Cad drawings!

Since I have seen a few people now talking about Cad programs etc. I thought it might be cool to just throw up some pics of random stuff you have designed for fun. I get bored and design wheels or manifolds for fun... so maybe I am not alone and others can post some designs, otherwise I will just keep my own little thread and post random pictures. Solidworks has a bunch of new features that try to make all your parts look real. I have never had the need to try this before so maybe I will use this as my motivation to learn all the new tricks. You can see in this picture how the metal is polished, I turned on the lines so It had more definition, but without the black lines turned on it looks somewhat real... but not good enough.

My first attempt at making an old school mesh looking wheel: size: 18x11 eta 0

Jake I need to talk with about getting a CAD program. I am very good artist and love to draw so this would be just as fun.

alibra design, is the only free cad system that I know of that is pretty decent. Google sketchup is free also but is not a parametric design software (i.e. you can draw a line and call it one inch or ten feet it doesn't know the difference. A parametric program knows the length of segments so you can draw accurate drawings)

I'm with Jake on this; Alibra is pretty decent as an entry-level CAD program. However, if you're only interested in drawing 3d models, give Google Sketchup a try; it's very intuitive. I use it occasionally for very quick 3d image renders for designs that I'm just mocking up. It only took me about half an hour to learn how to use it. Easy stuff.

One thing with google sketch up.... it uses conventions suited for artichects, which in many ways differ from Engineering Cad programs. So I hate google sketch up just becasue I am use to one set of conventions. It's like playing a game on xbox and then playing it on ps3, it can drive you a little crazy sometimes. However a lot of this only applies when you start diving into the programs deeper (large models, interfacing with other systems.. etc.) Just using these as drawing tools you will probably never run across these issues.

Something else to notice if this topic continues on further, solidworks/alibre/proE all can generate assemblies. For instance the wheel above, (this is not how I did it but I could have) built the wheel barrel, then built the wheel face, then nuts and bolts etc. Then go into a assembly and put it all together. This allows you to build working systems and make sure they work without interference or see how things move together. You can not do this with sketchup that I am aware of.

Sweet!!! Thanks guys!! Yeah I am going to check this stuff out and play around with it.