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Recommendations for a beginning CAD user


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I just bought all of the Barracuda resin for the 1/72 B-1.  I also have the full compliment in 1/48.  A huge short coming of these kits (especially in 1/72) are the weapons bays.  Particularly the rotary launcher.  I've done a fair bit of scratchbuilding and I'm prepared to go that route with plain styrene.  There are a lot of repeatable parts on each launcher and the margin of error is pretty small.  It'll be difficult to make exact copies of multiple identical parts.  

 

This leads me to consider designing the parts with a CAD program and send out to be printed.  I know 0 about the available software or even where to start.  Can anyone recommend a very user-friendly CAD program?  My PC is about 6 years old and slowing down.  I'm considering going the route of a Mac.  Any opinions on these issues?

 

Or, I'll take the money for the software and pay one of you guys to design the part for me.  😉

 

Thanks 

 

chris

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I know as much about CAD and CAD software as you, so if I were intending to produce CAD parts I'd take some classes at a local community college. You could probably struggle through teaching yourself how to use CAD software, but in the long run you'll be more successful with a strong foundation in the principles of computer aided design. And I imagine that classes will expose you to various software programs as well.

 

Steven Brown

Scale Model Soup

 

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If you plan to produce a variety of sets for a variety of models and scales, and make a business out of it, then invest the time and effort in learning and mastering CAD.

 

If you just want a one-off set for one model then pay someone to do it.  Therre are lots of CAD designers "for rent" out there.

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Not any more.  You can get a free educational license if you're in an accredited educational organization (middle school through college), of presumably by using the contact info of someone who is, but otherwise it's $500/yr+.  

 

You can get a free license for Fusion for 'hobbyist' use, though.

 

If you can fudge education licensing, inventor would probably be the best option, since it's the most fully-featured, 'real' CAD software of the bunch.  Though that probably comes with a much steeper learning curve.  (I use Solidworks, but I'd assume Inventor is pretty similar)  Sketchup is designed to be easy to use for the novice designer, but it's far more restricted in what it can do. 

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I've used both Inventor and Solidworks and our company finally settled on Solidworks. Going from Inventor to Soilidworks was not too bad but I much prefer Solidworks. I found what I had to do when we converted is learn a new terminology in what Inventor uses compared to what Solidworks uses but it was not too onerous.

 

We paid for our Inventor which was significantly cheaper than Solidworks. I have heard good things about Sketchup but have not used it (no need to I guess) from guys who are doing stuff for 3D printing. I also see there are lots of videos on the various CAD programs on Youtube and they have even helped me with some of my Solidworks issues.

 

Also just be aware that if you have never done any 3D modelling there will be a steep learning curve. It really helps if you can think in 3D which should not be too bad since we are modellers after all.

 

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3 hours ago, MoFo said:

Blender isn't really CAD though, it's 3D Modeling.  Works differently from the parametric drafting of Solidworks/Inventor/Sketchup, etc.

 

Yes, but the result he is looking for is the same, which is using some software to print 3d parts.

 

Some other ideas.

 

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