Topic: Learning CAD (Read 5972 times)

Martin (Admin) · « **on:** May 05, 2020, 12:48:41 pm »

Suppose I should have some new skill coming out of 'Lockdown';

1. What free CAD systems are out there?
2. Which ones have the best tutorials?

I've tinkered about with TinkerCad but it's very limited....

warspite · « **Reply #1 on:** May 05, 2020, 01:43:19 pm »

I have always used Auto-cad products - last one was R14 (cost an arm and a leg and took a while to recoup the cost), company wise used architectural though only the 2D side of it as the company had a dodgy copy apparently and all 5 draughies and site engineers who installed it on company pc's used it (that included me on the company pc), used inventor though not in a very long time.

As grendel stated some time ago, it's free for those who are students, I suppose even MATURE students are included

Aerodecked · « **Reply #2 on:** May 05, 2020, 05:48:35 pm »

I started with Tinkercad too but ran into the limitations of the simplicity. I switched to using Fusion 360 as you can export from Tinkercad direct to Fusion 360 so you can further your design with more powerful tools.
Bonus is the licence is free if you are a hobbyist

Take a wee look here [size=78%]https://www.autodesk.com/campaigns/fusion-360-for-hobbyists[/size]

There are loads of tutorials online which are really, really useful - things that should be so simple aren't always in Fusion 360.

Have fun... and apparently shouting at the PC because they hid the simple operation is an accepted stress reducer.

Rob

tigertiger · « **Reply #3 on:** May 05, 2020, 06:04:14 pm »

Sketch Up has free versions. Read around their site first, as once you download there are a couple of additional packages that come as a 30 day trial.

If you want to look at other things, including liberal arts, business, science and computer science, have a look at coursera.com and https://www.khanacademy.org/signup. Both have many free courses for learners up to university level.

Mark T · « **Reply #4 on:** May 05, 2020, 06:08:49 pm »

Quote from: Martin [Admin] on May 05, 2020, 12:48:41 pm

Suppose I should have some new skill coming out of 'Lockdown';

1. What free CAD systems are out there?
2. Which ones have the best tutorials?

I've tinkered about with TinkerCad but it's very limited....

I'm with you on this Martin - I would love to learn how to use CAD but my PC skills are rubbish to say the least. I've never even got past the first page you get when they load as they look so confusing! I need to find a way of learning this elusive skill so that I can plot frames etc

warspite · « **Reply #5 on:** May 05, 2020, 06:48:36 pm »

In my experience, any new package or updated package is difficult, mainly finding the normal icons to shortcuts to the usual features and trying to remove the less than useful features and the subsequent time spent trying to find the feature you deleted as it actually was useful.

The companies usually add stuff that is not necessary and rearrange things and layout to justify the *new* version

DaveM · « **Reply #6 on:** May 05, 2020, 07:14:25 pm »

In my experience it was a bit like learning to drive. I spent a year at night-school learning the basics of AutoCAD R14 2D. Only after that did I start to find out how to use it properly i.e. make it work for me. I now have ACAD 2013 and it took me very little time to re-learn it, but the 3D still scares the h*ll out of me!

"There be dragons...."

DM

Colin Bishop · « **Reply #7 on:** May 05, 2020, 08:16:19 pm »

Just build the boats Martin, CAD simply isn't worth the aggro for the average modeller. It's supposed to be an enjoyable hobby.

If you want to stretch your mind then read War and Peace although you can be sure I will be sticking bits of balsa together rather than get anywhere near that!

Colin

Mark T · « **Reply #8 on:** May 05, 2020, 08:31:48 pm »

Quote from: Colin Bishop on May 05, 2020, 08:16:19 pm

Just build the boats Martin, CAD simply isn't worth the aggro for the average modeller. It's supposed to be an enjoyable hobby.

If you want to stretch your mind then read War and Peace although you can be sure I will be sticking bits of balsa together rather than get anywhere near that!

Colin

Ha ha I laughed when I read this Colin because that is how I've felt for about the last 6 months having really tried to understand CAD for the last two years. The learning curve seems massive to me and I must admit very unenjoyable. If they could make it dead easy then its for me - I've tried and failed!

Colin Bishop · « **Reply #9 on:** May 05, 2020, 08:44:19 pm »

Like all things, you have to ask yourself if the 'payload' is worth the investment effort.

I have a nice airbrush. But I don't use it as my occasional needs for spray painting are more than adequately met by Halfords rattle cans. It's just the way it is..

Colin

timgarrod · « **Reply #10 on:** May 05, 2020, 09:01:04 pm »

I use fusion 360 and it free :)

followed these video to learn https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5bc9c3S12g

RST · « **Reply #11 on:** May 05, 2020, 10:29:31 pm »

Hi Martin,

Ask yourself, what type of cad and why.

