Colleges and Universities don't want to use Altium, AutoCAD, or Solidworks for actual modeling despite having the educator licenses to hand out like candy. Professors hate actually teaching you to be useful.

The problem with all cad software is it's filled with bullshit, nigger I just want to select the line tool, and click on something and just press a key for heading and type the length.
I open most cad software and there isn't even a line tool. You can't actually draw or make anything.
I exclusively use sketchup 2017 for all 3d modeling and just run it through chatgpt if I need curves on something

>>2959180
I don't know, i use plasticity for everything.

>Free, really truly, honestly free. No college e-mail address student free version, no weird repeat "No, I'm not selling the stuff I make with your program" free license
>Child friendly, their main audience
>Strangely probably one of the easiest ways to reverse engineer someone else's STL to fit your needs (I think, I forget which one is good for that)

And on the unlikely chance one of the big CADs might sponsor a video, they probably won't exclude you for having used the Fisher Price one.

>>2959200
>Colleges and Universities don't want to use Altium, AutoCAD, or Solidworks
My college has student licenses for Autodesk and Siemens software (no Dassault Systemes stuff, unfortunately), so technically we got AutoCAD, Autodesk Inventor, and Siemens Solid Edge/NX licenses, even though I only had to use the last two of these for class.
Altium and Eagle are roughly on the same calibre as KiCAD when it comes to doing solo projects, even though they do have some notable advantages when it comes to collaborating on the cloud, but then again, (in my experience) most student projects are usually solo projects or projects involving 4-6 guys, each one with a completely different task and none of them actually looking at what the others are doing.

The two programs I really wish I'd had a license to in college were Proteus and NI LabView. Unfortunately, my college decided that laundering money by setting up gay music events, sports events, and inviting "motivational" speakers was a better way to use excess funds than by spending on software fees (and lab equipment) that could be of real benefit for students.

>learn inventor and autoCAD in HS
>need to design a folding table last night
>try online CAD programs
>can't use any because they're clunky and most don't have basic features like snapping and constraints
>get the grid paper out instead
I don't feel like sitting down with tutorials just to be able to draw a few rectangles to check the fit of a few parts. Is sketchup any better now that they require signup? The last version I could freely use worked but not well enough that I want to go through the signup process to use it again.

>>2959252
My sister's an architect and uses Sketchup on a daily basis. I've seen some of the stuff she makes, from models for tables to entire houses, and it all looks very decent.
It's currently got a subscription-based model, and if you just want basic features, you can pay $10.75/year, which, due to inflation (not sure if Bidenflation or Trumpflation), is now less than the price of a pizza from Domino's Pizza.
Then again, if you just wanna make ONE table and never do any more 3D modelling again, you can get the trial version for free (or well, use that TinkerCAD web app suggested on the OP), but if you want something that's 100% free (both as in libré and gratis), you'll have to stick to stuff like LibreCAD and FreeCAD.

File: Untitled.png (2.87 MB, 2000x765)

2.87 MB PNG

>>2959180
i use it because it easy and i dont need as much detail just to make a rough idea. im designing and building this midengine car and i used tinkercad just to get an idea im not building it off of tinkercad specifically

File: Untitled.png (520 KB, 918x751)

520 KB PNG

>>2959180
this is a model of a shifter assembly i plan to make a copy of some super expensive unit. its very basic but it makes sense how it needs to be made

I'm just here to say, fuck cloudshit.

>>2959180
I use tinkercad for most of my custom 3d models i make. As another user wrote, its easy to use if you just need something simpel. I just started using design spark mechanical, because tinkercad has its limits. And the problem with some of the other cad programs is that they cost money. Or the free ones like freecad are a fucking mess.

>>2959224
imagine having this level of mindrot

>>2959180
so what's the best program for quick but precise modelling? i use sketchup for pretty much everything, but i can imagine it getting too messy for complicated stuff

>>2959180
It's probably risky to show off your pirated Autodesk Inventor.

>>2959180
Fusion360 has been a pain in the ass for me and it's really the only viable free software.
Their weird 10-editable-files only rule, the always online thing, and for whatever reason I have to keep downloading and running the installer for it to update, and I can't use it without updating. I've grown to hate using it.
I tried OnShape but it was laggy as hell and I couldn't figure out how to dimension lines. I really don't understand why every "new" CAD developer has to reinvent the wheel.

