What 3D CAD Tool?

[narrowminded]

I did design by pencil until about 1982.  I had no formal computer training, not even a weekend seminar.  When I decided to learn cad I bought a program and set up at home.  I struggled and screwed around until I finally did their tutorial, designing a simple house floor plan.  They had you insert the basics, go back and edit as you changed your mind (you were told you did) , etc.  That was how I finally made sense of it and progressed very rapidly from there.  My suggestion, whichever program, do their tutorial.  Do it a second and even a third time if necessary.  You'll surprise yourself how quickly it comes together. If you were to graph your progress it would be a near perfect 90 degree shape.  When it clicks you're off and running.

And a couple of years later the cad experience made it easy to teach myself CNC programming as that followed the same type of logic.  Being proficient with manual machining was the base knowledge, hard to substitute that experience, but then adding the CNC capability was actually fairly logical following the cad experience.

[lashedup]

I haven't really made any progress but I've been trying to use either Punch ViaCAD Pro V10 or Rhino3d V5 on my Mac.

I fire them up, fiddle a bit and quit in frustration.  Pretty sad considering I've worked with computers since 1977 and took 3 years of "Mechanical Drawing" in High School.

I've been using Rhino 3D on my Mac for about a month now and I like it a lot. My son is taking a CAD class and I bought an educational version. Yes, the learning curve is a little steep, but once you get the hang of a few things, it starts to fall into place. You might want to look at signing up temporarily at Lynda.com to get access to their classroom videos. There is a goldmine of well done instructional videos there and that helped me out quite a bit. Even with my lack of patience on a number of things. 

Here is a Kato FEF 4-8-4 unit nose replacement I'm working on as part of a conversion kit:

[reinhardtjh]

Jamie,
  That looks pretty good.  I've had the ViaCAD line a lot longer then the Rhino3D.  Started back at V6 of ViaCAD 2D/3D.  But I'd heard good things about Rhino3D on the various message boards for CAD/CAM and CNC milling so when they announced their Mac version I got the Beta and the 5.0 during the introductory pricing.  But I haven't has as much time lately to work with it.  I do notice that Rhino has a lot more tutorial info available then Punch/ViaCAD.

[Cajonpassfan]

Okay @lashedup I gotta ask: what is the conversion...a single stack -1?
Otto K.

[lashedup]

That’s part of a conversion from the FEF unit to Milwaukee 261. Needs the all weather cab (in progress) and front plow.  Otherwise, the FEF is a pretty good starting point.  I was thinking of looking into other conversions as well. The UP single stack FEF-1 and -2 has different sanding domes requiring a different boiler shell as well. 

[haasmarc]

Rhino3D does look interesting.  Watched some videos.  The student version is decently priced.

[Iain]

For those that do Linux, I use bricscad, which is Linux native.

[freedj]

Fusion 360 is a full featured parametric cad package that is free for personal use.  I've really enjoyed using it for cnc mill projects. I haven't looked into the cam for 3D printers, but it has full toolpathng for mills included.

[haasmarc]

Fusion 360 is a full featured parametric cad package that is free for personal use.  I've really enjoyed using it for cnc mill projects. I haven't looked into the cam for 3D printers, but it has full toolpathng for mills included.

Free for a year.

[lashedup]

Ok, I bought a DLP, resin 3D printer, which looks to print better than FXD, and I want to start drawing up my own stuff to print.  I was planning on using SketchUp and I still may, but the web version doesn't have a lot of the good tools.  Sure, you can use it to get to the same point, but it might be a lot more work.

Printed anything yet?

[Jake S.]

I would second the suggestion for Fusion 360. It is professional grade software that is free to students, businesses with less than $100k/yr in revenue, and hobbyists. (To get it for free, simply download the 30 day trial, and when it expires you will be prompted to purchase a subscription. Open the dialogue box that pops up and at the bottom should be a bit about qualifying for free or reduced subscription rates. Click that and fill out the form to obtain a free license.)

It is powerful, easy to use, and free.

[haasmarc]

Printed anything yet?

Yes and no.  I printed a Millenium Falcon.  Then I started working on a Reading cab for an SD45 using Sketchup.  I got the basic shape done and printed one to check it.  Looks good but I have a long way to go until it's done.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Then I started working on a Reading cab for an SD45 using Sketchup.  I got the basic shape done and printed one to check it.  Looks good but I have a long way to go until it's done.

Oooh baby!

[reinhardtjh]

Yes and no.  I printed a Millenium Falcon.  Then I started working on a Reading cab for an SD45 using Sketchup.  I got the basic shape done and printed one to check it.  Looks good but I have a long way to go until it's done.

The Falcon looks good.  Can you post a picture of the SD45 cab just so we can see?  Is the banding noticeable?

[lashedup]

Here are the very first prints I did on the printer. Have since learned a lot about orientation, resins, curing and more and need to dial things in a bit more.  Green resin that comes with the printer after a quick IPA bath:



I intentionally did the orientation in three different directions to see what printed well assuming that the Z-axis layers (which are usually the issue with Shapeways prints) would be the issue. Turns out that with this printer, it is the actual resolution of the LCD screen (2K screen) that is fixing the X and Y pixel/voxel size to .047mm.   So with no sanding or prep work (or primer filler) I just removed the supports and gave the pieces of a quick airbrush of Model Master Engine Black:



I used a resin curing time that was fairly generic with these that most people report having good results from and I think they weren't bad. However I think the details could be fused a little better with a tad more exposure for each layer.  The piece that was completely vertical up and down and the the piece that was at a 30 degree angle look the best. I also have to tell you that at normal viewing distances these look really good. A light sanding and some priming and I think I'll be happy.

Still have work to do, but happy thus far.  Also printed my first passenger shell and it has issues I think can be resolved with refinements and some planning for better support to avoid warping issues, but altogether very promising...