Cad program help
 

Hi guys, I have been lurking for a long time and have learned a tremendous amount from all of you who so willingly share pics, links and facts. Thanks a bunch for that. I am still learning and I am interested in purchasing a CAD program. I have been doing all of my past work on a drafting table and it just takes to long. Can someone suggest a simple, easy to use program that would get me started??? I'll take all the help I can get... Thanks in advance. Doug

A good CAD program is going to cost you a lot of money.
Unigraphics, Solidworks, PRO E, CATIA are all cad software.
Do some searches and see which one would better fit your needs.

I have been using Unigraphics since 1992 so Im biased towards Unigraphics.
I think SolidWorks is just as good and a bit cheaper.

X2 ^ You could also check this out. I don't know much about it, but it seems to have a following.

http://sketchup.google.com/intl/en/

Also, if you are a student or teacher you can get educational versions of the above software at reduced cost.

Good luck.

I was a Pro-E user for 8 years and then I switched to SolidWorks 10 years ago.

SolidWorks is an awesome choice! Decent price for what it can do. I've done simple brackets, as well as several car frames. I also use it professionally to design cooling systems for the aerospace and defense industries.


--Eric

Thanks for the input guys. At least now I know what to look for. I think I will start looking for Solidworks first.

Doug

Solidworks is a good one, but where I use the CAM feature of the software as much as the CAD side, I have always been partial to Mastercam

Pairing up
 

I taught myself Autocad about 8 years ago and when I decided to move into 3D design, my brother, who was an ME student, told me to try Pro-E. I tried it but I found that the learning curve for me was just too steep so I stuck with 2D design until a few years ago. When I started running the CNC machines at my current shop, I decided that I need to try 3D design again and after much searching I settled on a combination. I currently use Solidworks 2010 to do all of my 3D design and I use Mastercam X3 to do all of the CAM functions. The nice thing about Solidworks is that not only can you do 3D design, you can design sheetmetal parts in 3D space and then flatten them for cutting. Also, I find that being able to design and assemble parts to test their movements together is very handy when building one off, custom parts. Stress(FEA) and flow tests can also be done completely in the computer as well. Those are just few of the many features I use on a daily basis in the shop. I whole-heartdly recommend Solidworks.

The cool thing about Unigraphics NX series is that it does it all in one tool.
CAD,CAM,Sheet metal, Kinematics etc.. I have a Masters Certificate in Design from Unigraphics. I use the CAM very little but I will be using it more now and using the new 5 axis machine.

there are a bunch of cad programs out there, most of the major ones are already talked about here.
i cheaper route might be Gibbs cam. im not sure about the price though

Unigraphics NX will do everything
and is user friendly, but expensive.