3d cad

[udontknowme]

anybody know of a affordable one that will work good for designing crankcases and other engine related items ? key word is affordable :eagerness:

[jcs003]

try CREO.  there is a free 30 day trial.  the company i work for uses solidworks and i find it inferior to proE.  too bad i must learn solidworks.

http://www.ptc.com/product/creo/proengineer

john

[udontknowme]

i may give the trial version of creo a try. theres a guy whos been using it for engine related stuff so ill see if i can get his thoughts on it.  solid works is out of the question atleast right now, mainly because the price. down the road i may end up seriously considering it.  the student version requires a verified student status, plus the files cant be shared with the commercial versions.   i was thinking to try the free sketchup, mostly just to get familiar with 3D modeling then i can move to something better.

im not trying to reinvent the wheel here. what i want to do is design a twin cylinder crankcase and crankshaft (not for mass production but just for personal use), then use existing rods, cylinders, pistons etc. this would keep all the high wear items easily accesible for when replacement is neeeded.

[rk88r]

Making something like these? http://www.mattoonmachine.com/

[udontknowme]

no not like those. i want to get away from a cylinder reed configuration

[rablack21]

X2 on Creo. I have it on my home computer. While it is just a starter version and not the full utility, you should still be able to get alot of use out of it. Atleast it is free. I know John said it was a 30 day trial, but I believe mine was a completely free version. It just doesn't have full use of all the features. Something to think about.

[TRXforever]

If you are comfortable with your abilities..AutoCAD has a 30 day trail. I use AutoCAD 2014 daily for my 3D manufacturing needs, and it is hands down the best 3D manufacturing program IMO. I have tried solidworks also, nowhere near the program compared to AutoCAD. You only have 30 days though, then it is $5000.00!

[JesseA420]

^ x2 on autocad. i use it daily, matter of fact i am using it right now lol. the only problem is i dont think you will find an "affordable" quality cad software. u have to pay to play

[The_Steve_Man]

Acually you can get AutoCAD for 18 months. When go to download it just put you are a student

[udontknowme]

i dont really have much experience with 3D CAD software so atleast right now im kind of at the mercy of what i read online about it, and the different opinions of which one is best, until i get more experience and can form my own opinions. i found a completly free one for as long as you want called sketchup. i think it will teach me the basics and get me headed in the right direction so i can use some better and more complex stuff. do any you guys have experience with turboCAD ?   im thinking since its only $130 it probly isnt sufficient for what im wanting to do but figured i would get some thoughts on it anyways. it seemed to have good reviews from what i read and may be even a better option to learn on than the totally free stuff

something else maybe you guys could answer. what does parametric meen regarding 3D CAD software ?  i been talking with a guy who uses creo daily and has used most of the other 3D CAD's and he said he would advise against  any non-parametric 3D product.  ive messaged him asking for a better explanation of this but havent gotten a reply yet. i know what the general definition of parametric is but not in the context of 3D CAD

[Jerry Hall]

i dont really have much experience with 3D CAD software so atleast right now im kind of at the mercy of what i read online about it, and the different opinions of which one is best, until i get more experience and can form my own opinions. i found a completly free one for as long as you want called sketchup. i think it will teach me the basics and get me headed in the right direction so i can use some better and more complex stuff. do any you guys have experience with turboCAD ?   im thinking since its only $130 it probly isnt sufficient for what im wanting to do but figured i would get some thoughts on it anyways. it seemed to have good reviews from what i read and may be even a better option to learn on than the totally free stuff

something else maybe you guys could answer. what does parametric meen regarding 3D CAD software ?  i been talking with a guy who uses creo daily and has used most of the other 3D CAD's and he said he would advise against  any non-parametric 3D product.  ive messaged him asking for a better explanation of this but havent gotten a reply yet. i know what the general definition of parametric is but not in the context of 3D CAD

A 2 dimensional drawing is defined by parameters called coordinates.  These coordinates define the corners, edges, locations of holes etc.  

