Solidworks

[.Maleficus.]

**Sorry guys, I don't have time to start a proper thread, so this is really basic.

My dad is in a company that designs wood parts for beds, doors, etc. He needs to be able to make models that can be used to design, and then transferred to their CNC. He came across Solidworks.

Thoughts about it? Would it work? Is it easy-ish (I'll be modeling)? Would a Student license have the features I'd need?

Thanks guys.

[crenn]

I'm due to use it within the next 2 years.... I'm not sure if it's going to be easy to model it all.... but yeah.

[silverdemon]

Solidworks is (what I know) one of the most simple but professional 3D-CAD-program there is. I've been using it for 3-4 years now and it never let me down. I think it is able to create files suitable for CNC machinery too.

You should however look into the features you (or your dad) need, it could be that the student licence doesn't have all the features you need. I know for a fact that 'photoworks' (to render stuff) is not available for some student licenses. Also some file extensions may not be supported (probably the ones you need :s )

So I'd say, look into what features you need and what license you should get to have those features. Other that that SolidWorks just is a very good piece of software.

[Aero]

I have not used it to send print outs to CNC machines, but I have used it for simple modeling. I must say that its quite easy to learn. We used it in my intro to engineering class last semester. It took some of my class hours of sitting at it trying to figure out how to make a square, but if you have ever touched a computer before, it should be pretty easy. The commands are fairly simple and the interface is intuitive.

I'm not entirely sure what the educational license would contain. I would guess that the student version is only allowed for university work, and am not sure if you should use it for your dads company. Now, if you had the student version, and you dads business had a regular version, you could surly transfer files between the systems no problem.

[silverdemon]

...Now, if you had the student version, and you dads business had a regular version, you could surly transfer files between the systems no problem.

You should be very carefull with this. It is possible that the student-version can NOT open the files made by the corporate or professional version (or whatever it is called). I know this is the case with ProEngineer. My university had complete licenses but we (students) only got a student license. At the uni we could open files we downloaded from other (professional) companies but we couldn't open the same files with our student-versions.

(we worked around that by saving the original file again at university and then we were able to open it with the student version.)

So like I said in my previous post: Find out what you exactly need, then find out which license does the job for you. As for learning it: there is also a very good help/tutorial comming with solidworks, helped me out more than once...

[.Maleficus.]

Awesome, thanks guys. To elaborate...

The models will be very simple. Sketchup simple. He just needs something that can render, make models with specific dimensions, and take them to a CNC machine. It's all wood, nothing fancy, just straight, maybe some curved lines. So, like I said, he stumbled upon Solidworks and asked that I check it out (I told him the guys at TBCS would be helpful :)). I'm going to look into what the Student license offers, and will probably figure it out soon.

Thanks again.

[silverdemon]

...He just needs something that can render...

unfortunately I'm pretty sure you can't render with the student license... At least I think 'photoworks' is not available with that license.

[.Maleficus.]

unfortunately I'm pretty sure you can't render with the student license... At least I think 'photoworks' is not available with that license.
The description of the Student version said it has PhotoWorks, but I just found a new problem.

I don't have XP Pro or Vista, and I don't have a "workstation" graphics card. I can always buy Vista, but I'm NOT buying a Quadro just to model a piece of wood. Time to ask the Customer support...

[silverdemon]

The description of the Student version said it has PhotoWorks...

OK, you're fine than.


...I'm NOT buying a Quadro just to model a piece of wood.

does it say you need one??? :S
I installed and worked with solidworks AND photoworks on my AMD Athlon XP 2000+ with a GeForce 440MX... that doesn't sound like a quadro, does it?
I think you should be just fine with any sort of graphics card...

[.Maleficus.]

Well, it says I need a "workstation" graphics card. I looked through the list and they were Quadros, etc. 8800GT was not listed :). I figured I'd be fine, but if you've got it on a 440MX, I won't worry about it.

[b4i7]

we ran solid works on the crappy dells we had at our votech

[silverdemon]

I checked for you, I run SW 2007 on a AmD Athlon XP 2000+ (1.66GHz) with 512MB of (DDR) RAM and the GeForce 440MX. I'm running XP and it runs fine. Obviously it's'not a speed monster but it runs fast enough. If you only make simple models and not too much (like 10 or so) at the same time it runs fast enough. The more complex models just take a bit longer...

[d_stilgar]

I used Solidworks in high school. I found it to be very simple. Solidworks has a physics engine built in and you can program interactions in many of the versions and assign different physical properties to your materials in the program. From what I've read you will not be needing that part of the program at all.

Have you looked into Autocad or Rhino? Out of the five cad programs I've used, I've found Rhino to be the absolute easiest to learn and in a very short amount of time working on it, I could make complex models very quickly with minimal use of my mouse.

If you want an example of what we could model after self-teaching for about six months, you can check my links.

http://216.186.30.22/Eng_Tech/projects/Sumo_Robots/student_webs/lopezb/solidworks_sumo.htm

http://216.186.30.22/Eng_Tech/projects/Sumo_Robots/student_webs/lopezb/sumo_pics.htm

You can see that compared to what we really made (http://216.186.30.22/Eng_Tech/projects/Sumo_Robots/student_webs/lopezb/real_machine.htm), the model wasn't very real or accurate at all.

Also, on the topic of needing a graphics card, you will do better with a sub-par graphics card and faster CPU every time when it comes to this sort of modeling and rendering.

Good luck. I hope my post helped at least a little bit.