9fingers":1ac0f8rv said:
Dr Al thanks for that useful analysis of classes of cad packages.
I have a long term desire to learn a cad package to use with my milling machine cnc conversion ( still very much a back burner project) so need a route to gcode eventually.
I have failed to learn sketchup adequately and similarly fusion 360 but in the process have a strong desire for the parametric route.
Can you suggest which of your categories might be best for me to try next please?
I use a PC not Mac
Bob
I think your best bet would be to try OnShape (disclaimer: I recommend this to most people who want to try parametric CAD, even though I only use it occasionally). It's different to Fusion 360 (which you've already said you didn't get on with) but very similar to most other CAD systems. You could also try FreeCAD, which has the advantage of private models but the user interface takes a bit of getting used to. The tutorials for OnShape are much better though (FreeCAD suffers a little from having a lot of tutorials on the web for older versions that aren't really relevant any more).
I'd also recommend looking at SolidWorks Makers edition (
https://discover.solidworks.com/makers) - I haven't tested it as it wasn't available (or at least I couldn't find it) when I was looking around, but it looks to be the same as the professional SolidWorks software for not much money.
A bit more background if you're bored and want to read more of my waffle...
I should note that most of the CAD modelling I do
isn't in OnShape, despite the fact I recommend it.
A few years ago I did a trial for about 3 months, comparing OnShape, Fusion 360, Alibre Atom 3D, IronCAD INOVATE [sic], ZW3D Lite, DesignSpark Mechanical, NaroCAD, NanoCAD, OpenSCAD, OpenJSCAD, CADQuery and maybe some others I've forgotten. I also looked at options for "personal" editions of some of the more mainstream ones like SolidWorks but the options were limited at the time. Before I did the trial, I'd used NX, SolidEdge & SolidWorks (but only in a very minor way and I've never been trained in the proper ways of using them). I'm sure that coloured my view in that I wanted a CAD system that worked the way all three of those work.
I wanted something I could do private models with and that unfortunately ruled out OnShape. After lots of umm-ing and ah-ing and frustrations with Fusion 360, I decided it was worth it (to me) to buy one of the cheaper (but not cheap!) options as I wanted the ability to do private models, I wanted to do top-down modelling (designing parts based on other parts in an assembly) and I didn't like Fusion 360 (either the interface or the licence that has to be renewed every year and they can take away whenever they want).
Alibre Atom 3D is a complete waste of money: it offers nothing that FreeCAD doesn't offer and I suspect FreeCAD will overtake it fairly soon (as there are features that Alibre are keeping back for their more expensive offers). DesignSpark Mechanical isn't much better than Atom 3D and charges for a lot of features that should be considered essential. In the end I bought a perpetual licence for ZW3D Lite (which means I can keep using it forever without ever paying again).
I now use ZW3D Lite for most things, but occasionally I'll use OnShape where the privacy thing doesn't matter and I want something that it offers (e.g. better text handling, gear constraints in an assembly, easy-ish scripting, etc). As you might be able to see if you watch the video I posted, the similarity of approach with OnShape vs the other ones in that category mean that I can switch between them pretty effortlessly. I still use NX once in a while as it's on my work PC and again I can switch to that without too much effort.
I also occasionally use CADQuery, but that's perhaps not for the faint hearted (or at least not for non-programmers)...
If I were going through that exercise again, I think it's very likely I would have ended up with SolidWorks Makers edition, but I've bought ZW3D Lite now so I'm not intending to change. If I didn't have the occasional need for things to be kept private, I'm certain that I'd be using the free version of OnShape.
If I were using a Mac (which I know you said you aren't) then the options are certainly more limited, but OnShape and FreeCAD definitely work on Windows, Mac and Linux and I imagine some of the others do too.
There is, of course, a risk with the non-perpetual licence options. Autodesk or OnShape or SolidWorks could decide to withdraw their free or cheap option and then your models become inaccessible. Autodesk have already reduced the functionality of the free Fusion 360 licence a bit. My advice here is the same as my advice with any CAD package to be honest: every time you finish a model (or more often is better!),
export that model as a STEP file. It takes a few seconds and will give you a model in a format that can be imported into any other CAD system worthy of the name. You may also want an STL for printing or whatever, but imported STL files aren't editable in any pleasant way whereas STEP files are (you lose the parametric history, but you can still make changes to the design).