Posted by Samuel Lindhorst.
Engineer on team #240, Mach Vee, from Jefferson High School and Visteon.
Posted on 1/27/2000 8:37 PM MST
In Reply to: We use Unigraphics posted by Joe Johnson on 1/27/2000 7:04 PM MST:
: Delphi is a largely UG (Unigraphics) shop, so we use that software package.
: AutoCAD is coming along, but it does not appear to be up there with Pro-E, Catia, IDEAS, & UG.
: They keep adding features with each rev. but the 4 above are seem to be the leaders, at least in the Automotive Industry.
: Joe J.
Autocad, bless 'em for their First support, still doesn't have as good a freeform surfacing package as the old Solutions 3000 PC based stuff of 10 years ago, althought they bought Solutions around 1993. Mechanical Desktop is good, and although it is hardly up to major tasks, doing a robot is no problem.
And really, designing a robot hardly calls for class A surface* quality, and there are a lot of little programs that do great things, and can be used. I use Rhinocerous (
http://www.rhino3d.com) which is an amazingly functional package for $800. Educational licenses are $200, and a 25-save trial package is FREE, just download it. That's enough for a a robot, if done carefully. Prismatic 3d object generation is a snap with it, for all you animators.
Sam
*class A surfaces in their most extreme form are only found in the car business, AFAIK. They are the most nit-picked, fought over, and obsessive/compulsive surfaces known to CAD. It's what they use to make those nice, shiny fenders with. Really, even jet turbine blade CAD can't hold a candle to them.