Free and easy to learn 3D CAD

[earlgo]

Ok, thanks for the guess. There was never this kind of lag with a local SolidWorks installation, but OnShape is a more powerful program. You may have the right of it.
This pc has a 3GHz processor, 8Gbytes of RAM and 750Gbytes of storage space on a Windows 10 64bit OS. It only has an Intel HD graphics card and that may be the issue.
--earlgo

[Patio]

you can go to either companies website and they will tell you the specs required for their software. I think they like 16 gigs of RAM also.

[earlgo]

Patio: I upgraded my video card to one with 2G memory and it helps considerably. Memory upgrade may be next if this is still too slow, but it seems to be acceptable.
Thanks for the tip.
--earlgo

[morsetaper2]

Old thread here. Any feedback or comments regarding the "Free" version of Solid Edge"?

https://resources.sw.siemens.com/en-US/ ... ty-edition

[BryceGTX]

I use FreeCAD.. I started using it about 3 years ago to design for 3D printers. Perhaps one advantage I had is I had no preconceived notions about how 3D cad should work, so for me it was about learning. In the last 3 years I have generated hundreds of new designs and printed thousands of parts including the design of my engine for my 4-4-0 (which is an on going project). As I write, I have three 3D printers running 24/7.

Perhaps one of the learning issues of FreeCAD is the drawing concepts are presented as pure math concepts. For instance to put a hole in a solid part, you do a logical operation called a union of the parts, where the union is defined as a difference. This is not quite intuitive, but it becomes simple after you learn the concepts. Now I can crank out a 3D design in minutes, and have it printing out shortly after.

Now a-days I only design in 3D, so I very rarely use anything other than "Part" mode, except perhaps when I do a revolution of a 2D drawing in which I use "Sketcher". An example is when I make an inside or outside thread.

Here is a fun part I made. It is a curved train track. Its 1.9" width for a cheap plastic Santa train that runs around the Christmas tree. The Kids and grandkids grew up with this train and the tracks were breaking apart. So I designed new more robust tracks with better custom connections. So this train should be good for another 40 years.

[BryceGTX]

On a more practical level, here is a Sailboat Port Bezel I designed to replace the thin plastic port bezel on our Catalina 400.

[Charles T. McCullough]

I hate to veer away from the subject of this thread, but I cannot orient that drawing of track in 3-space in my mind. I can see the ends of the rails at the bottom left and the ends of the ties to the right in decreasing area from one tie to the next in left to right orientation, which implies the track is curving away from left to right. But perspective tells me the rails are closer together on the left and farther apart at the upper right (a wedge shaped gauge?) Either that, or the track is curving UP from left to right, but the tie ends and top surfaces areas don't allow for that.

Is it supposed to be an M.C.Escher optical illusion? Like the five legged elephant, or the two pronged staple with three threaded ends?

Sorry, I just can't wrap my mind around it!

[Bill Shields]

Sometimes the viewpoint and perspective get scrambled ..and the computer does exactly what you tell it to do.

[Charles T. McCullough]

Likewise, the long sides of the port bezel are not parallel. Is it a trapezoidal widow?
.
Maybe that is a parallel projection instead of a perspective projection?

[Charles T. McCullough]

Here is the same drawing of a box. On the left is a perspective image, and not the right is a Parallel Projection.

Perspective and Parallel projections.jpg (57.26 KiB) Viewed 21 times

That is the only thing that I can see to explain why the track looks so odd.

[BryceGTX]

Yes, you are right the drawings are 3D without perspective. You can convince yourself by measuring distances on the bezel and you will find the distance the same in front and back. The track looks odd because the angle you see the bottom edge is different than the angle you see at the top. Your brain wants to see perspective, but there is none.

Both of my drawings are isometric views. Top views of the track would show the track perhaps the way you might be more comfortable with.

And yes, the isometric view can be a bit confusing sometimes.

[Bill Shields]

My wife has frequently accused me of not having perspective -> and computer graphics has confirmed it on more than one occasion.

There is a lot to be taken away from a basic design, drawing and layout class that used to be given to engineering students a half a century ago .

Art students should also be required to attend.