3D Design Software

[Carl R]

Hey guys,

In the past few weeks I have been looking for a 3D modeling software that is user friendly and can make complex parts. I had originally used sketchup for all my modeling, but as you all know sketchup can be a real hassle once the model is finished. I have had enough of the wasted time fighting with sketchup to get my models stl to print.

I have also tried 123D design and its little brother tinkercad. I absolutely dislike these two pieces of software because I find that their simplicity makes it almost impossible to make the types of parts I need to design. I also took a brief try at autocad, but that was really way too intimidating.

Basically, I love the line by line design method of sketchup, but need software that will create a usable part.

Thanks for reading my post and can not wait to hear your suggestions.

[Stan Velijev]

Blender 3D is generally the go-to free 3D software http://www.blender.org/ a bit on the complicated end.

Silo3D has a nice modelling suite that's pretty intuitive http://nevercenter.com/silo/ free trial, retail price is $160.

Both of those options do polygonal modelling however, which isn't what you're used to as I understand.

I've seen someone recommend Fusion 360 http://www.autodesk.com/products/fusion-360/overview as a superior option to 123D Design and Sketchup, so that might be worth a look.

[Ryan Carlyle]

Carl, are you using the Solids Inspector and Cleanup3 plugins? Sketchup got a lot easier to output good STLs when I started using those. 

[Brian33433]

In my honest opinion, the only program to put your learning efforts into is Solidworks. Any program you try will have a learning curve, but there are know programs that can match what solidworks can do. 

B.

[spineytoad]

is there a version of solidworks that is under 3000?

[Robert Nee]

When they don't publish prices on their web page, well, you know the old saying...

[SFM]

Depending on your station in life and possibly on your moral convictions the educational version of SolidWorks is an option. IIRC it's $90 for a license, which lasts a year. It's identical to the full version with the exception that it watermarks any drawings you try to export. If you're just using it for design and to save .stls for printing you won't have any problems using it instead of the professional version.

[Ryan Carlyle]

Yeah, but for SolidWorks they actually require verification of educational status. If you can't prove 9(?) hours of classes enrolled at the time of purchase, you're not eligible, and you have to repeat that every year to renew the license. You can get free trials on occasion, but they don't last long.

I've heard Inventor Fusion 360 is supposed to be pretty powerful for free software.

[SFM]

Hmm... Makes me suspicious of my SolidWorks License. I bought it from a 3rd party vendor and definitely didn't have to verify my enrollment. But I digress.

I don't have any personal experience with it, but I have also heard good things about Inventor Fusion 360. Might be worth giving it a shot.

[Ryan Carlyle]

Guess you got a "good" vendor then  :-)  

[Taylor Carr]

I agree with others here regarding Solidworks; if you can get your hands on it, it is an incredible CAD package.  It was the first CAD software package that I learned on and any other professional software that I've used since then hasn't ever compared, and I've tried many (ProE/Creo, i-DEAS/NX/UG, AutoCAD).

Other cheaper alternatives that I've used and that I really like are:
ViaCAD Pro:  A little weird to me because it's different than Solidworks and similar CAD programs - http://www.punchcad.com/s-157-Compare-Consumer-CAD.aspx
Alibre/Geomagic/Cubify:  This is what I primarily use.  I bought it before they changed it to the horribly named "Geomagic".  It appears the hobby edition is named Cubify - http://cubify.com/en/Products/CompareSoftware
Freecad: It has come a long way and is pretty powerful.  It's still a little rough around the edges, but I use it occasionally and it works well - http://www.freecadweb.org/

[Dan Newman]

On 06/08/2014, 2:00 PM, Ryan Carlyle wrote:
> Yeah, but for SolidWorks they actually require verification of educational
> status. If you can't prove 9(?) hours of classes enrolled at the time of
> purchase, you're not eligible, and you have to repeat that every year to
> renew the license. You can get free trials on occasion, but they don't last
> long.
>
> I've heard Inventor Fusion 360 is supposed to be pretty powerful for free
> software.

BTW, I leverage the fact that my daughters are in High School to get the
SW license for $90. It's a bit of a pain, but I personally find it worth
the effort and expense.

Dan