What's your favorite CAD software?

[The Chairman]

I have to say that I have finally been able to figure out how to use CAD: www.Onshape.com. I don't know if it's the best, but the learning curve was pretty easy for me and I picked up the basics one morning and was able to create the initial design of my battery holder. It's evolved quite a bit since but I wanted to add some hole that could not be done on the initial sketch. A friend of mine from the Gainesville Hackerspace walked me through it on our Slack channel last night and I was impressed. Yeah, it was a bit finicky, but that's been my life for a while. He introduced me to patterns, first circular for my light and then encouraged me to go ahead and create the assembly table top I've been wanting to do. So, in less than fifteen minutes, I created a CAD file with 288 3/4" holes by simply creating one hole and then creating a pattern in two directions. Wow, that was simple.

So, what do you use? I want to find something that has dimensional lumber built in, rounded corners and all.

 

[The Chairman]

Oh yeah, here's a screen capture of the battery holder base. I printed the newly designed parts last night and will be adding bat connectors today.

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Edit: I am evolving the design again and will be adding 6 bolt holes near the outer edge.

 

[James79]

I started with tinkercad and quickly moved to FreeCad. Youtube tutorials have been my friend, and it just blows my mind what any of the modern CAD programs can do. When I get around to buying a better desktop computer, I want to get into Solidworks, but that takes a pretty beefy workstation... That and it's super spendy if you don't qualify for a discount (Student, Military, etc.).
This is a purge cover I'm working on for a Proton... Just need some measurements and then I can try printing!

 

[Asheron]

I’ve used Solidworks in the past. All of the additional plug in software for FEA, sheet metal, fluid flow, etc. made it really useful in the power plant industry.

It didn’t manage large projects well like Autocad. We had all 18 power plants built in Autocad on one giant drawing/file. Solidworks worked good for equipment level drawings.

I also used Autodesk Inventor. I was never good at it because I am not good in the Autocad/Desk environment and don’t know the Hot keys, but it seemed like a very powerful too and software for people who could get the appropriate training and hours using it.

 

[-JD-]

I've spent a good bit of time playing with the tutorials for AutoDesk Fusion360 and expect that I'll continue down that path when time frees up some more The driving reason vs. OnShape is that 360 has CAM w/ post processors that can likely be tweaked to run my milling machine. If so, it will give me the ability to do much more complex parts than what it is practical to do programming it directly.

This is way to capable a machine to abandon, but it is too costly in time to program for complex, one-off parts. And most compatible CAM software is way to costly for hobby use.

I would also like to go down the additive path at some point, and that will require good 3D CAD too.

 

[The Chairman]

And most compatible CAM software is way to costly for hobby use.

Well. I'm jealous! Have you checked out CamBam yet? The guys at the Gainesville Hackerspace just love it. I'm going to try it out when I get to using the Maslow CNC.

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@Asheron the only way to get better/good at CAD is to force yourself into it. Like @James79 said: Youtube is your friend! The thing I really liked about www.OnShape.com were the online tutorials. I got up one Sunday and decided I was going to learn CAD. By that afternoon, I had a fairly complex drawing started. I had stopped using it for about six months (Fiji and then my broken leg and all), so I was worried when I had to go back into those files and relearn it to make some modifications. It took a bit of perseverance, and now I've even added some more skills. I am delightfully adequate for designing what I want to design. If Ma~ would stop sleeping on my legs so I could get up to measure things, I would be doing even better! ​

 

[Asteve]

I use Autocad Fusion 360. It is free for hobbyist, it does cam also. learning curve maybe a bit steep but lot of videos.

 

[The Chairman]

I use Autocad Fusion 360. It is free for hobbyist, it does cam also. learning curve maybe a bit steep but lot of videos.

I hear it is quite similar to OnShape.

 

[Diving Dubai]

I guess it really depends on yoru needs, and most of all the output you want.

For 2D I was a huge fan of Draftsight which is free (from the makers of Solidworks) and as good as Auto CAd.

When you get into 3D then it gets complex My go to is Solidworks which I use for components through to large TV Studio installations, but it's not cheap a (and every add on seems to be $10,000) But its "easy" to break out "D sections and plans, item qty and costs etc And do so right down to components of a sub component if you need to go that far.

Plus I had to invest in a monster computer (which is actually 2 separate high spec Processors, graphic cards and RAM setups inside one huge water cooled case sharing lots of TB of SSD's) because the needs for rendering and visualisation are different from the actual CAD construction, (bloody clients think you can generate a visualisation like printing a page)

Since I don't 3D print, I'm not aware of a specific software that is tuned to the needs of printers and materials and are able to "almost" replicate the output configured to the needs of the printer

 

[The Chairman]

Since I don't 3D print, I'm not aware of a specific software that is tuned to the needs of printers and materials and are able to "almost" replicate the output configured to the needs of the printer

Right now my ODs are perfect, but my IDs need some work and that's apparently in the slicer. You calibrate the printer in x, y, z and e and then you calibrate the slicer for swelling, etc. I've done the former and have adjusted my CAD to accommodate the latter. It's mostly a function of my impatience and comfort. Adjusting a file is easily done, but I've never calibrated my slicer.