Chubz Posted March 20, 2007 Report Share Posted March 20, 2007 Folks I know we have some CAD gurus out there. Looking for a reasonably priced CAD program to help me with designing boards for this summer's builds. I know skicad is out there and have demoed solid works, but what is out there? I saw some different ones at Staples from $89 to $800 plus for AutoCad. Looking to get my templates, etc spec'd out and CNC'd. Leaning towards something 3D just to tinker and fairly easy to learn. Any direction is appreciated. Greg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bjordnolf Posted March 20, 2007 Report Share Posted March 20, 2007 Do you already have snocad from the graf site? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chubz Posted March 20, 2007 Author Report Share Posted March 20, 2007 Thats what I meant, Snocad not skicad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Randy T. Posted March 20, 2007 Report Share Posted March 20, 2007 Greg, I use Pro Engineer and sometimes AutoCAD for my job so I don't know much about pricing, but both are probably pretty high. For the board I'm building I just used SNOCad for the main shape and then designed the swallow tail in AutoCAD. Did you like solid works? If so I might be able to help you out there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlueB Posted March 20, 2007 Report Share Posted March 20, 2007 AutoCAD is ok 2d, but pretty horrible in 3D. I like Rhinoceros 3D... It is NURBS surface modeling, user friendly and cheap. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chubz Posted March 20, 2007 Author Report Share Posted March 20, 2007 I went back to fiddling with Snocad last night, just dont know what all of the buttons do. It seems like that will work for the basic shapes. Solid works looked cool, I just watched the on line demos, nothing interactive and it was much cheaper than expected. If you can hook a brother up, that would be cool. It seems like it would workwell. Even though they sold out, I check back with OCC every so often and that is what they use for wheel and frame design. I also see them using a freehand drawing pen on the computer screen, what is that? I will look up Rhino 3d. What is NURBS??? I am PC based, if that makes a difference. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bjvircks Posted March 20, 2007 Report Share Posted March 20, 2007 NURBS = non-uniform rational B splines honest... that is what it means! Has to do with the mathematical representation of the curve. I wish I could help on this but my exposure to CAD is in the $40k per seat variety. edit B = bezier Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
~tb Posted March 20, 2007 Report Share Posted March 20, 2007 NURBS = non-uniform rational B splineshonest... that is what it means! Has to do with the mathematical representation of the curve. I wish I could help on this but my exposure to CAD is in the $40k per seat variety. Im in the same boat as above. . . for just about everything though, I would reccomend SolidWorks. Any chance you can claim you (or someone in your family) is a student? The student version is quite reasonable ;-) ~tb Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pebu Posted March 20, 2007 Report Share Posted March 20, 2007 I use solidworks at work. Very easy to use. The thing I hate about autocad is you can't just select a dimension and change it... In solidworks the assemblies are living so you can change the models and all the assemblies will change and what not. I've used Unigraphix and Ideas, but those were both pains in my ass. Much more powerful in some respects I'm sure, but solidworks works very nicely. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Jared Q Posted March 20, 2007 Report Share Posted March 20, 2007 If all you want are to cut out some sheet metal templates then most shops with a laser or waterjet will only want a .dxf file from you. Make sure they know what units the file was created in (mm, cm, or inches). Solidworks is probably overkill for this type of 2-d work. The SnoCAD program from Graf will get you 90%-100% there for basic shapes, it will even export a .dxf file. To modify the .dxf there are numerous fairly inexpensive programs available. This would only be necessary if you can't get the shape you want out of SnoCAD. Remember to account for the width of the metal edges (if the template is for cutting out the base). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jrobb Posted March 20, 2007 Report Share Posted March 20, 2007 Greg,I use Pro Engineer and sometimes AutoCAD for my job so I don't know much about pricing, but both are probably pretty high. For the board I'm building I just used SNOCad for the main shape and then designed the swallow tail in AutoCAD. Did you like solid works? If so I might be able to help you out there. Were you not able to get the tail shape in SnoCad? I messed around with it a bit and could get some decent tail shapes. J Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chubz Posted March 20, 2007 Author Report Share Posted March 20, 2007 all the input is good and I will take into consideration. Leanign towards solid works just to have some 3d models of what I am designing. Does it also have graphics design capabilities? probably a stupid question, its design software. Wanna also be able to work on logo stuff and board specs that will go on the boards. I will head back to snocad as well. Its funmaking funky shapes in there along with real shapes. Thanks folks of course the next question, anyone have a free copy of solid works Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlueB Posted March 20, 2007 Report Share Posted March 20, 2007 A bit of Rhino magic... ;) As for graphics, go Corel Draw. Super powerfull (has some CAD features too) and way cheaper than competition. In the bundle you also get a photo editing program on par with Photoshop... