Cad programs?

Spot for your general beginner questions.
Dace
Posts: 17
Joined: Nov 13th, 2013, 7:25 am
Location: Massachusetts

Cad programs?

Post by Dace »

Just wondering what you guys use to draw up your plans. I have Visio but it really doesn't help much. I have used google sketch up in the past.
duncan
Posts: 22
Joined: Nov 6th, 2013, 5:43 am

Re: Cad programs?

Post by duncan »

Trying to use (Trimble) Sketchup Make right now and it makes me want to punch things. Might just try and get on a pc with Autocad at this rate

Update: I found tinkercad.com and recommend it if you're working on the simple stages of your design. It was about 83 thousand times better than SketchUp, for my purposes at least.

Here's a screenshot of the fairly simple model I made:

Image
FJM
Posts: 23
Joined: Nov 6th, 2013, 11:02 am

Re: Cad programs?

Post by FJM »

I'm still trying to work with Sketchup, but I find if I don't use it for a while (even only 2weeks) then I forget half the commands. It's a bit of a learning curve but it does have a lot of features. If you go this route, I highly recommend following the on-line tutorials and looking for their free component libraries. The have a few for PVC plumbing components.

Duncan, I like your design. It reflects my configuration (4 horizontal, 2 vertical thrusters) but I think your frame design is much simpler. My frame is getting to be too complex, although I thought it to be unique. I'm having second thoughts and may have to simplify.

Fred
Dace
Posts: 17
Joined: Nov 13th, 2013, 7:25 am
Location: Massachusetts

Re: Cad programs?

Post by Dace »

Thanks for the reply's. I'll take another look at sketchup and look at Trimble also.

Ok, Trimble is Sketchup. LOL
User avatar
Oldsirhippy
Posts: 86
Joined: Oct 1st, 2013, 7:18 am

Re: Cad programs?

Post by Oldsirhippy »

I have used, or tried to use - Sketchup, Tinker CAD, Co-Create (as it was known), Alibre, Draftsight, Medusa, Varicad, Autocad light and probably some that I have forgotten, none of these were easy to use (despite claiming to be) and I was not able to accurately complete the most basic of designs. Many of these kept crashing because of my inexperienced CAD understanding. However, the good news is that I have finally found a CAD modelling package that, so far, does exactly what I want. It enabled me to design a pressure housing which I hope to use in my ROV. To pre-empt questions regarding pressure water proofing the 'O' rings are not included, nor the recesses to house the 'O' Rings. The finished pressure housing is in the photo, this has the 2 'O' Rings included. The design on Freecad looks similar to the real thing, including the see through acrylic. NB: The real thing was made before the CAD modelling and has 2 aluminium end plates.
The wonderful thing is that Freecad is free - and worth a look if you want a sophisticated CAD modelling package that (I find) is easy to use. The design for the housing took a few hours to put together from scratch as I found Freecad to be logical (at least for the way I think), easy to use and crash safe.

I am using it on Windows 8.

Freecad is a breath of fresh air compared to all the other packages I have tried. I really hope it will stay so.

http://www.freecadweb.org/
Attachments
DSCN6574 Small.JPG
DSCN6574 Small.JPG (185.66 KiB) Viewed 9137 times
ROV housing with nuts.jpg
ROV housing with nuts.jpg (33.77 KiB) Viewed 9137 times
Dace
Posts: 17
Joined: Nov 13th, 2013, 7:25 am
Location: Massachusetts

Re: Cad programs?

Post by Dace »

Thanks hippy. I'll try it out. I run Win8 also so that's even better. I'm just starting out and I'm wanting to do an ROV for my Capstone project for my electrical engineering degree.

Dace
User avatar
micoma
Posts: 18
Joined: May 14th, 2014, 4:16 pm
Location: Venezuela

Re: Cad programs?

Post by micoma »

I realize this is an old post but though I would add my two cents worth. I have never used a cad program before and this is my first ROV http://micomarov.weebly.com/. I found the free Sketchup to be the best for me. I tried the freecad program and in my opinion it just was not as intuitive.
ROV.jpg
ROV.jpg (64.02 KiB) Viewed 8819 times
B-MAX-ROV
Posts: 2
Joined: Oct 1st, 2014, 3:38 pm

Re: Cad programs?

Post by B-MAX-ROV »

I'm a design draughtsman so if anyone is wanting cad advice just ask. A good free program that is fully supported is draughtsite from Dassault systems. It's fully featured and easy to learn. Most cad systems take a bit of patience. If you're lucky you might be able to get a version of AutoCAD but it's not cheap. I'm fortunate that at work I primarily use Solidworks 2013. I've yet to find a good 3D parametric CAD package that is free or shareware. Let me know if you do. I've attached what can be done with my model of the Seafox I'm intending to build. I take no credit for the design. Just saying.
Attachments
wp_ss_20141001_0002.png
wp_ss_20141001_0002.png (209.1 KiB) Viewed 8663 times
rovdude
Posts: 83
Joined: Sep 17th, 2012, 10:28 pm
Location: Baltimore, USA

Re: Cad programs?

Post by rovdude »

Autodesk has free 3D CAD in their program Inventor. AutoCad is nothing compared to Inventor. I used it at school, it's similiar to SolidWorks for anyone who has used that. I cannot, however, get it to download on my computer; pretty sure it's user error though, I think I'm missing an update.
derelicte
Posts: 292
Joined: Aug 1st, 2011, 3:08 pm

Re: Cad programs?

Post by derelicte »

Both autocad and solidworks are free or have a huge discount if you are a student. Inventor is free while solidworks is $100.

I've been using solidworks lately, and it is a fantastic program. I am a pretty good autocad user and I picked it up pretty quickly.
Post Reply