Anybody using friendly, cheap, hobby-level 3D CAD software?
Now that I'm welding like a champ, I'd like to be able to try actually designing some stuff before I build it. Using a pencil and graphpaper just isn't cutting it for me. I erase so much I end up with no graph and a crooked drawing that isn't quite to scale.
No cad program here, I usually start out with a drawing and adjust the item from there as needed. The project ends up working better than the original drawing.
I don't know any cheap 3D CAD tools. (they exist, I just don't have a need for them)
But a way to get a good 3D CAD tool cheap is through a student discount.
If you or your wife, or a friend, are students at a local college or university, head down to their local bookstore and see what they have.
If you can get a student version, I'd strongly recommend Solid Edge or Solid Works. For Solid Works, don't get the version with COSMOS unless you also want to play with and learn finite element modeling. $100 is a steal for good CAD though. Not to mention, with the filetypes from SW or SE, you could take them to a machine shop and get things made.
"It's not debt per se that overwhelms an individual, corporation, or country. Rather, it is the continuous increase in debt in relation to income that causes trouble." --Warren Buffett
The problem I was having with drawing is that steel is EXPENSIVE and by having an accurate design, I don't have to waste money with excess. I could draw the stuff on graph paper but I would change the design so much while drawing I was just wasting time and paper. And I couldn't get a real feel of the 3D portion.
I found Alibre Xpress 9.1 as a free download shortly after posting last night. I've been playing with it this morning and it's actually pretty sweet. Has 2D and 3D design capability, can print out the draft sheets (don't know what they're actually called) and allows you to design individual parts and then assemble them. The parametric design capability (that's what the tutorial called it) allows me to "erase" or change dimensions without having to redesign the entire project to accept the changes (in the future anyway, all I've been able to do today is create one side of my welding table so far )
And the tutorial is awesome, I created a 3D rendering of one side of my welding table in about 30 minutes after watching about 15 minutes of the video tutorial. (For reference, I was working with XCAD 11 for four days and could barely draw an accurate cube.) The tutorial is step-by-step, video based and is integrated into the software. The software maintains updates with the website so if tutorials are changed or added, you can stay up to date. There's even an online team design ability and the ability to get online help from Alibre and allow them to actually help you fix design flaws or show you how to do stuff.
So far, for my hobby level design needs, it's perfect. Any more than this and I'm probably putting more effort into the design than the project I'm working on. I ain't no real engineer.
So far, for my hobby level design needs, it's perfect. Any more than this and I'm probably putting more effort into the design than the project I'm working on. I ain't no real engineer.
Glad you found something that works.
Only argument I'd make for either of those packages I mentioned, is that they'd be nice resume candy...but if all you care about is saving steel, it sounds like you found just what you need.
"It's not debt per se that overwhelms an individual, corporation, or country. Rather, it is the continuous increase in debt in relation to income that causes trouble." --Warren Buffett
But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government.
Took a break to play with one of the intro tutorials. Not too bad for about 25 minutes and no real experience:
CAD is fun to play with. I actually taught myself 3-D AutoCAD over a summer (after I was hired and fired for an intership before my first day of work. ) and after I'd crank out a drawing, sometimes I'd take it and show my parents...like I wanted a gold star or something.
People that are truly aces with it (which I am not) do some impressive stuff very quickly.
"It's not debt per se that overwhelms an individual, corporation, or country. Rather, it is the continuous increase in debt in relation to income that causes trouble." --Warren Buffett
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Originally Posted by seamus
Glad you found something that works.
) and after I'd crank out a drawing, sometimes I'd take it and show my parents...like I wanted a gold star or something. 
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