What CAD software you use?
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@fcwilt I never even heard of it, and looks like I'm not the only one
.. that's why I created this topic as I'm sure some diamonds will pop up ... -
First would be Solidworks, distant second would be Solid Edge, followed by f360 for when I have to stay in OSX.
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@Phaedrux said in What CAD software you use?:
It is annoying when the STL translation service is down and I can't export an STL, but that's pretty rare.
Unless I’m misunderstanding, right click component name in browser, “save as STL,” no cloud export required.
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I used DesignSpark Mechanical for a few years before I switched to Fusion360. It's about as easy to learn and use a SketchUp, but much more powerful and doesn't turn out bad STL files that have to be repaired before they can be printed.
Solvespace is an interesting program...
I've made and printed a few small "artistic" pieces generated using Structure Synth. If you like Open SCAD you'll love structure synth! It's not for modeling real objects, but more of a mathematical sculpting tool that uses recursion.
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The US based organization, EAA (Experimental Aircraft Association) offers a Solidworks license with its $40/year membership. If anyone tries it please report back on its restrictions, if any. I thought about joining and getting a license but with Catia (From Dasault Sytemes also the creators of Solidworks) at work and BobCad/Cam for hobby I'd just assume not jump on another learning curve.
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@3DPMicro It's the same as the other educational/military/gov deals - for one year and not for commercial use.
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@whopping-pochard said in What CAD software you use?:
@Phaedrux said in What CAD software you use?:
It is annoying when the STL translation service is down and I can't export an STL, but that's pretty rare.
Unless I’m misunderstanding, right click component name in browser, “save as STL,” no cloud export required.
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@Phaedrux Fusion360 does the STL conversion in the cloud. When they are updating their servers, usually on Sundays in the US, saving as STL usually doesn't work. When they finish server maintenance, STL conversion becomes functional again.
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@mrehorstdmd said in What CAD software you use?:
I used DesignSpark Mechanical for a few years before I switched to Fusion360. It's about as easy to learn and use a SketchUp, but much more powerful and doesn't turn out bad STL files that have to be repaired before they can be printed.
Solvespace is an interesting program...
I've made and printed a few small "artistic" pieces generated using Structure Synth. If you like Open SCAD you'll love structure synth! It's not for modeling real objects, but more of a mathematical sculpting tool that uses recursion.
+1 for Design Spark mechanical.
It's apparently a very slightly dumbed down version of an expensive program called "Spaceclaim", offered by RS as a tool to design things using their components (and therefore buy them).
The only price of freedom is that you have to close the initial RS page on startup.
I was advised of some custom stl export settings, and it does seem to do really "high poly" resolution in prints (if that's the right way to say it).
I haven't seen a way to add text to a design with it though...is that possible?
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@Kolbi so one year and that's it? No renewal?
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@3DPMicro Oh no, you can renew. It has to be done every year that you want to keep using it.
Solid Edge is much better on this part, once you get it, it yours for ever-ish. https://solidedge.siemens.com/en/solutions/users/students/ -
@Corexy I had found an ungainly way to add text a couple years ago- it involved generating the 3D text in SketchUp and then importing it into DSM. I rarely put text into designs, but that is certainly one of DSMs weaknesses. It did 99% of what I needed when I was using it a lot, but I kept bumping into that last 1% and finally switched to Fusion360.
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@mrehorstdmd said in What CAD software you use?:
@Corexy I had found an ungainly way to add text a couple years ago- it involved generating the 3D text in SketchUp and then importing it into DSM. I rarely put text into designs, but that is certainly one of DSMs weaknesses. It did 99% of what I needed when I was using it a lot, but I kept bumping into that last 1% and finally switched to Fusion360.
Yes I've heard about that one too. I don't often use txt either, so I haven't bothered.
I still use DSM to this day, as I'm just not that good at CAD and haven't found all of its uses, let alone its limits.
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I use Tinkercad or OpenSCAD depending on which mindspace I'm in. I tried fusion but it didn't click. I guess I'll need to look into Structure Synth, it sounds like it's my jam (-;
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@mrehorstdmd @Phaedrux I'm not 100% sure on the mechanics, but I just turned off my wifi connection, launched Fusion, made a new part, and saved it as STL with no issues.
If I select File/Export to create an STL it tries to send it to the cloud (and takes a while if it's connected), but if I right click the body or component and select "Save as STL" it does it locally, and instantly, no problem.
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@whopping-pochard interesting...
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Fusion will work only for a limited time without internet connection
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just recalled I signed up to beta test some browswer based stuff, vectray - but didn't impress and now the free options seems very limited.
reminds me, I haven't tested the browser based fusion for ages!
yes, fusion will only work about a month or so without talking to the mothership; or that was the limit last i tried at least.
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Hi,
One thing I perhaps should have mentioned is that MOI is extensible by the end user if they are so inclined.
There are users who have added some useful and interesting functionality.
Just recently I had a question about the behavior of the commands that add dimensions. They didn't work quite the way I expected. I asked on the forum and the author told me I could edit a certain file (java script) and comment out one line. That achieved the behavior I desired.
I gather that much of the program is implemented using java script.
Frederick
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@fcwilt That's pretty neat. I'm glad you brought that software to our attention, it seems well-hidden!
On the topic of modifying software, Fusion 360 has quite a robust API that can be programmed in JS, Pyhton or C++.
I have an inclination to make a github add-on for Fusion, so that when projects ar esaved, the data is also captured and reflected in Git/github. I'm not sure how to do it, but I think on git there will just be a .MD file that references the Fusion Team link for the design version, and that gets updated with each commit. Alongside, there could be STL output for comparison and preview on Github, but those are limited to 10 MB. Grrr.
