CAD program for family?

[lakevet]

Have 12 yr old with an inventor/engineering tendency that is asking for a CAD program. Wife also getting more into make wood projects/furniture (and of course wants to design her dream house). We have a mac. Any advice on program for beginners that would lay the foundations of CAD use for a budding engineer/inventor that his mom could use also? The 9 yr old wants a bigger tractor and the 7 yr old wants a welder of his own. Trying to keep them away from the video games, etc and on more productive useful ventures.

thanks

lakevet

[LightningBG]

If you want something for him to dink around with and have fun, you could start off by trying google sketchup. I'm not positive they have it for Mac, but worth checking into. It's not real technical, but its free.

I've used it just to get ideas onto paper for various projects. Like this:

[CAMAN]

That's great Lakevet! Hopefully he stays interested in it. He sounds a lot like me growing up. Unfortunetly I didn't have a computer to use, so I built myself a drafting board and "invented/designed/improved" many things on that board.

Sorry I can't recommend any price friendly CAD software though, the only ones I have experience with (AutoCAD, Solidworks and ProEngineer) you could buy a new car with the pricetag.

Good luck, it sounds like you're raising those kids right.

BTW, I laughed at the 7 year old who wants a welder. That's awesome!!!

[Wish-I-Were-Fishn]

I second google Sketchup. I designed my business shop layout in it. I also have a partner that uses it for product design.

[hanson]

Google Sketchup is a great program and we use it in our architectural firm a lot.

Autodesk Revit is the way the building industry is going. There are different versions for the different disciplines; Revit Architecture, Revit Mechanical, Revit Structural, etc.

When my consultants use this software to do their work, I can link it into my Revit Architecture model and conflicts between the different disciplines become apparent.

We're to the point where there really is no 2d drafting anymore, everything is modeled in 3d.

BIM (Building Information Modeling) is the next level of this where all the components of the model have attributes and information attached to them.

As mentioned, there is nothing cheap or inexpensive about this software... probably at $4,000 or more for a full version of Revit Architecture.

Start with Sketchup, and see if you can find a demo version or 30 day trial of Revit Architecture for him to play with for awhile. There are a number of CAD Re-sellers (this is who we would buy are software from, in the Cities we use Cad Technology Center) around that probably have piles of demo CDs that they wouldn't mind giving a couple copies away.

[hydro]

You can check out "TurboCAD" for about $100.00 or so. It has lots of the features of the professional products and is quite affordable.

[lakevet]

Thanks for the input, really appreciate it! Reality is way too much fun to miss out on by gaming all the time.

I'd gladly spend $ on cad programs and welders than video games. Will try google sketchup and possibly turbocad for mac. Always said the oldest son will design it, the middle son will test drive/fly/run it, and the youngest son will sell it.

lakevet

[toddb]

I use turbocad alot and it is a good program for the $$. My cad training is minimal and it is very easy to learn. You can also download it online. I would recommend it.

toddb

[hydro]

I'm happy you appreciate the TurboCAD suggestion. I sell CNC routers and plasma cutting machines that take CAD files (.dxf) for input, and if your son designs something on CAD, you can probably take the file to a shop and have them cut out parts. That would be a pretty cool experience for a beginning designer to see their work come to life like that.

[Stcloudangler]

"The middle one will test it" Pretty funny, the middle child usually gets the shaft... I had to say it

[Far-I]

m

[Far-I]

Hydro,

Would TurboCAD work for me as well? I am a surveying student and I need to draft a Plat, so i need to come up with parcels, streets,utilities and such. I am without CAD experience, unfortunalty, (I believe the only one in the class) and would like to learn CAD quickly and painlessly. I know AutoCAD is the software most people have used...just wondering, as a novice, what my best route would be?

(Not trying to hijack the post, but saw it and was intrigued... )

lakevet, thats great that your children are pursuing such great interests at such an early age.

The 12 yo must have been quite the Lego wizard

[hydro]

Far-I,

I would think that TurboCAD would work for what you want. There are probably other good solutions out there as well if you do your homework. I would suggest that if you plan on pursuing a career that requires CAD work, that you check into what the "Standard" is for your industry. AutoCAD is pretty common, but a seat is also very expensive. They have a product called AutoCAD lite that is more affordable, but still in the several hundred dollar range. If your industry uses AutoCAD you probably need to consider that investment in yourself.

You can probably get TurboCAD for about $50 or so, especially if you buy an older version. It would be an interim solution and will give you output that will help you for now.

[Far-I]

interim solution is the key phrase there. I focus mainly on GIS but will need to be working with CAD as well, of course.

Thanks for the input, i have looked into it a little and i found a free download for students that looks like it'll do the trick too, for now.

I am excited to use CAD but wish i would have gotten a class on it at some point!

[LightningBG]

interim solution is the key phrase there. I focus mainly on GIS but will need to be working with CAD as well, of course.

Thanks for the input, i have looked into it a little and i found a free download for students that looks like it'll do the trick too, for now.

I am excited to use CAD but wish i would have gotten a class on it at some point!

A lot of computer programs have a HUGE discount for students or teachers. Worth checking into. Same for the original poster. One of the programs I was looking into for work gave a 63% discount for students (saving about $2500).

[Far-I]

lakevet-

i found a HSOforum that allows students 13 month copies of just about any CAD software. i just downloaded AutoCAD Civil 3D 2009 on my computer. All that i needed was a student email. Not sure if they cater to school age children, but they might. The have many different versions of CAD from beginner to advanced. Shoot me an email if you are interested, [email protected]

[Jim Jensen]

There is a freeware program called CadStd but it only runs on Windows and Linux. I have been using it for years and I like it.