Cad Programe

[Concussion]

Just wondering if anyone can recommend me a fairly user friendly Cad programe? 2D would be good, 3D would be better!

Downloaded Autodesk Autocad 2007, but to be honest the interface looked bewildering and I didn't fancy that one.

Also looking to teach my Dad on it. My pop`s an old-school enginer, I just thought it could help him out with work and maybe I could design some bike stuff with it and blag him to use the cnc machine.

Just something I can get my head around in a few days, but still with er` .....angles and stuff! (never used one!)

Cheers!

Plus any usefull info about Cad programes you can think of....urm?

[Walleee]

Auto cad's good for simple 2d drawings and such and building plans etc.

Solidworks is probobly the most widley used for 3d modelling but there are other out there too.

[Mr Motivator]

AutoCAD.

I have a copy of the 2000 version if you want it.

[PaRtZ]

I'd say solidworks, but I use prodesktop because our school's CNC machines used it and apparently is was easier to plot the machine to do it too

But yeah solidworks is very good

[Mr Motivator]

AutoCAD is £2,500.00

Solidworks is £45.00

I'll let you decide

[br3n]

Autocad is good for both 2d and 3d but it really depends what you want out of them, for autocad you have to be very accurate and it helps to know what your doing.

I'd take a guess and say hes not buying either of them so price isnt such an issue.

if you want a simple 3d program, try rhino cad, you can get a free evaluation version from the website.

[Robwalker]

EMachiene Shop.com Found this very easy to use once followed through the tutorials. Its all free aswell, Probaly best starting and learning the basics on this and then moving onto a more advanced one?

[Mooore!]

at work i use 2 programmes linked together. Workmanager & ME10. Top of the range for 2D drawings. Los of people think 3D is loads better and in most cases theyre right because you can see exacvtly what the finished article will look like but if you're trying to draw something that somebody can work to then 2D is far better.

[br3n]

I draw in cad and render in 3dsm

[Concussion]

Thanks for the advice and offers , I've got quite a few programs to try out today! To be honest though, I think I need to give some time to learning the many tools that come with CAD programs. After masterring Photoshop, I thought this 2D drawing thing would be easy.

Cheers

PS: Your telling me those pic are a render? Holy christ.... your kidding right? The lighting and texture are out of this world.

[OD404]

AutoCAD is £2,500.00

Solidworks is £45.00

I'll let you decide

Haha, try £8000 upwards for solidworks. I know I helped to buy it for the last company I worked for.

I'd definately recommend solidworks for ease of use in doing 3d, however if you want to use it for creating machine code to use on a cnc machine then you are stuffed because it doesn't have that capability without buying some other third party software. Higher end packages like Catia and Unigraphics have the cpapbility of creating machine code but I've found them a little harder to get used to, though they are every bit as good (if not better) when you have learnt.

so if you just want to model stuff, go for solidworks (I think I have copies from 2003 to 2006, but its not hard to come by anyway), but if you want to start programming cnc machines, I'd look elsewhere but be prepared to put more effort into learning.

[pogonation]

I think Autocad is pretty good. But at school I use ptc pro desktop which in my opinion is pretty user friendly... also I get it for free from my school wooo