...If it's 2-D I can't help much as my first experience of it was probably when I was about 13 and it was a very different beast -learned "modern" 2-D CAD at Uni on r13 (along with Autoship -which I completely forgot since!). There's not much difference in terms of draughting between what I have at at work (2018) and r14 apart from appearance. I set my 2018 to look like it always used to which must be apawling to others.

...If it's for 3-D modelling I admit I still cannot quite convert yet. I also don't like tems and conditions of allot of stuff on offer, particularly when it's free. But I've found tinkercad fairly innocous thogh I still can't quite jump to Fusion though it seems the most intuative. Tinkercad is actually not that bad for the hobbyist -just limited for draughting curved things which I admit is a major downfall. But it is quite amazing how you can manipulate the library of shapes sometimes. I've done half of my loyal moderator build using 3-D printing. Am starting a build for a Damen Workcat which includes the hull.

The only thing I would say is I'm no CAD expert but I've almost caused a wallk-out in our drawing office because I can actually draw by hand first. This is a very valuable skill and teaches appreciation of how shapes and projections work. I just can not believe these days it's possible to jump to CAD without having any appreciation of this basic skill.

So, sorry for the long post but a few things to think about maybe. It is a great skill to have also but like Colin just said also, if I can get a good result with something a bit lesser then I won't beat myself up just yet. There's no right or wrong, folk get on better with one thing or 'tother (thinking of my Humbrol thread). I cannot understand how anyone would even think of sketchup -I find it abysmal but allot of folk say it's fine!

Don't lose faith. I attached 2 images of what I'm doing in tinkercad at moment -actually these have been / are being turned out on the 3-D printer at the moment (thruster turned out really nice on a test print but no pic as it only came off the printer 15mins ago !!!)...

Rich

warspite · « **Reply #12 on:** May 06, 2020, 08:49:02 am »

The best company I ever worked for - now sadly gone, allowed me to use 3d solids in Autocad to create the following drawings, which we used to sell the equipment to the client, it was easier for the client to see how the equipment went together and how it fitted in the room, better than a 2d drawing as most people cannot visualize a lot of pieces in a non descriptive room, I used to add a pin head man to represent a standard 5' 6" member of staff as a gauge to scale in some drawings.

The first is a reverse jet filter unit (RJF), the drawing was to try a sell the idea to the RJF manufacturer of us making a structure that a fork lift truck could use to lift the top part of the unit, as when on site, the main problem was that the lift from the top couldn't be used as the ceilings were low, and they had to slide the unit onto the forks and then slide it off onto the base, dangerous at the best of times, our company folded before another contract materialized, the RJF maker wasn't really keen on us doing the lift this way, we would have done it anyway as it was the safest way to lift and would have redesigned the jig to lock it to the forks, until the needed to be withdrawn when the unit was in position.

The second is a money destruction system and collection unit for the shredded money, modelling the Cobras (the cash shredders) took longer than all the other items in the drawing.

I find drawing in Autocad 3D solids easy, but struggled with Solidworks.

Martin (Admin) · « **Reply #13 on:** May 06, 2020, 11:11:25 am »

This is in Tinkercad Rich?!?!?

Martin (Admin) · « **Reply #14 on:** May 06, 2020, 11:16:21 am »

Quote from: warspite on May 06, 2020, 08:49:02 am

The second is a money destruction system and collection unit for the shredded money, modelling the Cobras (the cash shredders) took longer than all the other items in the drawing.

Hi Warspite, ...... is this still in place? How tight is the security?!

warspite · « **Reply #15 on:** May 06, 2020, 04:42:07 pm »

Not UK based or even european, just outside of the coruscant system, the new order wasn't going to blow up its merchant bank was it.

Cannot state where they were installed, and not just one site.

grendel · « **Reply #16 on:** May 06, 2020, 05:37:42 pm »

I have been doing CAD since it was introduced, maybe 35 years, i have been a CAD manager - I am still learning CAD - though i am our office unofficial CAD helpdesk, and i do know more than most.
3d in any autocad product is a pain compared to some software.

ChrisF · « **Reply #17 on:** May 07, 2020, 10:30:33 pm »

I've recently bought TurboCAD and I'm in the early throes of learning it. Despite being very experienced on the drawing board and using Microsoft Visio it isn't easy. Managed to do some drawing but these packages aren't intuitive and after looking at the odd video bought a book which made it a lot easier and reinforced my thoughts that you can't just "play" with it and work it out for yourself.

I shall stick with it but to get the best out of it you really need to use it a lot which is where there is a problem. I used Visio at work quite a lot which is why I'm competent with it but I won't have the need to use CAD anywhere as much.

One of the reasons for getting CAD was for 3D printing - I shall have to see if I want to progress that far as I may prefer to be using my time building and continuing to use Visio and I have other interests calling on my time.

