Working with CAD

This sounds like it could be Lynn Allen from Autodesk. She is a most impressive speaker.

AutoCAD is not that hard to learn, it just depends on your pre-conceptions. It might be worth a look.

I'm not sure about the name but I will try and look it up to see if it was her. You sir are correct about not being that hard. But you and I have been around it or something close to it most of our lives, where the young folks we get here can barely read a map sometimes,,,,,thanks so much for your input and the name drop,,,,,Chuck

cad sources http://www.freecad.com/

http://www.askoh.com/

If you want simple, basic, look up Google Sketch it's 3D cad and basic; this version is free. pete

If you want 3D modeling I would suggest Solidworks.

AutoCAD is better for 2D stuff.

Both programs are user friendly (in my opinion)

Try Autodesk Inventor, it can do a lot of stuff...3d modeling and animation as well.

It also depends on what type of drawings they will have to produce. If they will be simple basic 2D drawings, QCAD is a good, relatively cheap alternative. It can be used to produce basic 2D drawings and is catered to beginners. (www.ribbonsoft.com)

DeltaCad is a cheap easy to use 2D drawing package. It takes about 2 hours for a complete novice to learn how to use it. While its no where as sophisticated as AutoCad its only a fraction of the price. You can download a demo version with a tutorial from the web site at;

http://www.deltacad.com/

good comments, all. I'm an "ol'fart" architect and have been personally using some version of cadd since 1985. I'm proficient in three different cadd platforms and see no reason why anyone else can't be too. As for the package to use, I would reiterate previous comments, that it will depend on what you want it to do. Being an architect, I focus on packages that lend themselves to doing construction drawings quickly and accurately. I also look for 3d and rendering capabilities. Define what you need the program to do, and you'll find cadd programs ranging from a few hundred dollars to several thousand dollars.

Personally, I highly recommend the several versions of AutoCad. As much for its capabilities as for being compatible with everyone else.

If you don't have a real serious dimensional requirement, but are looking more to illustrate, than produce dimensionally scaled drawing, then Micrografx Draw, Corel Draw, and Microsoft Visio are all excellent.

When it comes to exceedingly exact drawings, you should go with Solidworks or some other 3d program. It is easier to learn than autocad and approximately the same price. If you are doing Architecture, then autocad/intellicad is great

With each seat of Solidworks, you also get 3 seats of DWG Editor which contains all autocad functionality, so it is a great deal, because you can author in actual dwg. and the dwg is importable to solidworks.

If you are looking for photorealistic rendering, try the pov-ray and moray combination (opensource for pov and shareware for moray) they are awesome, and completely scalable, so great for architecture.. unfortunately, they don't do drawings.

With Visio, it is phenomenal for doing documentation, as it is completely OLE2 compliant, and so you can paste in and control spreadsheets, word docs, photos, drawings, etc etc... it is the best, unless you have to submit to a print shop, then use corel. Visio can do scaled drawings, but it is a difficult.

Here is examples of solidworks, visio, and moray/povray

Chrisg288@hotmail.com

Here is sample 3DS Max.

What about 3D Studio Max? You should use it for 3D draw. For to 2D draw you should use AutoCAD.

Like Moray, 3D studio has no drawing capability that I am aware of. (I'm not a user) but is the best at freeform modelling and awesome in animation. As far as mechanical engineering goes, I don't know if 3ds is as good as solidworks for feature management, and configurations of parts (complex or simple) For these, you must use real 3d mech eng applications.

In essence, each software is designed to solve a certain set of problems. You must use the tools for the job to get the best results. If you can provide more information as to your application requirements, you will get better answers and subsequently, better results.

Chris

wow nice job with this. Seem like it took some time but appearently in the end it seem to have payed off. Look great awsome work

well all of the CAD Programs are good but Auto CAD 2009 will be a lot easy to teach is just depend on what do you want to use it. like if it is mechanical, architechtual, civil well like a said it just depend.