CAD software

[Stéphane Collin]

Hi all.

Thanks for sharing.
I have given a try to Alibre Design.  They have a fully functional demo working for 30 days, and they propose some live help for that period.  I found it easy to use and quite intuitive (so much more intuitive than AutoCad), and the basic 3D rendering is quite nice.  You can design objects and their obliged movements one against the other.  The demo is limited in the way that you can create no more than 10 objects in one project, that is exactly enough to try out, for example, a "magic line" simulation with simplified action parts.
I understood that if you decide to go for the license, Alibre is quite cheap and user friendly.  Probably not as sophisticated as other CAD, but certainly useful enough, methinks.  Yet over the 1.000 USD.

Frank, did you try this one ?  What do you think about ?  How does it compare with SolidWorks ?

But again, my problem is how to maximize the precision of physical measurements.  As soon as a lever comes into play, the errors on measurement are multiplied, and I found more than often that they end up too large to be useable.  I'm sure there are clever tricks around, but they fly over my head.

Best regards.

Stéphane Collin.




That said, CAD has advanced into a new generation of software. <snip> 
I have much experience with just about every professional-level CAD software available.  My "hands down" preference is SolidWorks.

Frank Emerson