indianatrials Posted January 11, 2010 Report Share Posted January 11, 2010 I just need something uber cheap (free if possible =P) just to design plain stuff like bashrings boosters etc. etc.. Nothing to complicated. Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dannytrialskid Posted January 11, 2010 Report Share Posted January 11, 2010 I use GiMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) Here is the download link: http://tinyurl.com/yh93fyo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
benthedog Posted January 11, 2010 Report Share Posted January 11, 2010 My school uses Autodesk Inventor Proffesional 2008. I think. It's really hard though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psycholist Posted January 11, 2010 Report Share Posted January 11, 2010 Google sketchup is the free software I'd choose - graphical editors are more worried about the picture on the screen that the dimensional precision of the part, so not really suitable to design parts. PTC have a £60 offer to (university) students for a copy of their latest CAD package Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire 4.0, which would be my software of choice - it includes a finite element analysis package, basic photorendering and a mannequin part, so when you design a bike you can sit a realistically proportioned person on it and confirm your dimensions. The commercial edition is more like £5000, so quite a deal... PTC Offer... I'd have bought mine already only when I changed currency to Euro the charge magically rose to £76 for exactly the same offer, so I've sent them a grumpy email ... Most CAD packages are hard to start on because you need to understand what information the computer needs before it can create the geometry correctly and that takes some time especially if there's nobody who knows the package really well to teach you. Once it clicks it becomes very easy though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mod-out Posted January 11, 2010 Report Share Posted January 11, 2010 Sketchup is the best free software, I'd say. That said, it seems much more aimed at architectural work than machine design (which is what things like bashguards fall under). If I were you I'd find a copy of Solidworks 2009. It's very functional, and also includes good rendering and FEA programs for checking out a part. Solidworks is a direct competitior with Pro/E (here in the states Pro/E is popular at bigger companies, but Solidworks is what you will find being used at most machine shops, etc). Solidworks is very easy to learn if you follow their tutorials. It also interfaces with MasterCAM very, very well, which means it's easy to transfer your files into a program for machining them. CAD programs don't have much of a spectrum on price. They are either free, or insanely expensive (thousands of dollars here in the states). Student versions are usually a bargain at a couple hundred dollars, but they If you want to kill an ant with a nuclear weapon, try Catia V5.0. I believe a seat of it is $15,000+. It's the program used to design things ranging from cruise ships to submarines to the Mirage jet fighter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex Dark Posted January 11, 2010 Report Share Posted January 11, 2010 Solidworks is ace only cad program ive used apart from google sketchup but so far very impressed Check my bike-build college topic for renderings of models i recently made. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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