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Best CAD programm

S

schpongo

macrumors member
Original poster
Feb 21, 2011
48
0
hey guy im looking for a good CAD programm.
I have tried autocad, inventor fusion. But i dont like them the first is too complicated and lacks file support and the second one is still a beta. Id like to try FreeCAD but i have OSX 10.6 and i would like to stick to it.
I have use programs like Solid edge on windows and know that solid works is also pretty powerful but both dont run well in virtual machines.
So im looking for a powerful CAD program with good file support which runs on may 8.1 macbook pro.
 
In autocad you can only import dgw ,dxf ,dwt files and i consider that lack of file support. Luckily you can now also export in stl which is good but there could also be a larger verity of formats.
I will take a look at Vectorworks.
 
Really depends on what you want to draw. What do you want to draw?
I'm an architect and Sketchup took over the whole business except from some detail drawings for the contractor in the end of the process. It has super good inport/export of Autocad, and most Autocad functions are preserved even if you added a huge 3D model on top.
It reduced office software costs by 80%. We went from 30 Autocad licenses to just 5 for the drawing section.
 
I dont want to create architectural drawings more like parts which are milled or printed.
 
blanka said:
Really depends on what you want to draw. What do you want to draw?
I'm an architect and Sketchup took over the whole business except from some detail drawings for the contractor in the end of the process. It has super good inport/export of Autocad, and most Autocad functions are preserved even if you added a huge 3D model on top.
It reduced office software costs by 80%. We went from 30 Autocad licenses to just 5 for the drawing section.
Click to expand...

I've seriously thought about trying this in my office but the lack of lineweights always destroys these aspirations. What do you do about that? Are you using Layout from 3D models or using it to draw in 2D? I love Sketchup, it is far and away the fastest method for me to produce 2D or 3D work.

Also, my office has used Vectorworks in the past (and a little in the present) and it is one of the most awkward drafting programs I have used to date. I used it extensively for about 6 months and now avoid it at all cost. It's like a much less functional Revit.
 
@Charlie
I am not interested in line weights personally, but in Sketchup you can tweak it in some way by adjusting the styles.
 
Blender is open source and free. It's a 3d modeling and animation program. It might not be exactly what you're looking for, but worth a look anyway. Be warned though: Blender has the reputation of being rather difficult to learn and its interface is well... different.
 
charliex5 said:
I've seriously thought about trying this in my office but the lack of lineweights always destroys these aspirations. What do you do about that? Are you using Layout from 3D models or using it to draw in 2D? I love Sketchup, it is far and away the fastest method for me to produce 2D or 3D work.
Click to expand...

We work in phases here: preliminary sketch, final sketch, permit-plans, price offer set, building instruction set. The first 3 phases are often done more-than-once and all done by the architects. They work entirely in 3D, and lineweights are not important (shadows in 2D images deliver way more information than lineweights anyway). For facades 1 thickness is OK, and for the clients, 3D impressions make them drool anyway.
When the permit is in the pocket (I have to agree we add a bunch of AutoCAD 2D details as that is required), the design is handed over to the drawing section, and they basically start from scratch on the 2D production drawings. If these are half-way they are good enough for price quotes by constructors, and if the building starts, they are finished.

City planning section is working entirely in 3D. 2D does add nothing to their design process. They only make 2D floor use/m2 drawings in Freehand/Illustrator from Sketchup sections.

So 15 senior and junior architects work with Sketchup. Some have a CS collection and Cinema4D for the higher end renderings. 5 city planners have Sketchup. 5 production drafters have AutoCAD.
 
SolidWorks runs very well in a virtual machine, you just have to have the resources for it. If you can handle a slower Mac performance while you work in the VM then a lower spec'd computer will do. When I had 8GB of ram, 4 allocated to Parallels was enough to do modeling and such, but sucked for FEA, but with 16 now, giving the VM 8 and 2 cores from the quad it's smooth sailing all around.
 
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