I learned how to use solidworks in college but my education license expired several years ago. I'd buy it if it weren't so fucking expensive AND on a subscription model like everything else is. Apparently up until a few years ago you could get it for real cheap through some membership but that's not a thing anymore.
The other option is pirating it but then you can't have your internet connected while using it or they'll start sending you threatening letters, Dassault has a whole department just for tracking down people who are using their software unauthorized.

From what I've read modern solidworks sucks ass anyways.

The market is ripe for a cheaper 3d CAD software that just werks and is a single-time purchase.

>>2959180
it just werks

>>2959747
>The other option is pirating it but then you can't have your internet connected while using it or they'll start sending you threatening letters, Dassault has a whole department just for tracking down people who are using their software unauthorized.
can't you just block its internet access

>>2959747
Freecad has been getting some major updates and fixes in the last several months. AFAIK it's still kinda janky, but hopefully this will be it's blender/kicad moment where it becomes good enough to see significant adoption and subsequent improvement.
Software subscription is pure cancer. I would be much more comfortable knowing I can still reopen my models after a year.

>>2959747
50 bucks per year now. I mean i guess thats sorta ok

>>2959747
Learn to use a PC.

>>2959838
Fusion360 is awful anyway. The wizards that run Autocad are retiring and they can't find anyone that can code that well so they made this shit to replace it.

They'll keep jacking he priceup until it's $2000 and then announce end-of-life for autocad

>>2959747
On this topic, if I want to edit an STL in fusion 360, why does it bog down with plenty of ram and a 4080? is the online thing really doing all the computation not locally? It's not even that complicated of an stl but it's a major pain making any minor changes.

>>2959200
Solidworks stsrted doing a hobbyist version, but their customer service is fucking crazy to deal with.

Opencad > freecad

>>2959180
CAD ecosystem is kinda fundamentally fucked.

One one hand you have the big industry survivors:

Dassault's Solidworks and Catia
Autodesk's Inventor
Siemens NX

These work, but they're crusty ancient pieces of shit and getting a legit license requires you to basically be a business and spend a couple 1000 bucks every year.

Then you have 9001 small specialists and has-beens who never really made it big, and thus never got the funding to actually flesh out the features and make it stable. Like Rhino.

Then you have the new upstarts which try to do it from scratch and with some semblence of software engineering competency, but they're too new to actually be usable because they lack 9001 features, and ofc it's all SAAS and cloud garbage. Imagine trying to do CAD in a browser with js lmao. Like OnShape.

Then there's the free shit like FreeCAD and OpenSCAD and they're universally unusable for serious work because they're crustly like the old industry shit, and lack the features like the has beens do.

There is no good CAD. There probably will never be one.

t. used dozens of CAD programs professionally for oh my god please kill me reasons

>>2960706
How the fuck anything is being done? Are people just going "fuck it" and keep using graph papers?

>>2960714
NTA but I too used most CAD for professional use, since I'm a CAD monkey, and the answer is: you just endure the pain because there's just no alternative. Speaking of suffering, these fucking programs crash all the fucking times. If videogames crashed half as much as these shits there'd be riots on the streets. Considering how expensive a single license is, the level of bullshit one has to deal with when using these programs is unexcusable. Ironically OnShape is the only that has yet to give me these sort of headaches, but I really hate its cloud only nature, even if it's "free".

>>2959180
my first 3d model I ever made was in 3d paint LOL tinkercad aint got shit on me

the only cad program that genuinely sucks is openscad, like, you have to be crazy to find that more convenient and intuitive for design

>>2960761
You are like a little baby

My company's autodesk has bespoke integration to our GIS database AND does not run locally. That's right I get to use Autocad through a VMware session to a server across the cpuntry

>>2960714
They give us $20/ hr to watch solidworks crash and watch it come back online

Then sit and wait and watch a 2007 copy of surfcam attempt to load on a clicking hard drive running windows xp

The pay is that same $20 an hour to watch the haas try to spin its spindle at 4k and seeing that spindle amp fail and that red light flash

> turn off the cnc machine and turn it back on again then try to run your program again

