Hi all, newbie in fourm.

Been reading for years, but need to ask something........
I want to put some chassis drawings down on paper, got lotos of ideas in my head, but when i got back to them forget where i put them!

Need a simple to use design program, ive got years of experiance in fabrication but none in IT. So i need a simple program.

Any ideas?

Many thanks.

AutoCAD is quite a high end program. You could use AutoCAD Lite. Or even TurboCAD, which I used years ago but was ok.

If you are feeling brave you could try Solidworks. Quite a few experts on here use that and I am just learning it, but I successfully designed and had made some hubcentric adaptors.

It all just depends on what you want to use it for and how complex you want to go.

Someone will be along later to help I am sure.

Welcome to the forum.

I've used http://www.cadstd.com/ in the past. Works quite well too. I've only ever done 2D stuff with it but does the job for me....

I've used the Emachineshop designer software as well...

Otherwise there's Microstation Powerdraft Student Edition (if you're a student....) but that's a full on CAD program...

ProDesktop (by PTC) is pretty good and easy to use, also similar to ProEngineer when you get a bit more advanced... but I don't think they make it anymore!

Can't go too far wrong with Solidworks or AutoCAD really I'd say...

Cheers

Depends what you want from it - for 2D nothings better than some form of AutoCad. To be honest all 2D CAD packages are as easy/difficult to learn as each other anyway so you may as well learn the most popular one.

If you're wanting 3D and aren't too fussed about generating engineering drawings then Sketchup is by far the easiest - if you want engineering drawings Solidworks is as good/easy as any.

In my experience all CAD packages are difficult to start using as they work like no other packages.

Just in case any Linux users are reading QCAD is actually very good (2D only).

http://www.ribbonsoft.com/qcad.html
Packaged up in most distributions somewhere.

I can recommend Solidworks if you decide on a 3D CAD package. It is easy to pick up, especially if you have practical experience in building stuff, fabricating etc. as the method of modelling something in 3D is often very similar to how a part or assembly would be constructed in real life.

Solidworks also has an excellent set of tutorials which will introduce the basics to you, and should get you up and on your feet. There are plenty of users on here (I'm one of them!) who can answer questions, provide advice on how best to model things etc etc.

The advantage of learning something like Solidworks, is that it is a cracking skill to put on a CV too. Once you are competent in one 3D CAD software package, it is fairly easy to switch to other packages (eg, ProE, Catia etc etc), and a decent employer should recognise that. Of course, this might not be seen as a benefit though, depends on your view I suppose!

If you only want to produce 2D drawings, and don't see the need for 3D modelling too, then I would (again) recommend something like AutoCAD, purely because of the size of the user base if you need help!

Hope that helps

Andy

I second Solid Works. Very User friendly, and you can almost use it the way you would build things if its easier for you.

If you might want to do 3D models at some point dont get AutoCAD. Modern Solid modelling packages are much easier to learn for 3D.

Jono

I use SolidEdge which is similar to SolidWorks.
The advantage of these true 3D solid modeling packages of AutoCAD and other generic CAD packages is the understanding of parts, assemblies and the relationship between parts in an assembly is intrinsic i.e I've put a bolt in a hole so when the hole moves the bolt will go with it. Volume and mass are also very easy to report from them unlike generic cad packages.

However if you want to do fancy surfaces for your car body these packages are awful.
Rhino CAD is much better for that, what virtually all professional car designers use is Studio tools which there is a free version of, but this is coming at it from the "arty" end of this and is hard to learn in my opinion, especially if you are coming from a Windows world.

Solid edge also has a free 2D drafting package which would be a good place to start if you've new to this and don't have any CAD experienced mates to plague with questions.

http://www.ugs.com/products/velocity/?solid

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/index?siteID=123112&id=7233153

Doug.

Tanks for your replies, I've got hold of a solid works program, been doing stuf on it this afternoon, seems.......errrr.........Good?

I'm sure i will be asking more later.

I came across a free 3D CAD on the metalmeet website. Alibre Design Xpress. It comes with tutorials and there is a user forum which I have not used but which I hear is very helpful.

My skill is rather limited in this area, I did a year of TD in the 3rd form at school, but I have still managed to make some progress in using it.

The main limitation is that on the free version you are limited to 10 parts in an assembly. So you may end up with some complex parts!

Has anyone tried using AutoCAD 2007 in 3D? It is supposedly updated to be competitive with other big name 3D CAD packages. I've tooled around on it myself, but I have nothing to compare it to. I'm still working on learning the 2D part.

AutoDesk bought Alias (Maya, Studio tools) this year. ACAD 2007 looks like that type of product design tool rather than an engineering CAD package.
I've not actually used the thing so beyond that I can't comment.

see my post :-


http://www.locostbuilders.co.uk/viewthread.php?tid=56926&page=1 #pid472021

im a design engineer and know how hard cad packages are i use autocad & mechanical desktop for 3d , also i have used a lot of other programs.
this is the first one ive seen that i thought wow! good luck its free so u may as well try it
cheers stu , hope this helps , im buying the pro version for my father in law

[Edited on 19/12/06 by stulad]

Brickscad is an autocad clone that is much less expensive, I've played around with it some and seems to be full featured. I use autocad at work, and we may switch some of our machines over to this package.

[edit] fixed [/edit]

[Edited on 31/12/06 by violentblue]

The link you supplied isn't working.

AutoCAD doesn't cost anything if you have a crack.