I am brand new to CAD. I have a chace to take some college online programs through a local adult education program.
My hoices seem to be AutoCad (Level 1,2,3,4), AutoDesk Inventor (Level 1,2) or AutoDesk 3D Max (Level 1,2).
Which one of the above (if any) would give me the best understanding to be able to transition to FreeCad and be able to create projects in FreeCad.
Eventually, I want a small home based business that I can do some concept drawing of a product. Then if the product gets the green light to be able to do the further detail to be able to manufacture the product using our local CNC machine or other manufacturing providers.
I would also read books about FreeCad but I have not been able to find anything.
Night school program that will extend to FreeCad
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Re: Night school program that will extend to FreeCad
Hi,
unfortunately FreeCAD is not jet in the shape for real world design work. I think we have to invest one more year to reach the stat to supplement a commercial CAD system.
Sorry
Jürgen
unfortunately FreeCAD is not jet in the shape for real world design work. I think we have to invest one more year to reach the stat to supplement a commercial CAD system.
Sorry
Jürgen
Stop whining - start coding!
-
jfeeney
Re: Night school program that will extend to FreeCad
Yes, I understand that FreeCad is not yet at a state that would be considered commerical substitute for some of the other programs that are out there.
I also look at the time frame for courses that I can take. For instances to take AutoCad Level 1, 2, 3, 4 -- each of the courses is about 13 weeks so to take all four in row would be a full year.
I would like to pick a course such as AutoCad or SolidWorks or AutoDesk Inventor -- that as I am working through it will give the closes possible to the direction that FreeCad is going. For instances, I would not want to spend a whole year learning AutoCad only to find out AutoCad is "old way" and I should have been learning another type of modelling program.
Again, just looking for direction -- a year or more out from now....if you knew nothing about CAD and wanted to learn and be able to use FreeCad a year from now (or get up to speed quickly with FreeCad a year from now) what courses would be the best guide?
thanks, John Feeney
I also look at the time frame for courses that I can take. For instances to take AutoCad Level 1, 2, 3, 4 -- each of the courses is about 13 weeks so to take all four in row would be a full year.
I would like to pick a course such as AutoCad or SolidWorks or AutoDesk Inventor -- that as I am working through it will give the closes possible to the direction that FreeCad is going. For instances, I would not want to spend a whole year learning AutoCad only to find out AutoCad is "old way" and I should have been learning another type of modelling program.
Again, just looking for direction -- a year or more out from now....if you knew nothing about CAD and wanted to learn and be able to use FreeCad a year from now (or get up to speed quickly with FreeCad a year from now) what courses would be the best guide?
thanks, John Feeney
Re: Night school program that will extend to FreeCad
In my humble opinion, none of those course would be totally useful for one day switching to FreeCAD, because I think nobody here knows exactly how FreeCAD will be next year, and, that's the big thing of open-source, if some new stuff appear on the market, they might very well be included and change many paradigms, and so you'd loose your investment. One thing is sure, freecad is not similar to autocad, inventor or 3d max.
Honestly I think you'd better take the course that you like most, and keep an eye on freecad, I'm sure you'll be able to do the switch easily when it'll be time. To really try to learn a program that is most similar to freecad, I think you should learn another parametric modeler such as solidworks, revit, catia, archicad, etc. But, again, nobody could guarantee you that it will still be useful at the end.
Between autocad and 3ds max, it is really two different fields. autocad is used by engineers and architects, and max is used by 3d artists. Depending on the area you want to explore, choose one. Inventor probably is something more inbetween, and probably also more advanced, but I don't know it very well.
One last thing I believe, no matter how user-friendly is the software, you won't do good work in 3D if you don't have a solid understanding of the 3D space and spacial geometry. So definitely I'd go to something that is 3d-oriented, independently of the software used.
Honestly I think you'd better take the course that you like most, and keep an eye on freecad, I'm sure you'll be able to do the switch easily when it'll be time. To really try to learn a program that is most similar to freecad, I think you should learn another parametric modeler such as solidworks, revit, catia, archicad, etc. But, again, nobody could guarantee you that it will still be useful at the end.
Between autocad and 3ds max, it is really two different fields. autocad is used by engineers and architects, and max is used by 3d artists. Depending on the area you want to explore, choose one. Inventor probably is something more inbetween, and probably also more advanced, but I don't know it very well.
One last thing I believe, no matter how user-friendly is the software, you won't do good work in 3D if you don't have a solid understanding of the 3D space and spacial geometry. So definitely I'd go to something that is 3d-oriented, independently of the software used.