CAD software recommendations

[Stu]

Rhino is also good, just not very cheap to buy sadly but its a one off license which appeals to me.

[Hemi]

Man, this whole licencing thing is a muck around. took me ages to get the 3dplatform online thing to confirm i had the launcher and ok the download of the programme. so now using it is a next weekends problem

[Hemi]

Oh my god, my brain. 

spent like an hour making a washer 50mm by 30mm in solidworks. 

I have not felt so stupid and clueless in quite some time. 

BUT , i then spat out like 10 of different sizes just to prove i knew the gist.

my fucking head though

[sheepers]

solidworks is easy man, you'll get the hang of it. 

[NickJ]

Anyone else finding Fusion is becoming increasingly unuseable with constant updates, crashes and glitches?

I only use it every few weeks that updates are 50% of my use, that with other glitches has gotten so bad for me i'm at the point of walking out.

[mjrstar]

On 23/07/2025 at 01:11, Hemi said:

Oh my god, my brain. 

spent like an hour making a washer 50mm by 30mm in solidworks. 

I have not felt so stupid and clueless in quite some time. 

BUT , i then spat out like 10 of different sizes just to prove i knew the gist.

my fucking head though

This was me on Thursday drawing a basic stepped bush having never used drawing software before.

I went with onshape, but seeing as I'm not up with terminology and having no grasp of limitations the struggle was real.

An hour later or so I managed to merge a couple of bits to make an assembly and then turn my sketch into a drawing. 

Has anyone had joy getting ai to make whatever file type to import into a drawing program.

I got a rough looking thing out of copilot but didn't know what to do with it after that.

 

Would have taken 5 minutes with pencil and paper to achieve the same thing.

[Rookie]

On 17/07/2025 at 01:02, ThePog said:

If you are going to try SW I would just be sailing the high seas with a pegleg, eyepatch and parrot, this will tell you if you can deal with it.

If Onshape just sign up and use the free version to see what its like.

If fusion then lay your hands out on a sturdy bench and get a hefty chap to smash your fingers with a hammer.

This.

/thread

[Bling]

On 02/08/2025 at 10:08, mjrstar said:

Would have taken 5 minutes with pencil and paper to achieve the same thing.

What were you trying to make? TinkerCAD works for the basic stuff pretty quickly. Stepped bush doesn't sound too complicated, but that's why i'm asking, in case it's more complicated than I think.

[shizzl]

I’ve tried a few different programs.

have most success with FreeCad, until it did some weird crap that won’t show any options to be available.

most of the others I find very confusing just to get it started, and the layouts are terrible for newbs

[mjrstar]

1 hour ago, Bling said:

What were you trying to make? TinkerCAD works for the basic stuff pretty quickly. Stepped bush doesn't sound too complicated, but that's why i'm asking, in case it's more complicated than I think.

It isn't more complicated than you think.

My main issue was I had created a surface rather than a solid because I am an idiot.

But visually they looked the same and that is my my defense your honor.

[Willdat?]

2 hours ago, mjrstar said:

It isn't more complicated than you think.

My main issue was I had created a surface rather than a solid because I am an idiot.

But visually they looked the same and that is my my defense your honor.

Yeah, that sort of thing is easy in Fusion too. I'm lucky enough to  have ~120 students doing things in weird and wonderful ways that you get the hang of spotting the balls ups quicker. But also you get a range of perspectives to help solidify your understanding.

The magic trick of all things CAD (which I've probably said before.) is that the sunk cost fallacy is even more true of any CAD model you make. Starting from scratch a second time you'll do it 10 times as fast as the first. Perseverance is for suckers. Fail fast and give it another go.

[mjrstar]

13 hours ago, Willdat? said:

Perseverance is for suckers. Fail fast and give it another go.

Great advice, I managed to whip up something similar this morning in a few minutes without any rage.

[Bearded Baldy]

I have been bouncing between fusion and freecad a little bit, trying to learn various things. Might as well give up on fusion now since next year it will be win11 only and my pc won't be.

Might just sail the 7 internet seas looking for a copy of solidworks instead lol

[Willdat?]

1 hour ago, Bearded Baldy said:

I have been bouncing between fusion and freecad a little bit, trying to learn various things. Might as well give up on fusion now since next year it will be win11 only and my pc won't be.

Might just sail the 7 internet seas looking for a copy of solidworks instead lol

Onshape is browser based so should be Win 10 friendly. 

I teach a few ultra geeks that run Fusion on Linux, they also do HAM radio, have walkie talkies at school and pick locks for the sport of it...

[Bearded Baldy]

As previously mentioned i have an aversion of cloudbased/browser based programs. Which tends to hobble my progress in multiple areas at times, truth being told.

I had fusion running on linux, then was having issues with the pc not booting, removed linux and reinstalled windows, then found reason for inconsistent booting was far easier than any of that.... i had plugged in an optic drive just before i started having problems.

My psu was 520w, i didn't look at the gpu rating, turned out to be 550w minimum, and hooking up the damned cd drive was too much power loss! Unplugged drive and back to normal, never bothered going back to linux though. Also ordered a nice snazzy 850w psu from pb tech. Which was on backorder because i didn't read it right. Should turn up next month lol.

 

Sharn over.

Sound like fun students you have tbh.

[Bling]

What hardware are you trying to run? 850W will run a relatively high end gaming rig. 550W minimum is also just a guide. Unless you actually need that much power, i'd knock it down to a 650w or something. Post some hardware specs if you want, all good if you can't be bothered though. Just trying to save you some bucks.

[ajg193]

Newest versions of freecad are perfectly good for 95% or more of what most of us on here would need. 

Still a learning curve but it is getting better each year

[Bearded Baldy]

47 minutes ago, Bling said:

What hardware are you trying to run? 850W will run a relatively high end gaming rig. 550W minimum is also just a guide. Unless you actually need that much power, i'd knock it down to a 650w or something. Post some hardware specs if you want, all good if you can't be bothered though. Just trying to save you some bucks.

It is a 'rolling project' gaming setup, did some stuff for a mate and he built with his spares as payment, my plan is to slowly upgrade it as i go, being able to learn cad on a fullscreen instead of the laptop is just a bonus.

Price was right for the psu, still is in fact. 

https://www.pbtech.co.nz/product/PSUMSI1020/MSI-MAG-850W-Power-Supply-80-Plus-Gold---ATX-31-PC

Stats to follow...

[ThePog]

36 minutes ago, ajg193 said:

Newest versions of freecad are perfectly good for 95% or more of what most of us on here would need. 

Still a learning curve but it is getting better each year

 

Yea I should have done a caveat on my Cad opinion back a few posts.

I do design for a living so my requirements are for a program that will deal with quite complicated geometry and large, complex assemblies.

If you want to knock out a bushing for 3d printing and such, most programs will work just fine, its just a case of what you are prepared to put into the learning curve.

[Bearded Baldy]

At this point it should be glaringly obvious that i know just enough about computers to not get electricuted, and that is about it.