Sips monster, alright bro

15 min warm up cycle

Whoops looks like I did nothing today due to software glitches, equipment failures

But hey Karen from accounting was on Facebook all day so I actually got a little more than her done

> American Manufacturing in a nutshell

Hopefully we have enough propane, hydraulic fluid, and starting fluid to get that forklift started tomorrow or else I’m just going to be moving several hundred pounds of aluminum by hand tomorrow

Pro tip: that fork lift is absolutely not going to start tomorrow but you do get $20 whole fucking dollars an hour trying to start it

>>2960767
OpenSCAD is alright for procedural stuff, especially if you're already a programmer. I like how lightweight it is. Apparently there's a version that replaces the built-in scripting with python, been meaning to try that out.
For general modelling however, it's masochism.

>>2959863
>is the online thing really doing all the computation not locally?
Yes, F360 is godawful and the only reason people use it is it's cheap for a commercial license.
>export a model as an STP in literally any other software
>basically instant
>F360
>upwards of 10 minutes because it has to send everything to the cloud

>>2960792
This is only a slight exaggeration.
In my case, the Haas works but I have to hope I have the right tool holders (as well as basic hand tools for other tasks). Our forklift also works fairly reliably but leaks down so you gotta get shit done fast. And yeah, the cad and programmer guys buy one license and addon after another and still sit on the phone with mastercam for hours trying to get some minor detail worked out.

>>2959261
>My sister's an architect and uses Sketchup on a daily basis.
I've got a coworker who prefers using Sketchup to the AutoCAD license that the company has for her because she feels ACAD is too complicated to use. I do my work in AutoCAD/Civil 3D. The problem comes up where she'll use one of my base drawings to create a 3D presentation for the executives who will then approve it based off her drawing. This wouldn't be too big an issue were it not that I prepare the construction drawings in Civil3D, and while Sketchup seems to import AutoCAD without any significant problems (it messes up the projection but that's about it), going the other way has been a major pain in the ass.

>>2960917
>hire a drafter

> refuses t use autocad because it’s too hard

> fucking uses google sketch up
> still ranked above the guy that knows autocad

Women have life on easy mode

>>2960792
Hearing shit like this makes me half mad half proud about what we did at my startup. Proud that we got a lot done with the little we had, and mad because no one bothered to give us any money to actually get our work to market.

Practically every day I would find my design engineer in the workshop and remind her that her modeling work was the priority and she would respond that solidworks was busy loading for the past hour, and that quality checks (or whatever else) was a better use of her time.

I had a good team I think...

>>2960917
AutoCAD is fundamentally still a 2D CAD, it's outdated ancient garbage.
Sketchup is at least 3D.

But it isn't as mature as proper parametric MCAD which has some things which seem overly complicated, but once you learn why they exist you will value them.

Let's say you want to draw a cube with a hole in it. Well parametric MCAD won't let you draw a cube. It will let you draw a 2D sketch, which you then extrude into a 3D object.

ok congrats you now have:
1. sketch
2. 3d object (cube with hole)

But how do you get that object onto paper? you do a "drawing", which is a 2d projection of said cube onto a 2d surface (what) at a scale factor (???) which could be anything, 10:1 or whatever.

ok congrats you now have:
1. sketch
2. 3d object (cube with hole)
3. 2d projection drawing (???)

Now you might think "nigga why i do this shit again, this is the same as the sketch"
Ok but now your boss tells you the hole is wrong, and you wanna change the hole, and instead of having to go change it in

1. sketch
2. 3d object
3. 2d projection

You only change it once. In the sketch. But because everything is parametrically derived from each other, the CAD now automatically updates the 3d object and the 2d projection for you. You only change the hole where it ORIGINATES, say from 1 feet to 2 feet, in the sketch, and everything else is automatic.
Also the tolerance of +/- 0.1" you set for the hole in the 2d projection? No need to touch that. If you set a tolerance class, it is automatically scaled to the new hole size.

Oh and now your boss wants you to print this shit for the clowns on the factory floor? Guess what a 2 feet cube won't fit on a piece of paper, but your 2d drawing projection is set to 10:1 scale so it actually fucking fits on the paper.

