JD Mather Posted May 3, 2011 Share Posted May 3, 2011 I'm 53 years young and I want a seat of inventor! Thanks for the clairification and your help today. Would you show me something created in Inventor...perhaps on my drawing? We are the same age. I have family between Owensboro and Evansville. Autodesk has also run a program for displaced (unemployed) workers to get the software for free. Exactly what is your design that you have posted? Looks like you are heading for some sort of punch, but really confused by your file. On major advantage to Inventor is Mechanisms actually work. I would simply click and drag to swivel that flashlight head for example. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SLW210 Posted May 3, 2011 Share Posted May 3, 2011 MCAD = Mechanical CAD (a generic term - not to be confused with AutoCAD Mechanical)Examples: Autodesk Inventor, SolidWorks, SolidEdge, Pro/E (Creo) AutoCAD is a general purpose computer aided design program that is not optimized for anything. There are several 2D and 3D vertical applications (like AutoCAD Mechanical) that are built on top of vanilla AutoCAD to try to address certain fields (Electrical, Civil, Architectural...). But the next-generation field specific applications seem to be moving away from AutoCAD base to clean-slate "how would we do it today given 25+ years of CAD experience" paradigm. (Revit and Inventor are two examples.) If you are young (or even not so young) and preparing for the future I would be learning one of the next-generation tools. Otherwise you will be competing with a huge number of existing AutoCAD users for employment. And in my opinion the new tools are just plain fun compared to AutoCAD. Do you want to work for the rest of your career or "work as play"? Students can get Autodesk products for free from http://www.autodesk.com/edcommunity You need to read this AutoCAD Helps Drive Infrastructure Design We're using several different tools to do that, in order to evaluate potential clashes, to coordinate several different systems on site, and to evaluate the constructability of the designs," said Randall. Their tools include AutoCAD, AutoCAD Civil 3D, and all three flavors of Autodesk Revit, as well as Bentley MicroStation and InRoads. They use the AutoCAD DWG file format to pass information between these different packages. AutoCAD is far from dead, as a matter of fact, having just recently quit searching for a job in CAD, I can tell you there were plenty more compnies seeking those with training and experience for AutoCAD Electrical (lots fro PCB design), Arch, ADT, LDD, Civil 3D and 3D MAP than Inventor, Solidworks and PRO/E combined (I have PRO/E and Inventor experience, though a bit dated now (I actually passed a PRO/E test on a job interview couple of years ago )). I would lean more toward sending younger potential cad designers toward Revit, MEP, Plant 3D, P&ID, AutoPLANT and the AutoCAD verticals for the future unless they already have a discipline in mind that would necessitate learning Inventor, Solidworks or PRO/E etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
klrskies Posted May 3, 2011 Author Share Posted May 3, 2011 Exactly what is your design that you have posted? I'm a toolmaker/cnc programmer/ cn edm programmer,operator/ thats' now moved into designing extrusion dies and related tooling. My work goes to Wire EDM...they like it simple...so if I end up drawing in 3d solids I need to be able to give them just the entites they need....wire frame works well for that. I'd like to have solids and be able to section 3d shapes easily. Some people here really like solidworks...I don' thave the experience to say...Is one easier to learn / use than the other? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JD Mather Posted May 4, 2011 Share Posted May 4, 2011 I'm a toolmaker/cnc programmer/ cn edm programmer,operator/ thats' now moved into designing extrusion dies and related tooling. My work goes to Wire EDM...they like it simple...so if I end up drawing in 3d solids I need to be able to give them just the entites they need....wire frame works well for that. I'd like to have solids and be able to section 3d shapes easily. Some people here really like solidworks...I don' thave the experience to say...Is one easier to learn / use than the other? I started out on the shop floor 8-yrs as a machinist on all the standard manual and CNC machines except for EDM. Later taught machine tools and CNC programing. Now teach MCAD with AutoCAD, Inventor, SolidWorks and Pro/E (now Creo). Inventor and SolidWorks are essentially identical. Pro/E is convoluted but similar. Pro/E seems to be dying. Many early adopters switched from Pro/E to SolidWorks. Late adopters are switching from AutoCAD to Inventor or SolidWorks. With the huge installed base of AutoCAD - it will be interesting to see what percentage will eventually switch to Inventor and what percentage will switch to SolidWorks (or some other tool which we don't know about). But the informed will switch. AutoCAD is too antiquated for mechanical use to take the next generation into the future (think manual drafting on drawing board). I've been around the track a few times - but I'm still trying to get my head around what you are trying to do from the file you attached. I just don't get it. Got any pictures of something similar? I suspect there is a much better way to get where you are going. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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