CAD: Which one is the easiest to learn?

[Winchester]

Need to do a 3D design w/ animation in the next 30 days. Which 3D CAD program is the best and easiest to learn but also can do animation?

I need to do machinery and it would be great if there was a fluid option etc for like moving fluid through PVC pipe to show the route etc.

I have read about the following:

Alibre
Solidworks
Autodesk Inventor
AutoCAD
VectorWorks
DataCAD

etc.

 

[Bozo Galora]

erm, what makes you think you can learn a high end CAD program in 30 days, and then animate your "machine's" fluids on top of that?
Most big city community colleges offer an introductory 18 WEEK course in SW.
Maybe you ought to visit a close one and ask someone there - teacher, student - if they will do your project for you FOR PAY.

FWIW, I find Solidworks to be the "easiest", @$5000, and you could "animate" your fluid with FEA SW plugin Cosmosworks. SW's Featureworks MAY move "fluids" (a solid representation) around bends - never tried it.
http://www.solidworks.com/pages/products/cosmos/cosmosworks.html

 

[Winchester]

I have a working knowledge of AutoCAD LT and Alibre and various 3D programs but what I am wanting to do is a little different IMO.

Getting someone to do the work for me is not an option even if it was free.

 

[Fenixgoon]

i play around in alibre, it's pretty neat 🙂

 

[Leros]

I had a very easy time learning CadKey (high school class a few years ago), but I've never heard anybody talk about it before.

 

[JonnyBlaze]

forget about autocad for 3d stuff. i use it daily and love it but for 3d its not what you want. id say inventor has the most potential for you.

 

[troytime]

pro/engineer could surely do it, but i don't know if you could learn it in 30 days

 

[Parkre]

SolidWorks with the FloWorks package.

I have been using it for the last 5 weeks (although like 14 hours a day). for my senior design project.

I am utilizing the thermal analysis especially since it does radiation.

It only took a few days to learn and understand. But to understand what every does and troubleshooting problems took a long time.


I love it.

 

[Winchester]

Originally posted by: troytime
pro/engineer could surely do it, but i don't know if you could learn it in 30 days

Its an $18,000 program 😉.

Originally posted by: Parkre
SolidWorks with the FloWorks package.

I have been using it for the last 5 weeks (although like 14 hours a day). for my senior design project.

I am utilizing the thermal analysis especially since it does radiation.

It only took a few days to learn and understand. But to understand what every does and troubleshooting problems took a long time.


I love it.

Thanks for the tip.

 

[troytime]

Originally posted by: Winchester

Originally posted by: troytime
pro/engineer could surely do it, but i don't know if you could learn it in 30 days

Its an $18,000 program 😉.

And worth every penny.
Didn't know price was part of your requirements, sorry.

 

[Winchester]

Originally posted by: troytime

Originally posted by: Winchester

Originally posted by: troytime
pro/engineer could surely do it, but i don't know if you could learn it in 30 days

Its an $18,000 program 😉.

And worth every penny.
Didn't know price was part of your requirements, sorry.

Little steep for now. Maybe later though. It looks like an awesome program.

 

[CorCentral]

Pro-Engineer is one of the best if not the best out there. It will "NOT" cost you $18k though. It's not the easiest to learn but "VERY" powerful for those that glide in and learn the ins and outs.
I'll get back to this post later with an approximate software price. It's more along the lines of $8-10k! It will also cost you yearly for the Support and Updates.

Comparing the two as weapons.......
Autocad= Grain of sand..... maybe a Pebble
Pro-E= Atomic Bomb

 

[Winchester]

Originally posted by: CorCentral
Pro-Engineer is one of the best if not the best out there. It will "NOT" cost you $18k though. It's not the easiest to learn but "VERY" powerful for those that glide in and learn the ins and outs.
I'll get back to this post later with an approximate software price. It's more along the lines of $8-10k! It will also cost you yearly for the Support and Updates.

Comparing the two as weapons.......
Autocad= Grain of sand..... maybe a Pebble
Pro-E= Atomic Bomb

I did a simple google search and that is what I came up with. It looks awesome.

It estimated $18K + $3600 yearly maintenance for the full blown Pro-Engineer. Their is two cheaper version but they do dont the animations and fluid stuff.

 

[43st]

Originally posted by: JonnyBlaze
forget about autocad for 3d stuff. i use it daily and love it but for 3d its not what you want. id say inventor has the most potential for you.

I do all my 3D work in AutoCad, with the 2007 release it's become a very solid, no pun intended, package. AutoDesk also just released a beta conversion utility so you can import AutoCad solids into Inventor fully constrained. Which is nice since Inventor's 2D sketch features are pretty limited.

But... AutoCad doesn't really do animations. You can animate a camera path around an object but that's it I believe. If anyone knows otherwise please let me know, I'd love to do concept animations in AutoCad.