>>2960966
Oh and now your boss tells you your cube factory is going to make 9001 cubes with different sizes, but the hole is always going to be EXACTLY half of the cube width?
Guess what you can use variables such as "cube width" and formulas in the hole size such as "cube width / 2" and now the CAD will automatically size the hole to your cube width. So you can have entire product lines where 99% of the sizes are automatically generated with a math formula for you by one size you enter somewhere.
And you can do that programmatically with a programming language.

And I didn't even cover assemblies where you assemble multiple parts into something and make them move and do stuff and simulate shit.
Need the same part 9001 times in the assembly? Ofc you draw it once, save it as a part, and copy paste it 9001 times into the assembly.

So now you have:

1. sketch
2. 3d object (part)
3. assembly (many parts)
4. drawings (2d projection of many parts)

And ofc if you need to change that 1 part you change it once, not 9001 times.
It all seems overwhelming and overly complicated at first, but the more you use it the more you realise it's shit you eventually want once you realise where it saves you pain.

The problem is that there's 90001 things like that and the more you stack on top of it over time the more fucked shit gets. And eventually you need a clean sheet design and re-do a 20 year old piece of software that grew into something a bit ugly.
But nobody wants to do that because oh my god it's so painful.

I just wish freecad worked on my linux install. I don't need anything fancy I just need to make things for 3d printing. It works on windows but shits the bed something fierce on the platform it should run perfectly on.

I'm an electrical engineer by profession and education and I'm very glad we got KiCad, top notch for what it is. It's a shame there isn't an equivalent for mechanical engineering CAD.

File: KA200.png (40 KB, 521x837)

40 KB PNG

>not enjoying the glorious 2d experience of acad
ngmi

>>2960950
You tried to run a company on too little capital and sounds like it died out due to cash flow reasons

Other small businesses have enough capital to be ran this way

I’d say no small businesses I have ever worked for were actually ran or managed well one of the reasons they’re small

>>2961065
That's exactly what happened. We probably had about a quarter of the capital we needed at a bare minimum to get our product to market, and certainly not enough to pay out the ass for NX and a proper PLM, let alone the machinery we would have needed for a more serious production setup.
I was scripting process management tools myself rather than buying stuff off the shelf, but that meant I wasn't fundraising. Granted, I was a lot better at coding than fundrasing, so it probably wouldn't have made a difference.

>>2959180
i use it when editing STLs because trying to import a mesh into fusion, or trying to get accurate measurements into blender both end up cancerous.
if i need to do more than cut a hole, or flatten a side, ill usually fire up fusion and remake the part though.

its basically the ms paint of 3d cad,

>>2959180
If it works it works
I use blender, suck me

>>2959200
>Solidworks
because it's fucking annoying to deal with the licensing, especially when the good idea fairy is flying around the IT department so the license server changes/becomes unreachable multiple times a semester.

I think solidworks 2024 and 2025 may have finally made it less retarded

>Altium
KiCAD is great now and the second best option for EDA in general. It's more than enough for anything you'd be doing in an undergrad course since students probably won't be needing the simulation stuff in altium.

>AutoCAD
Dios mio....

>>2960706
IMO the best (not good) CAD is pirated solidworks in a VM

>>2959200
>altium
you'd have to pay me to use that shit

>>2959224
>nigger I just want to select the line tool, and click on something and just press a key for heading and type the length.
You can do that in Inventor, Solidworks, Onshape, and Alibre. You just select a plane first, then start a sketch.

>>2959747
>The market is ripe for a cheaper 3d CAD software that just werks and is a single-time purchase.
Alibre Design isn't suitable for doing mold design, NURBS, or texturing surfaces because it's bad at memory management.
But it is one of the only single payment permanent license options available. They're going to nag you every few months to pay for "maintenance", but so long as you archive the installer for the versions you for your permanent license for you never have to pay anything ever again.
If you want to update your version/license you pay "maintenance" one time, update your software, then cancel maintenance.

>>2960966
>>2960968
>>2960966
>AutoCAD is fundamentally still a 2D CAD
I think you're referring to LT, which you can still get licenses for. My prior employer had one just for converting a bunch of common file types and outputting to a plotter.

