Outer Limits 4x4 Board

Hi Guys,

Wanting to design my tray using a 3d modelling program, but have never used one before.

I have AutoCad 2007 and it is super hard to figure out.
Mate told me to get Pro Engineer but i have seen him use it and it looks just as hard.
SolidWorks is harder than Pro Engineer according to him.

Does anyone know of an easy to use program for what i need to do:?:

Microsoft Paint

Autocad is easy once you learn how to use it.

read the help files, go to google and search for tutorials and just have a play around with the program itself you will end up getting the hang of it

im starting a diploma course in 3d modeling soon ...

inventer 3d is what we are going to be using for the course i presume it shouldnt be to hard ( i hope) if its a programe that we will be learing on...


the book is also about this thick

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I am desighning a new tray for mine at the moment found it much easier with a pen and paper and a few beers.

In my very limited experience (read playing around and not doing anything in particular) I find autocad good for 2d drawings but so far I havn't used anything better than solidworks for 3d. I actually find it easier to use aswell as having more features (that I can figure out anyway).

Saw a torrent for solidworks 2006 but it was around 4gb but that had all the COSMOS extras and what not. Been thinking of getting an acedemic version as I'm told we use it next semester at uni. I'm gonna try drawing up a trailer sooner or later simply as a design exercise...then hopefully build it.

kinglakekustoms wrote:im starting a diploma course in 3d modeling soon ...

inventer 3d is what we are going to be using for the course i presume it shouldnt be to hard ( i hope) if its a programe that we will be learing on...


the book is also about this thick

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inventer 3D is brilliant..... i couldn't use it to save my life, but the draughtsmen at work use it for all our machine shop drawings and it makes life so much easier when you can get your drawings in any position you want, and a 3D picture of what the part should look like when finished.

I don't know why anybody would choose to use 2D drafting for 3D parts - 3D modeling is awesome.

I've used AutoCAD (NOT Inventor) for 3D modeling and drafting, and find it quite clunky. Parametric modeling (such as ProEngineer) is infinitely better, although file management can fark with your mind - particularly for large and/or complex assemblies. Either way, having the views generated for you is fabulous, although detailing can sometimes be a bugger.

Before Wildfire came out, Solid Works was considered easier than ProE. Wildfire 2 is much better than earlier ProE, but I don't really know Solid Works.

For 2D drawings, AutoCAD is still my choice.

Confused yet?

Scott

the thing i like about Inventer is that if you are machining a complicated piece.... you can go to the draughtsman, he can enlarge the drawing and rotate it in any direction to view it. Makes machining it far easier.

-MADZUKI- wrote:Microsoft Paint

Done that want better

-Scott- wrote:I don't know why anybody would choose to use 2D drafting for 3D parts - 3D modeling is awesome.

I've used AutoCAD (NOT Inventor) for 3D modeling and drafting, and find it quite clunky. Parametric modeling (such as ProEngineer) is infinitely better, although file management can fark with your mind - particularly for large and/or complex assemblies. Either way, having the views generated for you is fabulous, although detailing can sometimes be a bugger.

Before Wildfire came out, Solid Works was considered easier than ProE. Wildfire 2 is much better than earlier ProE, but I don't really know Solid Works.

For 2D drawings, AutoCAD is still my choice.

Confused yet?

Scott

I am currently curled in a ball swaying and speaking gibberish
I agree AutoCAD for 2D but inventor programs are normalling crap for 3D modelling as i have been told by three engineers that use PRO E. Might just down.... i meant purchase PRO E and Solid Works and play with them, see what works for me

bastard wrote:I am desighning a new tray for mine at the moment found it much easier with a pen and paper and a few beers.

thats how i built my buggy as well as the 4wdmonthly buggy... no fancy computer programs... just back of a beer carton and plenty of beer

LuxyBoy wrote:Might just down.... i meant purchase PRO E and Solid Works and play with them, see what works for me

Do you know how much these programs cost. $$$$$

I have used autocad 2002 for designing buses, fire appliances etc and find it adequate, yes 3D is great but is not always necessary. If you're only building a tray which is essentially flat. Most of the tubes would only be bent in one plane hence easy to design in autocad.

If you want one of these packages Pro E seems to the go but be aware none of these are as easy to design in as cad. If you know what you're doing yes but if you're constaintly changing things the constraints in Inventer ( 3D package I've used) are painful

emailed you bend tech easy, it's good for pipe bending.

If you want a good robust 3D CAD package, the Solid Works it the way to fly. Great tutorials bundled in it and easy enough to use. Use AutoCrud for 2D drafting only!

Daisy wrote:

bastard wrote:I am desighning a new tray for mine at the moment found it much easier with a pen and paper and a few beers.

thats how i built my buggy as well as the 4wdmonthly buggy... no fancy computer programs... just back of a beer carton and plenty of beer

It shows

I use Autodesk Inventor at work and use it to design 90% of my parts, lately i have been using the paper template and grinder option more and more.