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derf Posted March 21, 2007 Report Share Posted March 21, 2007 I work with Solid Edge at work and I like it a lot. A friend of mine who helped start up an engineering department said that of all those he tried, Solid Edge has the most bang for the buck (features, usability, etc.). He tried several other CAD software (SolidWoks, Catia, Inventor among others) and chose Solid Edge. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bjordnolf Posted March 21, 2007 Report Share Posted March 21, 2007 theres another program similar to snocad thats just been posted on skibuilders.com. I think it does a few more things. thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexgforce Posted March 21, 2007 Report Share Posted March 21, 2007 I would recommend Cobalt by Ashlar. Ideal for product design. I was working for R&D of BIC shaver and although I was using ProE and SolidWorks I found Cobalt to be by far the fastest and easiest to use. Check out www.ashlar.com If you dont have the money to spend and you want to use the software for personal use you can always download the trial version (valid for 1 month) from the ashlar website and then use a crack so you use it indefinitely. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chubz Posted March 21, 2007 Author Report Share Posted March 21, 2007 Where do I find the crack? If it is computer manipulation to expend its use over a onth, I do not know how to do that. Any input is welcome. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Randy T. Posted March 21, 2007 Report Share Posted March 21, 2007 Were you not able to get the tail shape in SnoCad? I messed around with it a bit and could get some decent tail shapes. J I wasn't able to get the exact shape I wanted and I knew that I could do it faster in AutoCAD so I went that route. This is what I did for the tail. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexgforce Posted March 22, 2007 Report Share Posted March 22, 2007 if you google a crack for Cobalt I am prety sure you can find it. If you don't I can email it to. First, play around with the trial version to see if Cobalt is suitable for you. The crack is very easy to apply. The crack is an exe file identical with the exe file for Cobalt. After you install the program and you have the crack in a folder just right-click copy the exe file. Then go to program files and find the Cobalt folder. Open it and right-click paste. You should get a message asking if you want to replace the existing file with the one you are pasting. Click yes and the program is cracked. Let me know if you need more help Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
C5 Golfer Posted March 22, 2007 Report Share Posted March 22, 2007 Solidworks user here---My suggestion is to find a copy of Solidworks 2004 and never upgrade. 2006 and 2007 have too many issues. Lines disappear, views go blank, dimensions are gone or you must exit the sketcher and then go back into to find them. You can't rotate model around a point when in Section view - list is long. But what am I think Pro-E has issues too! Back to your question - you might want to look at CadKey -- it may do everything you need at a much cheaper price and not all of the issues one has with a feature based CAD system. You may want to go here for light bathroom reading if you have a laptop. http://www.caddigest.com/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
C5 Golfer Posted March 22, 2007 Report Share Posted March 22, 2007 One thing I might add is get a program that can give you a .stl file so that you may cheaply model this in a 3D printer, that is to say you can build your model of your new board to scale like 1/10 scale, 1/4 scale or parts of it full scale at a very cheap cost. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexgforce Posted March 22, 2007 Report Share Posted March 22, 2007 stl indeed. Cobalt can do stls in a blink of an eye Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hagen Posted March 22, 2007 Report Share Posted March 22, 2007 The pen tablet that you saw on OCC is most likely something like this: http://www.wacom.com/cintiq/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuck Posted March 24, 2007 Report Share Posted March 24, 2007 Rhino is pretty easy to learn, and very accurate. I downloaded the trial version this afternoon and threw this together. Wood core, tip and tail pieces, and green sidewalls like my Madd... Chuck Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chubz Posted March 24, 2007 Author Report Share Posted March 24, 2007 Chuck is God But I dont have $850 to drop on a Rhino program. or $3750 to drop on Cobalt. Solid works seem cheapest and will serve my needs but when I looked it up there are a bunch of different versions. Which one works best. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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