Autodesk Inventor is their modern solid modeling and assembly software and it's almost as capable as Solidworks. It does everything you're complaining that LT cannot do because LT isn't capable of direct parametric annotation.
I have used Inventor plenty of times to draw parametric values from table inside the CAD file, and from spreadsheet fields that were calculating optimal geometries for to generate 3D sketch paths for 3d sketches on radial CAM paths.
Solidworks is a lot more capable when it comes to making template files and running a bunch of repetitive tasks/alterations from said templates. It can also nest your tolerance requirements into the parametric dimensions you add while making the solid model so you have those linked and editable.
Inventor generally prefers you make those changes in the drawing layer rather than in the solid as the solid doesn't contain or update tolerancing in Inventor as far as I can remember.

I can't attest to the CAM suites of either Inventor or Solidworks being particularly worth spending money on because I've never come across anyone that uses them for production. Esprit and Mastercam are more common.
I should get around to learning the CAD software that's more common in civil engineering. That's a more stable and lucrative field than industrial CAD.

>>2963771
>>AutoCAD is fundamentally still a 2D CAD
>I think you're referring to LT

no, i am not.

>Autodesk Inventor is their modern solid modeling and assembly software

I have used Inventor for decades.

>and it's almost as capable as Solidworks

It is far more capable than solidworks in many areas.

>you're complaining

I am not complaining, I am explaining.

>>2959233
what a nightmare...
ty though, anon

File: 1752809950403382.gif (336 KB, 220x167)

336 KB GIF

What is the best open source CAD software?

>>2964428
i think we gotta write one ourselves at this point :/

>>2959200
My high school used Rhino3D
Is it still around?

>>2959252
Online programs are torture devices.

>>2964429
Fuck :(

>>2964429
The 4chan fork of open cad

The default new design is pepe. All commands begin with >

>draw le sad face 300,300,300

>>2964854
Still better than autocad

what makes a CAD program good? I'm working on one but I only have some experience on fusion from hobby projects, and I wanna do something that works for both hobbyists and professionals alike

>>2964857
CAM support

>>2964428
I don't know but FreeCAD sucks dick
I would love better freetard alternatives

>>2964860
Wouldn't that come into play only if you were doing CAM?

>>2959180
I have no idea. Windows's default 3D Builder is more useful than that toy.

>>2959224
Rhino is the answer

>ChatGPT

Retard detected

>>2964854
it could be kino

File: .png (352 KB, 1920x1048)

352 KB PNG

through a weird sequence of events I ended up pirating this russian cad software and translating it to english (I tried other cad software and either the crack didn't work, or it lagged like hell for some reason). works pretty well for what I need. Part in the screenshot was SLS printed in nylon.

File: IMG_7387.png (2.14 MB, 1792x828)

2.14 MB PNG

>>2964854
>4chan fork of openCAD

>terms of service; no kikes , no nigs, no Jews, no spics, no pajeets

>no women

>>2960706
All of this.
>t. OpenSCAD moran

File: herp.png (388 KB, 1090x808)

388 KB PNG

>>2959180
>mfw I make all my STL's in blender because I've never had a straight answer on which CAD program to learn
Reading this thread has made me feel more justified in my retardation than ever, none of y'all can agree on anything except that everything is terrible.

>>2966346
the secret is they all suck in their own ways, but after you use them for a month or two you learn to work around those suck spots, so you forget them.

>>2964428
Onshape is fine for home gamers. I used it the other day to design some 3d printable shifter bushings that are unobtanium for my car.

>>2966367
>open source
>onshape
Pick one, they're about as far apart as can be. Onshape gives you the least control possible of all the popular CAD programs.
I like knowing that I'll still be able to open my project files in a month without being extorted. They've changed policies without warning in the past and will do it again.

>>2959747
>The market is ripe for a cheaper 3d CAD software that just werks and is a single-time purchase.

Exactly what i've been thinking. Like i know parametric design software has got to be complicated under the hood but if you just have bare-bones stuff in it like the ability to make parts and assemblies and you leave out all the expensive, complicated enterprise features surely it can't be THAT hard?

I'd happily pay $200-$300 for a perpetual license of something like stripped down inventor and not get support or upgrades included in that cost (but have the option to pay for said upgrades/updates) and have the license allow me to use it for personal use or for single person 3d printing businesses or allow me to license models i made to other 3d printers with a cap of like $10,000 or something. I'd consider paying $500 if there were no cap but still restrict it to literally just you as you're own boss and only employee kind of company.

