My drafting instructor wanted us to do some research and find some good CAD programs for mechanical drafting other than Solid Works.

Does anyone recommend or know of any good titles?

Mike

 

wow i really need a good CAD program so i can edit architectual plans

 

autodesk-autocad.

i use it for engineering and what my college uses and a great program to have
very good program, but also very expensive

 

What kind of drafting? Are you just creating "2D" plans or are you actually doing full 3D models with asemblies and all? If the former, then just about anything will work - ACAD, MicroStation, etc. If you're doing asemblies and dynamic modeling, you'll beed something specifically designed for that purpose - and it will be very expensive.

 

He just wanted us to research different titles. The school is still using autocad 2000 because they can't afford the newer stuff (even though they are building a 154 million dollar high school in the current field).

I am looking for software that does mechanical drafting. Assembly, everything. The teacher just wants to know more about what is out there.

Mike

 

I have experience in Computer Animation, Modelling.

I don't know about the precision architectural stuff,

but I use

1. AutoDesk Maya

2. AutoDesk 3DStudioMax

 

www.fastcad.com

FastCAD by Evolution Computing. I have used AutoCAD & MicroStation and prefer FastCAD over both.

 

Use autodesk products...sure they are expensive, but they are the standard of the industry.

 

Rhino is pretty good too.

 

+1 for autodesk, what i used in my CADI class, Aced btw. Now im on CADII which i guess is 3d design but easier, you input comp outputs. Cad in general has to be my fav class along with in our CADII we have some hot new freshman chicks lol.

 

look into student versions of the Autodesk stuff, maybe your school can get those...

Autocad is great for 2d... but you may be better off with Solidworks as a cheaper 3d tool...

my company uses SDRC which is around 10 grand a seat per year from what i am told... this includes a full service contract and stuff...

 

They literally have NO budget. The course was going to be canceled but at the last time they decided to call it off. The entire city's budget is going towards the new school.

He just wants us to research titles so we can get an idea of what is out there.

All the programs are available as torrents but apparently it would be a bad idea to install them on public machines.

Mike

 

stay with AutoCAD 2000

 

If you have no budget, then there is no reason to be looking for something new. Using the older software is still fine for teaching the principles of drafting. Sure, it may not be as easy, but you need to learn the fundementals first anyway. It's not like you teach someone new to math with a calculator.

 

Autocad is a good foundation for CAD.

Autocad is "linked" with Autodesk Inventor so if you learn 2D in Autocad, and you want to make the transition to 3D CAD, use Inventor. Once you learn Autocad, Inventor becomes much easier to use.

For large scale 3D assemblies we are using Unigraphics, a whole nother ball game but becomes a lot easier if you already know Autocad and Inventor.

Of course all these programs are extremely expensive, but if you can get them, they are very good to know.