Board index › Topical Discussion › Computers, Math, Science, and Technology

Any CAD geeks in here?

Page 2 of 2 [ 26 posts ]  Go to page Previous  1, 2

Previous topic | Next topic

Oodain
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 30 Jan 2011
Age: 34
Gender: Male
Posts: 5,022
Location: in my own little tamarillo jungle,

20 Aug 2011, 6:17 am

we had an older hitachi setup using much smaller pallets, it could reroute to a hitachi mill and a vertical lathe, making complex production runs a possibility.
give me a sec see if i can find it.

i had a hard time judging the whole setup from the pictures, there is so much :lol:

(edit) and it seems there is no pictures online except for the injection moulders, the cnc shop was set up to support and prototype injection moulds.


_________________
//through chaos comes complexity//

the scent of the tamarillo is pungent and powerfull,
woe be to the nose who nears it.


Telefunkenfan
Tufted Titmouse
Tufted Titmouse

User avatar

Joined: 17 Aug 2011
Age: 34
Gender: Male
Posts: 39

20 Aug 2011, 1:47 pm

MissDorkness wrote:
Telefunkenfan wrote:
Does Autodesk Inventor count?
:-D But, of course. Inventor has got to be one of the coolest programs I've seen (I can say that because I don't have to deal with it's foibles and shortcomings on a daily basis ;-p But, I was just really stunned the first time I saw it and sat down to have a play with the sample files available.).

ahhh it seems you have run afoul of Inventor? what, if I may ask, happened to sour your view of it?



SammichEater
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 6 Mar 2011
Age: 30
Gender: Male
Posts: 3,903

20 Aug 2011, 7:48 pm

I used inventor a few times, and it only managed to frustrate me.

I've used AutoCAD before at school, but unfortunately, I don't have it for my home computer. It cost thousands of dollars, but I'd rather not pirate it.


_________________
Remember, all atrocities begin in a sensible place.


ScratchMonkey
Sea Gull
Sea Gull

User avatar

Joined: 26 Jan 2007
Age: 64
Gender: Male
Posts: 232

21 Aug 2011, 12:36 am

We don't have any connections or conveyors between different machines.



Nil_Nil
Pileated woodpecker
Pileated woodpecker

User avatar

Joined: 21 Feb 2011
Age: 56
Gender: Male
Posts: 196

24 Aug 2011, 4:55 am

Not really a CAD user but have supported CAD systems back in my NASA contracting days and done some MDL on Microstation. Live in the same town as Intergraph. Microstation was sold to Bentley Systems a while ago. CAD is some cool and powerful stuff.



kVArc
Butterfly
Butterfly

User avatar

Joined: 17 Aug 2011
Age: 32
Gender: Male
Posts: 16

25 Aug 2011, 1:26 pm

I'm a student; and students can download a free version of Inventor from Autodesk (but I want to mention the download size is 12 gigabytes :) ).
Autodesk Inventor is really awesome. I've constructed various things with this program; for example an own version of T. Grandin's squeeze machine (yes, I like deep pressure) :D .

This program can also do static analysis of parts and assemblies (using FEM; finite element method). That's very useful: With FEM, it's possible to test the mechanical strength of a construction before building it, and to see the weak points of it 8) .



ScratchMonkey
Sea Gull
Sea Gull

User avatar

Joined: 26 Jan 2007
Age: 64
Gender: Male
Posts: 232

25 Aug 2011, 3:44 pm

FEM is seriously cool stuff. The stuff my company builds cares about sub-micron deflection, so building a suspended structure 18 inches across can be pretty complex. It has to be very rigid but not so heavy that it bows.

FEM tends to be memory intensive, so you need a beefy machine with a 64-bit OS to do complex structures. (64-bit lets you address more than 4 GB of memory.)



SammichEater
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 6 Mar 2011
Age: 30
Gender: Male
Posts: 3,903

25 Aug 2011, 5:49 pm

kVArc wrote:
I'm a student; and students can download a free version of Inventor from Autodesk (but I want to mention the download size is 12 gigabytes :) ).
Autodesk Inventor is really awesome. I've constructed various things with this program; for example an own version of T. Grandin's squeeze machine (yes, I like deep pressure) :D .

This program can also do static analysis of parts and assemblies (using FEM; finite element method). That's very useful: With FEM, it's possible to test the mechanical strength of a construction before building it, and to see the weak points of it 8) .


I wish I had known about this much earlier. I get to use CAD for free because I'm a student? This is awesome.


_________________
Remember, all atrocities begin in a sensible place.


ScratchMonkey
Sea Gull
Sea Gull

User avatar

Joined: 26 Jan 2007
Age: 64
Gender: Male
Posts: 232

26 Aug 2011, 2:51 am

Lots of free CAD programs here:

http://linuxappfinder.com/graphics/cad

You can often get Windows binaries for programs originally developed for Linux. If not, look for a Linux "Live CD" for different distributions. These boot Linux from a CD and store their data on your Windows disk.



ScratchMonkey
Sea Gull
Sea Gull

User avatar

Joined: 26 Jan 2007
Age: 64
Gender: Male
Posts: 232

26 Aug 2011, 2:55 am

I haven't used these, but these seem to be the leaders in open source CAD for electronic design:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kicad

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GEDA