found a free CAD program! [CAD Discussion]

NYSpeed Automotive NYSpeed Off Topic
41

2d autocad is standard knowledge anywhere in industry. its been used before so theyll assume you know how to use it if you ever need to go back to that project or such. it is still widely used.

i work at an international A/E firm. we previously used autocad mep and autcad architectural, and still do for many projects or projects that were previously done in autocad. however we are now using revit architecture and revit mep. just about 100% arch and structural use revit, and mep divisions were about 50/50% and slowly working towards 100% new projects being in revit.

in mechanical industries id say solidworks and autocad is what is used by the majority.

travis, id say itd be a good idea to dabble in everything, or atleast 2d autocad, autocad inventor, and solidworks. unigraphics is very close to solidworks, but not as good and not used as much. if you have no intention of doing any type of engineering in the architectural world, then dont bother with revit.

42

Seriously what firm, you say this so many times…

43

thanks. ill eventually do that if I can get a computer that can support those kinds of programs…

44

Learning to operate the software is far less important than learning how to model and put together drawings, neither of which you will get from playing with it. This will typically leave you as a master of creating artistic representations of shapes.

IMO, I’d learn the 3D programs, they are going to be far more useful than the 2D. The flavor doesn’t matter. Once you get proficient with one, you’ll be able to switch between programs depending on who your employer works with.

ProTIP: Its easiest to learn SolidWorks due to its intuitive nature however learning more complex programs first will make adding additional programs to your competency much easier.

Flipping between programs will only make you confused.

45

And BTW - anyone that says they primarily design in 2D works for a shit company, making either boring as shit products, or nothing new at all.

It is like chosing to use a 2400 baud modem and netscape to get on NYSpeed, does it work, sure, but it sure as fuck is retarded in this day and age.

I guarantee I can create a drawing faster by creating the model first, than doing the drawing in 2D.

46

Or is a civil… or a landscape… or a geotech… or jesus, the list goes one with the uselessness of actually doing these drawings in 3D

I can give you a lot of things that will not be faster in 3D than 2D

47

cannon design.

48

Any recommendations for an easy to learn CAD program for someone thats just trying to model things for fun?

49

Google Sketch Up.

It’s free and very easy to use.

I have educator access to the whole Autodesk suite, I may be able to register you as a student if you wanted to try Inventor. I have to look at the terms and conditions to see what I can and can’t do.

50

Thanks, I’ll give google sketch up a try first. Thank you for the offer, maybe another time, I just don’t want to put you through a big process since this is new to me and I’m only doing it for fun.

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I want to model cars, say for a video game, what would be a good program for this?

51

I still use AutoCAD 2000i. For what I do it does what I need and I don’t use it enough to justify learning something else. I probably use about 10% of it’s ability.