3D MODELING PROGRAM FOR MAC?

[newteam2014]

Hey FIRSters,
do you know of any good 3d modeling programs for macs?

Thanks!

[Andrew Schreiber]

Hey FIRSters,
do you know of any good 3d modeling programs for macs?

Thanks!

Maya runs on Macs. As does Blender. But I assume, since you also posted in CAD that you are talking about 3d-cad programs. I use BRL-CAD and OpenSCAD quite a bit on my Mac. Neither of which would I suggest for actually cadding a robot. I'd suggest using either virtualization software or dual booting to get Windows and utilize the software that everyone does.

If you are insistent upon using CAD on your mac... Autodesk released AutoCAD LT and it is available in the App Store. Reviews are mixed and I cannot recommend it as I haven't tried it. Don't want to spend $900 on trying it.


But do you know that posting the same thing in multiple forums isn't likely to get you a faster response? It isn't against any rule I could find in a cursory glance but it is generally frowned upon in my experience.


Also, not using all caps tends to help with people wanting to help.

Please delete one of your threads or ask a Mod to do it for you.

[thefro526]

Here's a link to the system requirements for Autodesk Inventor, scroll down a bit and it'll tell you want you need to do to run Inventor on a Mac: http://usa.autodesk.com/autodesk-inventor/system-requirements/

Autodesk Supplies Free Copies of Inventor to FIRST teams and Students.

[scottydoh]

Here's a link to the system requirements for Autodesk Inventor, scroll down a bit and it'll tell you want you need to do to run Inventor on a Mac: http://usa.autodesk.com/autodesk-inventor/system-requirements/

Autodesk Supplies Free Copies of Inventor to FIRST teams and Students.

Keep in mind that still requires Bootcamp or a virtualization package. Also, I'm pretty sure AutoCAD for Mac is provided as one of the free student licenses. From what I've heard, its isn't as smooth as its windows counterpart, but it still gets the job done...then again it is only the first or second release of it, so things can only improve from there.

[jtus]

Auto Cad is a free download for students and it works fine.

[Duke461]

To summarize the posts on here + give you some of my advice:

There are non-autodesk and less used autodesk products that work on a mac, such as blender, maya, and rhinoceros.
However, from what i know about maya, this would have a steeper learning curve.
I with all my heart advise against blender; personally, i despise that program.
Rhino isn't terrible, but it could get difficult to make a very precise CAD and Inventor features (chain, stress analysis, etc.) would be non-existent
Autodesk Inventor will run for free on a Mac; however, you must have a program that can run windows on the mac. Autodesk suggests Parallels Desktop (http://www.parallels.com/products/desktop/)
Parallels is pretty expensive (60 dollars or 14 day free trial if you speed rush your CAD :P), but if you're willing to pay the price, Inventor is the #1 choice
AutoCAD is free, and runs on a Mac without any middlemen. I know this because i have it on my mac.
However, as an experienced Inventor CADder, in my opinion, i do not care for AutoCAD too much, and you really can't easily perform as many actions as you could easily do on inventor. I also believe you can't perform actions such as chain and stress analysis on AutoCAD either, as i mentioned above with Rhino

Bottom Line: If you've got 60 bucks, get Inventor.

Hope this helps,
-Duke

Any other questions let me know.

[AdamHeard]

To summarize the posts on here + give you some of my advice:

There are non-autodesk and less used autodesk products that work on a mac, such as blender, maya, and rhinoceros.
However, from what i know about maya, this would have a steeper learning curve.
I with all my heart advise against blender; personally, i despise that program.
Rhino isn't terrible, but it could get difficult to make a very precise CAD and Inventor features (chain, stress analysis, etc.) would be non-existent
Autodesk Inventor will run for free on a Mac; however, you must have a program that can run windows on the mac. Autodesk suggests Parallels Desktop (http://www.parallels.com/products/desktop/)
Parallels is pretty expensive (60 dollars or 14 day free trial if you speed rush your CAD :P), but if you're willing to pay the price, Inventor is the #1 choice
AutoCAD is free, and runs on a Mac without any middlemen. I know this because i have it on my mac.
However, as an experienced Inventor CADder, in my opinion, i do not care for AutoCAD too much, and you really can't easily perform as many actions as you could easily do on inventor. I also believe you can't perform actions such as chain and stress analysis on AutoCAD either, as i mentioned above with Rhino

Bottom Line: If you've got 60 bucks, get Inventor.

Hope this helps,
-Duke

Any other questions let me know.

I really think the best solution is to bite the bullet and dual boot windows. There are quite a few "engineering" programs that are windows exclusive, and you can only really avoid windows for so long in that regard.

[mathking]

You can also do robot design with Vectorworks. Personally I think that it is easier to use Inventor, but VW will work. We are a Mac school district, and have designed several past robots with VW. Also, if you own a copy of Windows then dual booting or using Parallels is a very reasonable alternative.