Excellent CAD Machining software

[AlanMiller]

I've been using this for a short while. Obviously designed specifically for easy design of machinable components, so has all the appropriate features for this kind of work. The demo videos are well worth watching, with some nifty techniques relevant to any drawing program... even pencil & paper! <img src=/S/free.gif border=0 alt=free width=30 height=15> - 6MB.
Online Machine Shop - Download Free CAD Software here

Alan

[Jezza]

Excellent Alan

I shall be having a go at this, this weekend. A colleague has been discussing an idea he has for generating electricity and he asked me about my ideas and I came up with a solution using a bevelled cog to move circular motion by 90 degrees...he needed a diagram to understand so hopefully this will assist <img src=/S/cool.gif border=0 alt=cool width=15 height=15>

[jaystarter1]

That's some find, thank you.

And there's a nice link to making Printed Circuit Boards if anyone's interested

[Leif]

The pcb software is a bit of a one-way street to getting them manufactured by a specific supplier from what I can see. I don't believe you can produce usable artwork for your own use, or for any other pcb manufacturers.

[sinjin]

Looking around the web site I could not find what file type used as export possibilities. I did see that their SLA choice was limited to a crude level limited to wall thickness of .030" minimum and minimum height of .040". I use a Viper SLA at .001" per build layer which enables wall thickness down to .005' if you need. Many of my parts are graduated in thickness from .010" on up. A bit long winded way of saying that if you are doing anything small and need accuracy, you need to look somewhere else.

[AlanMiller]

The only export option I saw was for DXF (AutoCAD R12/LT12). But that SLA system looks incredible. What sort of parts do you make? And now for the big one... what does such a beast cost?

Alan

[sinjin]

If you want to have the ability to use any machine for your output then you need to be able to export in STL format. As for what I do, I design jewelry. The SLA machine that I outsource to use runs around $250,000US. If you do not run it full everyday you are losing money. If you need large parts you should try http://www.quickparts.com/ they have an online cost estimator. You also might want a program that will generate finished pictures from the engineering file as the sample I attached to this post. Sorry that the resolution is low, the forum has limitations.