SolidWorks

[rgmwa]

For you aircraft designers out there. If you're an EAA member, you can download a free version of SolidWorks:

 

SOLIDWORKS Student Design Kit - EAA Maker Edition | EAA

 

rgmwa

 

 

[Nobody]

Wow amazing. Thanks for posting.

 

 

[Groundhog]

There are 3 levels of solidworks.

 

1 design and 3d drawings

 

2 animation and layers

 

3 cosmos FEA anaysis.

 

So if you want the higher levels there is a cost. For the beginner it is a good programme as there is a tuition section on the right hand top taskbar. When you teach yourself and run into trouble, an icon will light up, by clicking on the icon it will referance on your drawing for you to contiue. Cosmos is a FEA programme but you may need to have an engineer to help with the paremters of the materials you are testing, you computor will need a very good quality video card as this will cause a hiccup in the analysis, but in general good to play with. Try and work backwards meaning have a picture in your mind and break each design part like you would in a jigsaw. also you can download consumables off the web from suppliers and save them into a library and bring them across as you go. good fun

 

 

[Nobody]

I have downloaded the version of Solidworks that the EAA membership allows you to have. I think that this is the basic version without the FEA but seems very powerful. It works a bit differently to other CAD packages and so it is a bit of a steep learning curve. Will come in handy for quite a few projects.

 

 

[Kyle Communications]

Download Fusion 360 from Autodesk...its trial then free. It has everything also easier to use than solidworks and also has all CAM as well as HSM

 

 

[Kyle Communications]

I think its US$300 per year for the paid version but super powerfull and has all motion ability etc. It has been taking the drawing and CNC community by storm