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computer aided design software

5

55 50 Ron

Well-known Member
Are any of you readers working as an engineer or are retired from engineering?

I'm retired from engineering but never used any computer aided design software in my employment.

I'd like to try to learn (for fun?) some design software in retirement.

Any ideas of what is a good path to follow? Hoping for something easy to learn and low cost :):)

Thanks
 
Hi Ron,
The easiest and least expensive way to do this is to enroll at a community college that teaches CAD. If you are over 60 (at least here in Ohio) you can take classes free. Plus as a student you will have access to free CAD software. I wish you were close to my classes, because we'd love to have someone with your real-life experiences in the classroom with the "young-ens".

Larry
 
I'm also retired engineer (mechanical). I used Autocad over the years but didn't want to pony up for a license to use at home. I found a free program, Draftsight, that imitates autocad and the learning curve isn't too bad.
 
Draftsight is free for 2D use and is similar to AutoCAD enough that you can be proficient in it pretty quickly.

You will have to check, but SolidWorks used to offer a free / greatly discounted license to students and professionals that were in between jobs. That will be one of the easiest 3D programs to pick up and is used in a wide variety of industries.

Good luck!
 
I bought a seat of Autocad about 20 years ago from a community college where I was a student. I think it was release 12.

I can't remember if it would let you save or export files (being a student version) but it was cheap enough.
 
I just graduated with a Civil degree in May (turned 23 eariler this month). Work for Amtrak-spent most of my afternoon today using AutoCAD. In school I used the free student version of AutoCAD (still have it on my personal computer), as well as MicroStation, and Solidworks (once as a freshman) however I only got the free versons since I had a edu email.

No experience with any of the other free ones. AutoCAD and Micro station are somewhat similar, and the recomendations given for other free ones will likly be too. Community College is a good option too, as then you should be able to get the free student version. For AutoCAD, the only difference I ever noticed was that anything done in AutoCAD student ultimatly prints out with an AutoCAD student watermark around the outer edge.
 
I'm retired from engineering. We used Autocad and that is what most of the clients used.
I'm interested in Google Sketch up Make. It is a free software that will provide 3D.
 
We have Autocad LT which is a "lite" version. You can buy it or, as we do, rent from Autocad which gives you all the updates and new releases. I'm no expert as I taught myself but couldn't get along without it.
 
If you are close to a community college, sign up for a class or two. Solidworks, Pro Engineer, and AutoCAD used to offer inexpensive home and student versions for learning their software. These versions are not licensed to use for commerce and may have a time limit.

Pro Engineer is very powerful, but the learning curve used to be about 1500 hours of seat time to be proficient (about 9 months on the job full time).

Pay attention to which OS (operating system) the software runs on and the computer hardware requirements. Some softwares require an expensive computer like a gaming computer.
 
I teach Cad and 3D solid modeling (SCSU) Top dog (in my view) is ProE Creo, It also has a high profile client base in aerospace and high value design. Next I would choose Inventor (I use it because it is a component n Project Lead The Way curriculum that I am A Master Teacher and University Affiliate teaching teachers) After that I would choose SolidWorks because it is also popular and mid level. All three are equally difficult to learn Reference books from Sham Tikoo (Purdue University Press) for any of them will be a blessing as that author uses reasonable building blocks and explanations with exercises and examples. All three produce 2D dimensioned drawings in minutes from the model you create. I have taught 4H kids from clover bud level to 18 how to be successful with 3D in 3 hours. Jim
 
I've been playing with sketch up recently. I've used draftsight some in the past. The only previous experience I have is using AutoCAD 13 in one college class years ago. All three are similar enough that the basic skills cross over. Took me an afternoon and a couple tries, but I was able to make up drawings for a project I want to do with the kids next week.
 
I used several versions of AutoCAD Lite for many years. I never got to the 3D modeling point, but did some pretty complex 2D work with it. Take some classes at your local community college or career center, etc. You'll catch on quickly. You already know how to draw, you only need to get familiar with the computer commands. It won't be long before you're running circles around those kids who only know a bit about computers, but nothing about drawing. I build some doll furniture as a hobby and half the fun of the projects is drawing and detailing it all out.
 
have used DesignCad for 20+ yes. Very very inexpensive & low learning curve. Got hooked on it at work back then. Needed to do some cad quickly for a job, tech support showed up & loaded on my desktop. Where's the manual, I asked...don't need it, I was told. they were right, had first drawing done later that day. it's still the same easy to use GUI, have bought all but one version at home since then. one drawback is that it's native file format isn't recognized by many other programs, so if you need to send files to someone else, that could be a problem. however, I've been able to use its export function to other formats without too many errors, so there's generally a good workaround.
 
Try a product called SketchUp It's free in most application, Fun and fairly easy to use

Google the name

Gary mn
 
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