A 3 dimensional drawing is also defined by these same parameters as well as the design intent parameters such as symmetry and a host of other user defined parameters where one dimension depends upon other dimensions.

example:

Design parameter:  We want all of the walls in the house to reach the ceiling.  

We have drawn a house and all of the individual walls were drawn to attach to the ceiling.  After completing the drawings of the house we notice that the ceiling was 6 inches too low.  A cad package with parametric modeling capabilities will allow us to change one dimension (ceiling height) and all of the walls will automatically be re-drawn to be 6 inches taller.  Non parametric Cad packages would require all of the walls to be re-drawn individually to reflect the new ceiling height.

This is a poor example but maybe someone can give other examples of the advantages of Parametric Modeling

[udontknowme]

We have drawn a house and all of the individual walls were drawn to attach to the ceiling.  After completing the drawings of the house we notice that the ceiling was 6 inches too low.  A cad package with parametric modeling capabilities will allow us to change one dimension (ceiling height) and all of the walls will automatically be re-drawn to be 6 inches taller.  Non parametric Cad packages would require all of the walls to be re-drawn individually to reflect the new ceiling height.

This is a poor example but maybe someone can give other examples of the advantages of Parametric Modeling

thnx for chiming in. i just found some stuff regarding the parametric term when used in the 3D CAD context and it seemed to be basically as you describe with the house walls.  i suppose the parametric feature would be vitally important in cylinder/crankcase 3D modeling

[rablack21]

thnx for chiming in. i just found some stuff regarding the parametric term when used in the 3D CAD context and it seemed to be basically as you describe with the house walls.  i suppose the parametric feature would be vitally important in cylinder/crankcase 3D modeling

The parametric feature would absolutely vital to doing that type of modeling, unless you want it to take you forever and a day. Jerry gave a reasonable example. With parametric modeling, each dimension is paired to a parameter. When you change a dimension to a different number, you are really changing the parameter that governs that dimension of that feature. Parameter driven modeling takes into account design intention which the non parametric does not. With parametric modeling you create a "feature" instead of several lines that comes together to look like a "feature". There are alot of tutorial videos on youtube over multiple different modeling programs. Take a lot at parametric and non-parametric ones and I think you will see what we are talking about.

[troybilt]

I have Creo (formally ProE) at work at Cat, and 2014 Solidworks for my personal business.  I prefer solidworks, even after 17 years of using ProE, I taught myself solidworks in about 2 days, its more user friendly and some of the features I like better, Creo tried to change their GUI to be more like Solidworks and failed, Wildfire was better.  The "Standard" version of SW will set you back about $5k, the premium which allows you to do FEA and mechanism analysis is closer to $10k. Note you will also need a computer/graphics card to handle a professional CAD program, I have a BOXX workstation and it was around $5k as well, they are the best money can buy, you can get a decent Dell or HP workstation for about 2k.  A 2D drawing is a vector file, while 3D CAD is nurbs based modeling.  I also use software called Rhino3D with tsplines plug-in for doing complex organic surfaces shapes.  Rhino3D is extremely powerful software for the price ~1000 and can do all of what you want, but less user friendly.  It will do things that Creo or Solidworks just can't.  Most of these all have trial usage for certain amount of saves or 30days of use.  Pretty much all modern engineering based CAD systems are parametric, that used to be a big deal back in the late 90's when ProE was selling their self, (PTC).  Blender is a free 3D Cad system, I've used it some, but its more for 3D models that are used in gaming and 3D environments not engineering use.  There is starting to be a seperation from Engineering 3D CAD and viritual enviroment 3D CAD, you'll need to make sure you stick with a Engineering based 3D CAD system.  Google Sketchup is another free software and will a little of what you want at least to get your feet wet in CAD.

[udontknowme]

i heard good things about sketchup considering its free. should be a good place to start anyways. ill give it a try