Drawing Software

mmcmdl said:
Is Unigraphics still in use ? It's been over 20 years since I've used any drawing or modeling or programming seats . :eek 2: Maybe in the near future I could get back up to speed in one of these packages .
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UG is still alive and kicking at $10k for a license and around $2500 a year maintenance fee. GM uses it for design work. Best thing to happen for packages like Solidworks; most of the capability for a fraction of the cost.

My wife is a UG designer at a local defense contractor. She does freelance work at home using Solidworks (EAA member).

Bruce
 
I have tried to learn 3D design software many times in the past, now with my CNC mill/drill nearing completion it's become more urgent. I've also been a computer admin for 30+ years and have watched as the professional software market has evolved over that time. I'll be putting my effort into learning FreeCAD for a number of reasons which have mostly been listed here already.

1. It's FOSS - Free and Open Source Software
2. I'm confident that with the number of people working on the project it's not going away any time soon.
3. The user base ranges from hobbyists to serious professionals and the community supports them all (kinda like Hobby-Machinist:)).
4. Bugs are likely to be addresses quickly and new features added often.
5. I like the Open Source model for software and have watched as it has become better than closed source in every way.

Of course, if I had spent a lot of time learning something that worked for me, or, if I had a lot of money tied up in a closed solution I would probably stay with that. But if someone was just starting out I would highly recommend installing Ubuntu Linux and FreeCad on their PC and giving it a try. Linux is a lot easier to install and work with than it was just a few years ago and it costs nothing to try it out.

Great tip on the EAA membership thing with Solidworks though, awesome software and great organization (my dad was a homebuilder). But as both time and money are limited for me I know what I'll be doing and why.

John
 
Occasionally, a project will transition design SW mid stream (UG18 to CATIAV5R16). So there are times when a designer opens two different CAD systems and works between them. Depending on your skills, it may be easier to design in the older CAD and import to the new. Personally, that was a bad management decision since every model/drawing had to be converted and checked. This is when IGES, DFX and STL are a godsend or the most dangerous.
 
matthewsx said:
I'll be putting my effort into learning FreeCAD for a number of reasons which have mostly been listed here already.

John
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Comparing working with FreeCad and AutoCad or Solidworks, I found the knowledge is very transferable and making moving to others much easier.

From the extremely good and easy user interface of Sketchup, I moved to FreeCad no problem.
I then went onto making FreeCad animation using Python and QT threads . I never wrote Python before that, reminded me of the dinosaur COBOL programming in term of spaces.

Ubuntu was my main OS, but now there are some great alternatives. When you have time, give Mint Linux a shot, based on Ubuntu. Another great OS that is light weight, making your computer super fast is https://lxle.net/

Also based on Ubuntu, you can still do pretty much everything by installing Ubuntu packages. Makes Core 2 duo fast again (with SSD hard drive)

I use both of them.
 
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If you're a cheapskate like me and would prefer to spend your hard earned cash on physical tools rather than virtual ones, you might do worse than trying Designspark. Its a 3D design package that can be downloaded from rs-online.com/designspark/mechanical-download-and-installation. It requires you to register to unlock it but I've not seen any downsides to that in the 3 yrs I've run it. Its intended for 3D printing I think. I came across it as I used RS for electrical/electronic components when I converted my lathe and mill to run off VFDs.

Rob
 
I just looked briefly, the DesignSpark user interaction interface is so similar to that of Sketchup.
 
A bit off topic, but continue about the Lxle Linux above, they even made a desktop background for people like us, some somewhat relevant :). It was even the default image a while back. It's really nice:

lxle.jpg
 
Yup.
I learned from my dad. Still have most of his gear


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
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