Daisy wrote:

bastard wrote:I am desighning a new tray for mine at the moment found it much easier with a pen and paper and a few beers.

thats how i built my buggy as well as the 4wdmonthly buggy... no fancy computer programs... just back of a beer carton and plenty of beer

You don't drink beer

Google Sketchup is unbelievably good for a quick knockup to get the general design, but I guess autocad for the finished drawings if you need high accuracy.

Personally i use Autocad for any 2d drawings and i did an extensive amount of isometric drawings with it too in a previous job, and like a lot of others i use Solidworks (at my old workplace as its ShortyIQ expensive for a personal copy), but ive heard a lot of people use Alibre. Apparently its just as good as Solidworks and in quite a few peoples opinions, a lot better. Plus its reasonably cheap for a personal licence.

Mad Cruiser wrote:

Daisy wrote:

bastard wrote:I am desighning a new tray for mine at the moment found it much easier with a pen and paper and a few beers.

thats how i built my buggy as well as the 4wdmonthly buggy... no fancy computer programs... just back of a beer carton and plenty of beer

You don't drink beer

at work i do ... heaps of it too!!!

Hay jav whats bend tech ???????????
Dan

PRO.Engineer. Awesome program, have designed stuff myself with it. Not that hard to use at all, and pretty powerful. PRO.E takes about 3 cd's full, and from memory you have to have a liscence or connection throug the net to one (broadband). As said though, unless your really serious about it, just for a tray its a bit overkill. If you have some mates that know what they are doing, see if one of them can make up a design for you. You application (just designing a tray) only just scratches the surface of the capabilitys of programs like pro-engineer ETC.


Layto....

MUD000 wrote:Hay jav whats bend tech ???????????
Dan

It's a software package designed specifically for people fabricating structures with tube. You can design the assembly piece by piece and, depending on the version you have, you can even add individual pieces together to form an assembly. You can see an example of what you can do with it in this thread

The best part is, once you are happy with your design it will print you a build sheet, where it will tell you the length of each piece to cut, the bend locations and bend angles. You can even print templates to cope the tube for accurate joints.

I am am a dealer for Bend-Tech products, feel free to email me if you have any other queries.

Cheers,

Damo.

Haven't used Eng pro & the solid works may be a bit much for the tray concept.

Have you tried tucows for a basic freeby program.

type in 3d programes for the search keys.
3d grapher


Haven't used any of these but they may be a start with out going to an expense.

Failing that Solid works has got a lite version with a tutorial attached for the schoolies.

If your quick and only need 15 days to get it done TurboCad V12 professional offer a 15 day free trial. http://www.turbocad.com/

i can recommend solid edge, its all very straight forward and logical. compelely graphics based, as oposed to text based. i have started using pro engineer wildfire(the latest pro e version.) and have found it very combersome and difficult. if you want to model simple parts(trays, brackets etc, use a simple program like solid edge. if you want to model cylinder head ports or moulded dashes use a suitable program like pro e or unigraphics. cad is great when you know your program. but the first tray you do will take 2 weeks to get right. then once you've figured it out it will take 20 minutes.
jim

You do of course realise, that without any sort of proficiency and experience using any of these programs, that it is ging to take you longer to try and draw up your tray than it will to just walk out to the shed with some cardboard and a grinder and build the thing. I am currently using Autocrap 2007 Mechanical at work, and, having used some of the others mentioned here in previous jobs, I can honestly say that if you're struggling with Autocad 2D stuff, then 3D cad software is going to fry your brain. Just grab the grinder and hook into it, if it sucks first go, cut it up and do it again!

ferret wrote:You do of course realise, that without any sort of proficiency and experience using any of these programs, that itis ging to take you longer to try and raw up your tray than it will to just walk out to the shed with some cardboard and a grinder and build the thing. I am currently using Autocrap 2007 Mechanical at work, and, having used some of the others mentioned here in previous jobs, I can honestly say that if you're struggling with Autocad 2D stuff, then 3D cad software is going to fry your brain. Just grab the grinder and hook into it, if it sucks first go, cut it up and do it again!

I found that Bend-Tech was really easy to pick up. As soon as you have a couple of the basic concepts down it becomes very simple.

For a basic hoop or the like, I think you're correct about just doing it. Draw it up on the floor in chalk and go from there. For anything more complicated than that (eg, multi plane bends, tube coping) software would make things easier.

85lux wrote:i can recommend solid edge, its all very straight forward and logical. compelely graphics based, as oposed to text based. i have started using pro engineer wildfire(the latest pro e version.) and have found it very combersome and difficult. if you want to model simple parts(trays, brackets etc, use a simple program like solid edge. if you want to model cylinder head ports or moulded dashes use a suitable program like pro e or unigraphics. cad is great when you know your program. but the first tray you do will take 2 weeks to get right. then once you've figured it out it will take 20 minutes.
jim

This program rocks
If anyone else is doing this; Solid Edge is THE program to use. I can use it easily after 30mins of playing around and i have no drafting/modelling experience.
Thanks for putting me onto this 85lux

Inventor you would have picked up after 15mins

But then again i had 4 years autocad experience before using inventor