CAD Programs

[Spartacus51]

I've seen a lot of you have some pretty outstanding CAD skills, and I'm just wondering how you all learned, and especially if there is a good, free, online resource for learning CAD applications. I currently have:

AutoCAD 2002
Mechanical Desktop 6 SP2
Inventor 5.3 w/PowerPack

Company I'm working as a computer tech for the summer agreed to let me use the CDs for the summer so I could try to pick some of it up. (shortly after they bought all this software the company that they are owned by decided to switch from Autodesk, so they have a lot of spare licenses laying around)

[Über~PhLuBB]

I don't know CAD but I do know that BobCAD is a pretty popular free app.

Are you going to start milling blocks for us? I know you were offering some end mills awhile ago. I need 2 WB's milled for an upcoming project, PM me if you're interested in CNC machining them (I can provide the CAD file from someone else).

[Spartacus51]

Unfortunately my access to the milling equiptment is what is limited the most right now (well, perhaps plating is more limited, but I don't think that's really helpful to me). But yeah, with all these CAD programs, if I just knew what I was doing I could have a hell of a good time in the tool room... over $1 million worth of machinging equiptment. Not to mention the ability to check to see just how good a job I did on lapping with a scanning electron microscope.

God there's a lot of cool $#!? in that building...

What I wouldn't do for free reign, could cast copper HS's, blocks. I know they do some work with gold, not sure about silver...

[Script Kiddie]

Wanna make my block when ya get a chance? =)

[athlonnerd]

i know a heck of a lot about autocad, ( not that im bragging:D ). it is a very good tool, i dont know what id do wiht out it. inventor is also great, it does some friging awsome stuff, but i only like it as a side tool to autocad, i find drafting in it to be retarded. the way i learned was a friend in my robotics team showed my the basics, like how to draw a line, circle how to use polar tracking, that sort of stuff. i obtained a copy, and tought my self the rest. although theres alot left that i dont know, (i dont know ho anybody could know all of auto cad), but theres not much i cant do. as for mechnical desk top, i had acess to it, but i found it lacking compared to using acad+inventor. i would highly reccoment learning acad befor inventor.

here is a good link to online inventor and 3dmax tutorials:http://www.usfirst.org/robotics/gtstart.htm#tutorials
that one of the competitions we compete at. do some searching around on the web, im shure you'l find a good ewnough resource to get started, thats the key, getting started, if you have enough interest, you can become good by teaching urself with the help utility. pm me if u have ne other questions.

[athlonnerd]

this looks like a good place to start

http://www.3dcafe.com/asp/tutacad.asp

edit: oops forgot the link:D

[athlonnerd]

dont go right into 3d first. do 2d untill ur comfortable with it, then become an expert on 3d, and then work on 2d, once you know enough 2d, to be proficient in 3d, then the rest is maily just tricks and quirks that can save you time, but arent really taht imortant.it all deped on how far you want to go

[Spartacus51]

Originally posted by athlonnerd
this looks like a good place to start

Where does?

[Spartacus51]

Originally posted by athlonnerd
dont go right into 3d first. do 2d untill ur comfortable with it, then become an expert on 3d, and then work on 2d, once you know enough 2d, to be proficient in 3d, then the rest is maily just tricks and quirks that can save you time, but arent really taht imortant.it all deped on how far you want to go

How far do I want to go? Well, I'm starting college in a couple months to be an electrical engineer, how far do you think I wanna go? The further the better.

[garasaki]

I've used AutoCAD for over 2 years (5 days a week, I might add) and Microstation for about 1.5. There are a LOT of things to learn about AutoCAD, and most of them aren't just tricks and shortcuts:rolleyes:

There's drafting right, and there's drafting to get the job done...

If you're just tinkering around, you won't know the difference, but when you draft for a company, you'll learn real quick how "drafting right" is important!

[garasaki]

Here's an example...this is what I am working on currently...I think its obvious why "drafting right" is important for something complicated like this!

[ajrettke]

I took some drafting classes in HS which was extremely helpful. I know a ton about 2D drafting in autoCAD (learned in r14 before 3d was big) and I know mastercam (****ty program, but it's better then IDEAS and it's what I have to use on the CNC machine). I would start out in AutoCAD and learn how to do basic things like drawing lines, circles, using ortho, and the command that goes like..... 4@34 which puts the point 4 units on a 34 degree angle.

[garasaki]

Originally posted by garasaki
Here's an example...this is what I am working on currently...I think its obvious why "drafting right" is important for something complicated like this!

not that you can tell what that looks like actually:rolleyes:

[athlonnerd]

i see ur point garasaki , im by no means an expert, but i know alot more than most people, ive taken trwo cad classes, in the first one i had to lioterally teach the teacher all that he know, and in the second, all i really learned as how to print on plotters. i knew more than the teacher in that class also. i got autocad cirtified, and got superior rating at state vica. im looking to get a job doing acad. but most of what i do is 3d. we klearned alot of the 2d stuff i didnt know before when we got cirtified, adn most of the stuff was like the lenthen command and such. which in my opionion is slower than just redrawing the line. inventor is awsome for doing 2d though, you can take any 3d objecyt from cad, and automatically do orthographic projections, it can even do auto dimensioons. most of what i do and will do is mechanical drawings.

[garasaki]

The most powerful command in AutoCAD is stretch...if you need to lengthen something, use stretch, and if necessary you can enter the amount you want to stretch (and direction, or just use ortho...).

What makes stretch so powerful is that you can take a lot of lines and move them...once you learn how to use it correctly (you have to think about endpoints of lines...).