This CAD thing is adductive
 

I graduated from a technical high school, and really aced machine design as subject both at school, and then later at university. Unfortunately this was stll in the ruler and pencil days, so my CAD knowledge always lagged a bit. Decided that I needed a few things Porsche related, and as they were either bespoke, or simply outside my budget to buy, I thought I'd give getting myself acquainted with CAD and CAM. Got a hold of Fusion 360, hit Youtube tutorials quite hard, and happy to say I am really getting into the swing of it.

Started off with a chassis jig design:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1500370312.jpg

Had the manufacture outsourced completely, and was so ecstatic with the outcome that I immediately sketched up a proper rolling-hoop based rotisserie. Again had all the parts CAM'ed out, and will be assembling it this over the next two or so weeks.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1500370312.jpg

This of course made me very cocky, and I decided to look into that big brake conversion I always wanted to do. The idea is fitting big brakes to a narrow body with minimum change required. Have been in close discussions with a local manufacturer of brake disks, and have managed to come up with a slightly modified version of a standard 930 disk set. Obviously CAD is the best place to design and check fit, so here's my latest piece of work then:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1500370312.jpg

I'm only about 4 months into it, and already seriously considering my options for making a career shift from banking/IT into design/manufacture.

Anybody else here play around with CAD/CAM a bit?

I would love to make stuff like that, but my CAD skills are nothing compared to what you did there.
I have never heard of Fusion 360, I'll check it out.

I just upgraded to Creo 3 yesterday.

I used a combination of AutoCAD, Catia, and ProE during school but would be really rusty today. Computerized machining and 3D printing have made it easier than ever to simply email a file to your local machine shop and pick up your parts a few weeks later. If you have a knack for doing CAD there's a huge market for it, though the hiring is normally system specific. At my company we use Autodesk Inventor, and most of the local aerospace companies are on Catia. It's also an easy role to get as a contract gig if you want to slowly ease your way into things, as many companies need a bunch of designers during a big project but then unload them when the project is complete.

This is my number one thing I wish I could learn. Won't ever happen.

I'm taking a break from ongoing work in Creo 2 right now. The last project I worked on was in a customer's Creo 3 environment. I've used AutoCAD and Solidworks in the past some but have spent the bulk of my career using evolutions of Pro/E.

It truly is great stuff. I used it to figure out the dimensions for the octisserie I built for my 911 a few years back. It made the arithmetic quick and I was able to spit out a 2D drawing which I used to cut, weld and assembly the unit myself.

More recently, I used it to redesign my old neighbor's staircase up the side of her stilt house. Creo is most definitely overkill for that kind of work but it made it simple to develop parts list and communicate clearly to my help (neighbor and my wife) what needed to be cut and how long to cut it. Worked out great!

My day job is for a large contract manufacturer. I work in a small R&D division and have spent time designing components for medical devices and consumer electronics.

Congrats! We just purchased Fusion 360, still playing with it...Have been on UG/NX for the past 8 years and Ideas since 1998. Fun stuff!Feeding it to our Haas 5 axis:) Learning something every day!

I mainly use Inventor at work since I can't seem to get up to speed on SolidWorks even after a training class.

Both Inventor and SolidWorks have FEA built in but I almost feel like I'm cheating as an engineer when I model something really simple so I can run a finite element analysis for the stresses. It's just so easy to do now and if you don't do hand calculations all the time it's likely faster and more accurate.

Ahhh...good ol' UG!! I'm ex-McDonnell Douglas so Unigraphics is near and dear to my heart (since they essentially created it).

We just upgraded from Creo 2 (ProE) to Creo 3. Unfortunately, I am a little bit too far up the food chain to sit and model stuff every day as that is what I really like to do. I know just enough ProE to be dangerous.

Does Fusion 360 have a sketcher like UG/NX? Years ago I used what was called UG at the time for work. I designed sheet metal and plastic parts. It is addicting in a way. David mentions FEA and I agree, sort of like cheating, but hey going over calculations for days isn't that fun. Does Fusion 360 have FEA capability? Now that I'm retired I might pick one of these packages up and get going again. I did some design using SketchUp and it was OK, of course the paid version has the features that make it fun but a lot can be done with the free version.

I moved into design work from machining, I miss being on my feet, but really love creating new designs.

Frankly, I find both making things, and designing things for others to make to be enjoyable, I could be happy with either one.

A machining background *really* comes in handy, as I design my work based on standard tooling, and have specific molding or machine abilities in mind when doing my work.

You need to think if you enjoy working with things more than you enjoy working with people, as it sounds like you'd swap from a people oriented job to a things oriented job.

For me it is pretty clear, I like working with things over people.

