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- Joined
- Jun 27, 2018
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- 20
I came across 123D Design by Autodesk. I've been using it a little and so far it's not to bad. The down side is Autodesk no longer supports it, but you shouldn't have any trouble finding it. I got it from Amazon as a free download.
- Joined
- Jan 1, 2022
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- 19
No, Windows will make use of as many cores as your CPU has. There is likely a limit somewhere, but you can't hit it with any current desktop CPU.
- Joined
- Jan 6, 2017
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- 1,248
A limitation of CAD software, by its own nature, is that the calculations must be done in a linear way. That's to say, one-after-another, in order.
That being the case, regardless of how windows operates, the CAD program will send all of its data to 1 processor core.
Easy to prove to yourself, just start a processor intensive operation, like a circular feature pattern with a couple thousand occurances, then open the task managers and watch what is happening with your processor cores.
Most cad software these days are based on the Dassault ACIS kernel, and linear processing applies to all of them. Autodesk Fusion and Inventor use a kernel called Shapemanager, which they developed from and is an offshoot of Acis 7.0, starting around 2003ish. Before that, they used Acis too, like most everyone else. Unless some recent breakthrough occurred that im unaware of, they are pretty much all subject to the same limitations. Even Dassaults flagship, CATIA and Siemens NX.
That being said, for CAD your better off buying more CPU clock speed than buying more cores.
I have several CAD desktops and laptops. It runs the same on my 8 core 4ghz PC as it does on my 2 core 4ghz PC .
Now rendering is a different thing. When you render an image from your cad program, it uses all of the cores. I use Alibre Design Expert with built-in Keyshot 10 for rendering. It runs like a champ on my 8 core 4ghz AMD black with 32gb of memory.
Edited to correct some fatfingering errors.
That being the case, regardless of how windows operates, the CAD program will send all of its data to 1 processor core.
Easy to prove to yourself, just start a processor intensive operation, like a circular feature pattern with a couple thousand occurances, then open the task managers and watch what is happening with your processor cores.
Most cad software these days are based on the Dassault ACIS kernel, and linear processing applies to all of them. Autodesk Fusion and Inventor use a kernel called Shapemanager, which they developed from and is an offshoot of Acis 7.0, starting around 2003ish. Before that, they used Acis too, like most everyone else. Unless some recent breakthrough occurred that im unaware of, they are pretty much all subject to the same limitations. Even Dassaults flagship, CATIA and Siemens NX.
That being said, for CAD your better off buying more CPU clock speed than buying more cores.
I have several CAD desktops and laptops. It runs the same on my 8 core 4ghz PC as it does on my 2 core 4ghz PC .
Now rendering is a different thing. When you render an image from your cad program, it uses all of the cores. I use Alibre Design Expert with built-in Keyshot 10 for rendering. It runs like a champ on my 8 core 4ghz AMD black with 32gb of memory.
Edited to correct some fatfingering errors.
Last edited:
- Joined
- Oct 11, 2016
- Messages
- 4,005
I really appreciate this thread. I was struggling with Fusion 360 and FreeCad, both of which were misbehaving. It turns out that an Intel 5600 (i5) with 8Gbytes (Windows 10) just doesn't cut it. I've since upgraded. I could have saved a lot of wasted time by having this thread!
- Joined
- Jan 6, 2017
- Messages
- 1,248
In case anyone happens across this thread while shopping for a CAD computer.
Post #5 in this Alibre Forum thread was posted by Max Freeman, The CEO of Alibre Software.
The short of it. Quote:
"You basically can't buy a computer today with 1 core, nor would you want to. That guidance is to say "don't go out and buy a 32 core Threadripper at 3ghz" and expect performance to be better than a quad core at 4.5ghz, for the task of running most operations in most CAD software.
As far as most operations in most CAD software are concerned, without getting into details, they are performed on a single thread, meaning on one core. So if you have your 32 core threadripper, that operation will occur at 3 ghz on one core. On your quad core 4.5ghz computer, it will occur at 4.5 ghz, faster. Now if you're running Keyshot, the Threadripper will blow the quad core out of the water. So it depends.
It doesn't have to be super complex - find the highest clockspeed quad core, which likely has 4 physical and 4 virtual cores for a total of 8, that you can afford.
Keep in mind that your choice of processor also affects other things, most notably the motherboard since different processor generations and manufacturers use different sockets. So, if you are actually specifying a 'computer' versus 'a processor' that you might plug into an existing computer, the suggestion perhaps becomes a bit different.
Another article on the subject, covering most modern modeling programs.
www.cgdirector.com
Post #5 in this Alibre Forum thread was posted by Max Freeman, The CEO of Alibre Software.
The short of it. Quote:
"You basically can't buy a computer today with 1 core, nor would you want to. That guidance is to say "don't go out and buy a 32 core Threadripper at 3ghz" and expect performance to be better than a quad core at 4.5ghz, for the task of running most operations in most CAD software.
As far as most operations in most CAD software are concerned, without getting into details, they are performed on a single thread, meaning on one core. So if you have your 32 core threadripper, that operation will occur at 3 ghz on one core. On your quad core 4.5ghz computer, it will occur at 4.5 ghz, faster. Now if you're running Keyshot, the Threadripper will blow the quad core out of the water. So it depends.
It doesn't have to be super complex - find the highest clockspeed quad core, which likely has 4 physical and 4 virtual cores for a total of 8, that you can afford.
Keep in mind that your choice of processor also affects other things, most notably the motherboard since different processor generations and manufacturers use different sockets. So, if you are actually specifying a 'computer' versus 'a processor' that you might plug into an existing computer, the suggestion perhaps becomes a bit different.
Another article on the subject, covering most modern modeling programs.
Best Workstation PC / Laptop for CAD, Autocad, Solidworks, Revit, Inventor
This is what the best Computer & Laptop for CAD Software such as Autocad, Solidworks, Inventor, Revit looks like.
www.cgdirector.com