers will presumably introduce to stop the whinging, at some point.
Rhino and SW don't work together that well, the thing to watch out for is that SW 'solids' have problems that become exposed when imported into Rhino. Rhino to SW is acheived through STEP format, works well.
Before I bought Rhino (in 2007 I think) I bought TurboCAD, used it a while, but I thought it quite clunky, and especially so after I got Rhino. Never touched TC again after Rhino.
SketchUp is great because it's easy and not got a steep learning curve, but then you plateau, it can't do complicated surfaces and also, if you're doing precise engineering stuff the 'sketchy' lines and so on get a bit tiresome. I encourage all casual usrs to get into it, but I don't think it's really a pro package especially for MCAD. Good for woodworkers and quite good for architecture.
SpaceClaim I bought but found it hard to control the screen action (spin and zoom) and that put me off enough I didn't carry it further; but sometimes I use it for tricky MCAD problems.
The other high-end parametric modellers I don't know about. Alibre (as an alternative to going high-end) I suspect will hit limitations if you were to use it, I looked into it recently and I don't think it will get you to where Solidworks does, if you want a solid modeller.
ViaCAD Punch or whatever it is called I think might be fine in itself, but really doesn;'t have the huge user base, support network and aftermarket that you get with being a Rhino or SW user.
I have no idea at all about AutoCAD and all its derivatives (gave up on them after uni days), there are so many AutoDesk products it makes my head swim and I give up. I believe they are an integrated web of products, so if you had the high dollars required to join the club, then you could have that smug feeling of knowing you're part of The Brand (as opposed to all the riff-raff outside), like Mac users feel.
Right, that's such a long thread absolutely nobody will read this far, so just between you and me, Mr Keyboard, did you know that just about everything mentioned here turns up if you type rar after typing the software name into your search engine. CGPersia is also a very surprising website indeed in that way, scandalous even, and never uses torrents. But ethically this should only be for students, dabblers and those with no money and far too much time on their hands, not for commercial-user freeloading.