Preferred CAD Software?

[Piero]

Playing with Sketchup but also looking at revit and fusion 360... anyone with CAD xp have any advice? I’m CAD-illiterate... 🤗

Edited October 3, 2018 by Piero

[TheClark]

I love fusion 360.  Tinkercad was my gateway drug, but I quickly found it limiting.  Fusion 360 is a beast, so powerful and lots of youtube videos for learning.  

Also Openscad often has it's place, even if to generate parts to import into fusion.  Freecad is popular but I have not used it.

Whatcha designing?

 

[Piero]

Thanks. I got all sorts of custom sump and stand ideas i need to get out of my head and start experimenting in a modeling environment. Noticing a lot of freely available models from places like 8020 and grainger. I'm assuming those models can be used regardless of the CAD client you're importing into or do some model formats not work with some CAD software?

[danlu_gt]

I like Design Sparks Mechanical. It's free and short learning curve. I use it for my main 3D CAD works.

FreeCAD is useful when you need to import/export to different formats. I haven't actually design with it. It's UI seems odd to me.

OpenSCAD is code base 3D model, very flexible. Advantages are you can change your design easily by change variable constants. You'll need to have good mental image of what you want and translate that to programming.

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[TheClark]

23 hours ago, Piero said:

Thanks. I got all sorts of custom sump and stand ideas i need to get out of my head and start experimenting in a modeling environment. Noticing a lot of freely available models from places like 8020 and grainger. I'm assuming those models can be used regardless of the CAD client you're importing into or do some model formats not work with some CAD software?

Ya, you can import directly from the mcmaster carr catalog right inside of fusion.  Other models can be imported in various formats.

It's a bit of a mechanical revolution going on, the ability to dream up things and print them out is HUGE!