Learning CAD to a proficient and useable level shouldn't be underestimated from a time and commitment point of view.

Chris

RST · « **Reply #18 on:** May 07, 2020, 11:15:24 pm »

Quote

[link=topic=64930.msg689923#msg689923 date=1588759885]

This is in Tinkercad Rich?!?!?

[/quote]

I Martin, yep. It is quite limited but you can learn to use it and abuse it for what it is worth! It's not great but it is quite usable IF you are using it for printing and I use it for quick demos. Most of the above decks on my mini-Loyal Moderator were 3-D printed though this isn't the most recent pic.

It's not proper CAD though! But serves a useful purpose and occupis endless hours to dispel the myth it's cheating on "real modelling"!!

Rich

warspite · « **Reply #19 on:** September 08, 2020, 09:06:33 am »

As I have mentioned earlier on another post, I like and have used to great pleasure Autocad for 2D and 3D projects, but my youngest upgraded my PC's hardware and wiped the ability to use CAD off the hard drive (in fact everything of the hard drive).

At £160 per month it isn't an option to buy a new licence (£1800+ for a year £5100+ for 3 years), I don't do that much CAD anymore, I even tried to use an old PC to run an XP hard disk that has the program on, it started up but the old brain cells forgot that it's a different motherboard and processor chip so it would need to have the OP re-registered to operate, the only fix is to have the PC stripped out and the old motherboard and chip re fitted for the OP to recognize and operate correctly.

I really miss the autocad now as there are a couple of projects that are needed for the home and hobby, and after being contacted by an old client requesting a copy of the drawing of the cash shredder system, it brought home the neccesity of having the program available.

So as Martin asked (and amended by me) what is available out there that is free - low cost - usable for amending existing 2D 3D CAD drawings?

grendel · « **Reply #20 on:** September 08, 2020, 11:36:48 am »

https://www.autodesk.com/education/edu-software/overview
have you investigated the student version, probably better registered as an autocad tutor.

warspite · « **Reply #21 on:** September 08, 2020, 05:10:56 pm »

Not yet, been busy today, my current employment does require I log in via this PC, but I don't for the company use AutoCAD in my job, so I cannot justifiably claim to be a Tutor or student especially where I work.

warspite · « **Reply #22 on:** September 22, 2020, 12:35:27 pm »

Hi,

Well when I feel better, I have relocated the old motherboard and graphics card and instruction book, just need to have a day where I can take out the existing motherboard and graphics card, spare hard disk etc and reinstall the old motherboard etc and see if the hard disk will operate correctly as the windows XP will then see the correct motherboard code and chip code to operate. If it does then I should have the cad back up and running, I know its on the XP disk as well as other useful software.

warspite · « **Reply #23 on:** October 04, 2020, 01:13:32 pm »

Well an update,

I fitted the motherboard and graphics card into the pc where it came from, put the XP hard drive in, and switched on, after selecting earlier windows it started and apart from getting up to the XP logo followed by a quick flash of a BSOD (blue screen of death) it went off and restarted, then came up with start in an earlier windows screen again and then the options for safe mode etc.

Though it starts in safe mode it comes up with this windows needs activating - which cannot be done in safe mode, and it wont get past the xp logo after login, so tried the restore from a back up after various other attempts at getting it to work (the Hard disk, motherboard, chipset etc are all related as they used to work together) and it now just comes up with requesting a boot disk and doesn't see the disk as having an operating system on it

But in fairness, it has been a while (several years) since building a working PC, so its a strip out again and put the new stuff back in and try to get that to run a new copy of the win 7 I have (I dont like the Win 10 - yes its simpler to have them keep your PC updated - but I dont feel like the PC is mine if they do that - meaning that a new PC could be needed when it gets to a certain age as they have filled it with all sorts of garbage that's not needed - Just my opinion).

warspite · « **Reply #24 on:** October 06, 2020, 12:59:47 pm »

Well luckily checked if it was doing what I thought it was doing - nope - it did a start up as usual and still only works in safe mode, then I had a brain wave - or was it an aneurysm, anyway, what if it the number of sticks of ram (it's got 4 x 2 GB) and I remembered some boards running say 32 bit will not run with over 4 GB, so I removed two, turns out the wrong two (depends which pair of slots are filled as to whether the PC access it and therefore runs the PC), so I put the other two back in and took out the others i.e. slots 1, 2, 3, 4 - only 3 & 4 run, 1 & 2 are the extension slots, doh!

Nope it still BSOD's on start up, so someone has suggested I try just the 1 x 2 GB, so will try that later.

All this to get the CAD to run, next option is to finally give and try something else.

News:

Author Topic: Learning CAD (Read 5972 times)

RST

RST