What Do You Use To Draw/design Projects?

I use Solidworks for most things. I find it the most intuitive and comprehensive. Some stuff forces my hand, and I find myself running AutoCad (mostly for 2D schematic type work) or *shudder* Creo.

I love Solidworks, it fits my workflow and requirements just about perfectly. I just wish it was within the budgetary realm of the home gamer.
 
Fusion 360 - spent 2 hours learning the basics. Probably a life time ahead of learning the details.... Way a better than other tools since it has a very large professional following. Why learn a hobby tool when you can learn a pro tool? Just my view on the value of my time.
 
I have to agree that Fusion is a very powerful tool, if used correctly. I've used Fusion off and on for the last two years and thought I had it figured out. Well I didn't. If you don't follow the rules you can end up with a model that may not be accurately reflected in Fusion CAM even though simulation looks good. I scrapped $50 of material and a couple of days of time because I deleted or modified model features without regard to proper procedures. Something to be mindful of while modeling your parts.

Again, Fusion is a great CAD and CAM tool and you can't beat the price. Just be mindful of the basics when starting out. Shortcuts may bite you.
 
I use Iron CAD and Sprutcam, bought them with a Tormach 1100.
I had heard about fusion 360 in between the time of paying for and receiving the Tormach package.
Really did not know much about either.

But since I paid for Iron CAD and Sprutcam, I chose to keep and use them. They were not cloud based, (poor internet connection at home) and Autodesk could not lock up or change the price structure of them.

I hope all goes well with fusion users, do you really own what you draw?
The business plan of Autodesk seems shrewd: Provide top notch software for free until they own the market.
What happens next could be a share holder's dream.

Most plans start with a pencil and a 3X5 index card. The cards are easy to keep in several places, in the console of the car, by the bed, in my shop, drawer in the kitchen, in the camper, so easy to find. Another card works as a straight edge.
 
MarkDavis said:
I use Iron CAD and Sprutcam, bought them with a Tormach 1100.
I had heard about fusion 360 in between the time of paying for and receiving the Tormach package.
Really did not know much about either.

But since I paid for Iron CAD and Sprutcam, I chose to keep and use them. They were not cloud based, (poor internet connection at home) and Autodesk could not lock up or change the price structure of them.

I hope all goes well with fusion users, do you really own what you draw?
The business plan of Autodesk seems shrewd: Provide top notch software for free until they own the market.
What happens next could be a share holder's dream.

Most plans start with a pencil and a 3X5 index card. The cards are easy to keep in several places, in the console of the car, by the bed, in my shop, drawer in the kitchen, in the camper, so easy to find. Another card works as a straight edge.
Click to expand...

Granted the Cloud is not the most useful for long term storage. As you pointed out Autodesk can change policy as they wish as leave you hanging. However, Fusion does have the capability to export files in .igs/.iges, .smt, and .stp/.step format. You might ask why is that a feature as you need another CAD program that can read these file types so you can make changes. I look at it this way; Fusion is a good CAD program with a very good CAM program that costs nothing. So I save my files in .stp format and when necessary I open them with FreeCad and export them to my primary CAM program which is CamBam.
 
The fusion drawings are stored on your PC anyway. it's not a big deal.
 
MikeWi said:
The fusion drawings are stored on your PC anyway. it's not a big deal.
Click to expand...
This isn't always true. I have been caught a few times without internet service and most of my files were not stored locally. If you go to the top right corner and switch Fusion to "Working offline", the models that are greyed out aren't saved locally. You need to right click each one and click "Save to offline cache". Otherwise they default to storing on the cloud and may not be accessible locally.
 
I've been using SolidWorks at work since 2005, currently running 2017. Until last year SolidWorks allowed 2 licensed copies per serial number, allowing me to use it at home. Then they changed to to you have deactivate the license to use it on another computer. So if I want to use it at home I have to remember to deactivate it at work before I leave. I found you can email someone at SolidWorks to deactivate it in their database. About a year ago he said they would be bringing out a tool to remotely deactivate, but I haven't heard about it. Since I'm one of the few original SolidWorks users at work I actually have a serial number, and don't use a floating license.

I also use DraftSight for 2D design. We have lots of legacy AutoCAD files going back 20 years. I've been using that since it was beta and I couldn't save or print! Right about the time I got a new computer at work and found IT didn't have the serial number for AutoCAD 200i that I had been using for a few years.
 
I use Paint more often now. Yes, the free, comes with your computer program. But, I do still have pencil & paper for use with a 3 x 6 street sign converted to drafting table! The Mutoh arm is 1 of the last 16 from the German factory before production of everything they made (except discontinued drafting arms) moved to Japan.
Img0468.JPG
 
SCLead said:
I love Solidworks, it fits my workflow and requirements just about perfectly. I just wish it was within the budgetary realm of the home gamer.
Click to expand...

It is "within the budgetary realm of the home gamer".

Just maintain an EAA (Experimental Aircraft Association) membership for $40/year and get a free Student version of SolidWorks, upgradeable each year.
 
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