I'm a SolidWorks guy since mid 2000's, AutoCad from late '80's. Most of what I design is for subsea offshore oil, but with the price of oil in the toilet work is pretty scarce at the moment. It really is amazing how simple it is to model something from your imagination, and it's so cool to see it in the flesh. I never get tired of that.

I used 2-d cadkey and Pro-e everyday for many years. Its a decade or later and I dont know how to use any of the current software. Sometimes it seems the further you get in your career the more useless you become.

Most of team uses solidworks these days, I keep starting the tutorials but I keep getting distracted. I am told its alot easier than PTC stuff.

I have found some people are natural to different software.

Its not just the first one you learn making habits that make a second one harder, some times a person can attempt to learn multiple before finding one that "clicks".

I'm fortunate the one I click with was solidworks, as solidworks ended up getting integrated with my optical optimization software.

I started with AutoCAD, ProE, and SolidWorks in the early 2000's. I prefer SolidWorks for modeling because I find it more intuitive and faster work flow for most of what I do. For 2D, I usually use AutoCAD for simplicity sake.

Cool projects Willem. Given how easy it is to 3D scan and reverse engineer original parts, suspension or even chassis points, what you're doing could very well be a sustainable hobby for sure, if not more.

I started 3D CAD with Solidworks and it was a bit of a shock at first how dated and unintuitive CATIA looked. But I got used to it, and as I got into surfacing and working with full car assemblies, it became a no-brainer. I'm sure the back end is quite similar between CATIA and Solidworks. Even with V6, CATIA lags behind in the visuals compared to most other suites. But it's also amazing how scalable this software is, considering the original V5 came out in 1998 (!), and is still in use by most teams in top level motorsport, as well as automotive OEMs and aerospace companies.

Really cool. What does Fusion 360 cost?

This is something I want to pick up next time I am between jobs or starting my semi-retirement!

Cheers,

G

Free if you're a student or educator, $25 a month otherwise.

https://www.autodesk.com/products/fusion-360/overview

Plus one for SOLIDWORKS

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKa3yK8ZoTQ

Solidworks is fun, even if it is part of my job.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1500416641.JPG
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1500416641.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1500416641.JPG
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1500416641.JPG

Not 4 ? I'm still stuck using a customer's 2.0 :-\ it's like going back in CAD time. (usually on latest SWx)

Circa 2005 ^ Done in SolidWorks.

I think you would pick it up quickly. You could learn enough to be dangerous in a few hours.

I learned on Solidworks, but alas I am no longer eligible for the free educational version. Now I use Onshape (web based, free) for engineering/plastic printing parts.

Been laying out kit/bath cabinets in Skechup as there are so many free models available.

I have 1000's hrs of experience with both Catia and Unigraphics NX

After 20 yrs of using CAD on motorsport projects using metallic and composite materials and I still enjoy creating shapes from a blank black screen and following the manufacturing process until I have actual part in my hand.

The CAD is a small aspect of making a part that works, you need to choose the correct material, make sure it is strong enough and the drawing is toleranced correctly as all you will end up with is a sexy looking paper weight.

Willem, I'm really impressed with your first exploration into CAD, looks like you've got the hang of it to me, good going.

This won't sound right, sorry, tired, long week, but here's the thing, I already know too much and don't think I can fit anything more in my head. I am honestly tired of learning new things, developing new techniques which is crazy for me to say...it's all I do. I hired an artist recently to create new flares. He's coming along but I think instead of learning CAD, I'm just going to get a ton of plasticine clay and model them myself and have them scanned/digitized for molds.

I've heard of brain freeze, not brain full.

But I get it. Used to enjoy programming, now I pass that on too....

Getting better bit by bit. Really challenged myself tonight with a pad retaining clip for the caliper I posted earlier. Had to really plan it out very well, but very happy with the end result:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1500495764.jpg

And assembled into the caliper:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1500495764.jpg

It was developing everything needed to restore a 68.5 - 73 grille to brand new recently that was the tipping point. Developing tooling for straightening and recurving the ribs, developing a whole new polishing technique for them, building a jig to anodize them, and finally making my own rivets and rivet sets to duplicate an exact factory look. Well over 100 hours just to be able to start the first grille. That pushed me over the edge.

Love that motor Island!

Take some photos and let the machine do all the work!:
https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/autocad/learn-explore/caas/CloudHelp/cloudhelp/2016/ENU/AutoCAD-Core/files/GUID-ECFB3220-6484-4D0B-BB7E-B06AD9F4E856-htm.html

It’s not magic! Create 3D models from photos - GrabCAD Blog

Cad models - PhotoSculpt creates 3D models and textures from 2 photos

CAD Forum - How to convert a point cloud to an editable 3D CAD model (mesh)?
This one uses cloud point to make a mesh, and not sure how the others work, or if there is any difference in accuracy.