The problem is that if you want to do ‘proper’ (=accurate) CAD, rather than make pretty models, none of the options are simple. Each will have a significant learning curve, but you may get on with one better than another.

I’d suggest Fusion 360, assuming you’re on a PC (and don’t have an issue with being beholden to The Man).

Even the hobby version gives you mechanisms and things like interference checking.

[Edit replies appeared while I was typing – I *think* F360 will run on a MAC, but not sure]

A look through the CAD section of the forum would be the best place to start looking.

On 14 February 2024 at 13:36 Andy_G Said:

The problem is that if you want to do ‘proper’ (=accurate) CAD, rather than make pretty models, none of the options are simple. Each will have a significant learning curve, but you may get on with one better than another.

I’d suggest Fusion 360, assuming you’re on a PC (and don’t have an issue with being beholden to The Man).

Even the hobby version gives you mechanisms and things like interference checking.

 

[Edit replies appeared while I was typing – I *think* F360 will run on a MAC, but not sure]

Yes F360 runs happily on my MacBook.

F360 has some really great tutorials on Youtube. I used Product Design Online and found them to be very well paced. They are pithy but that means you can easily miss something. Occasionally version differences can cause confusion.

I spent 5 days straight, self-learning. Probably 5 hours a day but I needed the breaks. By the end I could do most things well but I was not fast.  ‘Well’, for me, meant building maintainable models. Bodging out a one-off design is much easier than planning a model for efficient modification in the future or parameterisation.

My focus was for 3D printing. A printer can make very complicated shapes so you find you want to know all the F360 features. If you were just creating models/drawings for mill and lathe work then you can skip a lot of features.

After 6 months away from it (well, now more like 18 months)… it will probably take me 3 days to get back to where I was.

Even the free F360 has some very powerful capabilities and interesting free plugins to play with.

On 24 February 2024 at 09:41 Wade Beatty Said:

I used Solidedge in a couple of engineering houses I worked for and it is very accurate. It is parametric so you can change the model by changing dimensions and the model will follow. It is not immediately intuitive, you need to use YouTube and help pages to become proficient. It is a very powerful program AND there is a free version for non-commercial use. It is what I use at home.

I’ve used Solid Edge Community for about four years now and it was very well worth the investment in my time to learn. It is a powerful 2D & 3D CAD system that runs locally (no cloud involved) on both my Win11 and Win10 i5 laptops (both Home Editions). But it is NOT suitable for Apple Mac’s – it is Windows only product.

Regards,

IanT