I just need the sketch tools, extrude, sweep, loft, revolve, thread, fillet, chamfer, etc commands.

I just don't need software that can simulate static and dynamic physics simulations and stress/strain loads on 150,000 part assemblies that collectively make up a rock crusher that factor in material properties and tolerances and thermal dissipation on the electronics to make sure you don't burn out your LCD display driver if it's above 87F and fluid dynamics to determine if your rock crusher is going to break when you turn it on if you make this one specific bolt 1/4 diameter instead of 5/8 diameter.

I just want to make single parts and maybe small assemblies for 3D printing and maybe occasionally as plans for making with a mill and a lathe and a welder, and I want it for a reasonable price and I want it to run on my machine and not be cloud based and i want to own the designs I make and not have them be available to the public automatically. Is that too much to ask? Truly???

>>2960706
Why don't all the start-ups join forces, abandon 87% of their existing infrastructure, and use their collective experience and small budgets combined to make something good?

Also these new captchas are easier than the old ones and I appreciate that but they are literally just IQ tests and inductive reasoning and pattern recognition now and that's bad because 1) theres some people who genuinely wont be able to solve them consistently without really having to think about it if they get much more advanced than they are now (and they're already moving in that direction) and also we're just training "AI" to ace IQ tests so companies can say that their product has an IQ of 386 and a lot of people are going to fall for that and actually buy it only to find out that it's actually just REALLY good at taking IQ tests specifically but whoops the government already signed the contracts and we don't have the budget to re-hire all the military's cyber security experts!

>>2966471
>I just need the sketch tools, extrude, sweep, loft, revolve, thread, fillet, chamfer, etc commands.
what's stopping you from using freecad?

>>2966393
Interesting...I went on there for the first time in over 12 months the other day and was able to open a project I'd forgotten about for free with no issues.

>>2966610
Nothing. In fact I just re-downloaded it and this time managed to extrude a solid box before I stopped.

I'm sure it's a perfectly logical UI and workflow, but I'm not familiar with it, and I don't particularly like it. Also it just kinda looks ugly. I know these are me problems but still.I've been using Inventor for free for half my life and I'm just too used to it I guess. Even Fusion's UI and workflow feels profoundly wrong to me despite being virtually identical.

>>2960966
>AutoCAD is fundamentally still a 2D CAD, it's outdated ancient garbage.
As someone who uses both AutoCAD and SolidWorks, this is like complaining that screwdrivers still exist because they suck as hammers.

>Sketchup is at least 3D.
Unless the super mega ultra deluxe versions are completely different, SketchUp is worse at 3D than AutoCAD, just easier for a beginner to pick up.

>>2966681
>I'm sure it's a perfectly logical UI and workflow, but I'm not familiar with it, and I don't particularly like it.
Not the one you were replying to but that's completely valid. Even if the functionality is the some, UI can make or break usability. SolidWorks vs SolidEdge is a good example; they both use the Parasolid kernel (Dassault licence it from Siemens) but the former is almost universally agreed to be easy to use (when it's not crashing) and the latter to be like fucking a woodchipper. Blender pre- and post-2.8 is another.

>>2966901
>Not the one you were replying to but that's completely valid.
This actually makes me feel better about myself to be honest.

>...the former is almost universally agreed to be easy to use (when it's not crashing) and the latter to be like fucking a woodchipper.
lmao. I was trying to emboss/recess text onto a cube in freecad and it wasn't THAT bad but it was remarkably painful knowing exactly what I wanted to do and how to do it in one environment but in Freecad all I could do was keep putting text on one of the origin planes or sometimes just somewhere that I don't even know where it went cause I never found it.

>>2966901
>SketchUp is worse at 3D than AutoCAD
I've never had issues with Trimble's survey gear (this past year we upgraded from our R2 to an R980) or their field controller and survey programs. But it almost feels like they purchased SketchUp to have a CAD program in their portfolio much like Microsoft bought QDOS. SketchUp makes some pretty pictures for presentations, but for some reason whenever I look at what should be construction drawings the impression I get is that they're still trying to show pretty pictures rather than a construction drawing.

Shoot is there an easy way to import an inventor .ipt into fusion? apparently it cant open it natively.