CAD vs SolidWorks

[BigMacFatAttack]

Now that 5288, The Spartans rookie year is finished, we are now fully experienced in what FRC is all about, and what it takes to do well. When in St. Louis we learned many ideas which we wish to implicate in the next season.

However, I want to know the benefits of both CAD and SolidWorks in ability to learn, the diversity of the program and how they integrate with a 3D printer.

In short, which program is the most beneficial to a team who has no experience in either?

[Madison]

Originally Posted by BigMacFatAttack

Now that 5288, The Spartans rookie year is finished, we are now fully experienced in what FRC is all about, and what it takes to do well. When in St. Louis we learned many ideas which we wish to implicate in the next season.

However, I want to know the benefits of both CAD and SolidWorks in ability to learn, the diversity of the program and how they integrate with a 3D printer.

In short, which program is the most beneficial to a team who has no experience in either?

CAD is an acronym that describes a type of software. Perhaps you mean AutoCAD, a particular CAD product?

[StillDefective]

Originally Posted by BigMacFatAttack

Now that 5288, The Spartans rookie year is finished, we are now fully experienced in what FRC is all about, and what it takes to do well. When in St. Louis we learned many ideas which we wish to implicate in the next season.

However, I want to know the benefits of both CAD and SolidWorks in ability to learn, the diversity of the program and how they integrate with a 3D printer.

In short, which program is the most beneficial to a team who has no experience in either?

CAD stands for Computer Aided Design, SolidWorks being one. I would say that using CAD has a huge benefit for a team!

It lets you design and test your ideas without using any consumable resources such as metal or wood for prototypes, and if you design the whole robot in CAD beforehand, you have a detailed model/drawings to go by. It makes fixing things and building things easier!

It makes your robot look more professional as it makes your team look that way as well. Real designers all over the world use CAD programs every day, and they are a great resource for teams.

SolidWorks is one of many CAD programs, and which is best for your team depends on many factors. SolidWorks is probably most like what is used in the aerospace industry, due to the fact that it is very similar to Catia V5, which is what many aerospace companies use, but is much cheaper, but can still be an investment for teams.

Creo (Previously Pro/Engineer) is used by many other engineering companies as well, and is available for free to FIRST teams, but I am not a huge fan of Creo, so you might want the opinion of another person on it. I find it annoying and difficult to use, but that's just me.

Autodesk Inventor is also available to FIRST Teams/Students for free and is my CAD program of choice. It is very simple to use and understand, but can still do very complicated things, and many companies use it as well. It is easy to pick up and the lay out is similar to the newer versions of Office, and if you have no knowledge of CAD at all and don't think parametrically and want to learn quick, it's what I would recommend.

And as for 3D printing, basically any CAD program will work, you just design a model in CAD and convert it to a STEP file before you import it in to a slicer program, which analyzes the model and makes it possible to print it from there.

[Chris is me]

In my opinion CAD is absolutely essential to becoming a competitive robotics team. Detailed design is just so much easier. Seeing how things will work and fit together before building them is priceless. Iteration after build season is sometimes only possible by referencing your model robot. I would definitely get your team on track to use CAD for the next build season if you want to build competitive, professional robots.

Inventor vs Solidworks is like PC vs Mac. They both do the same job fairly well; it comes down to personal preference and what is used by schools / companies related to your team.

If you have any sponsors for manufacturing metal equipment, use whatever program they prefer. If you don't have manufacturing sponsors, they're cool and you should get some!

If the above is not a factor and your school teaches a specific flavor of software already, use that. Shaker High School teaches Inventor as part of its pre-engineering program so we use Inventor.

All other things equal, I think Solidworks is both easier to learn and more powerful / flexible and would choose that. However the constraints of your school and sponsors are more important than preference.

[cgmv123]

I prefer Inventor, just because I know it better. As others have said, it comes down to whichever works for you. That said, Inventor is easier to get for free as a student. Solidworks has a program for educational programs, but it requires a few more steps (and waiting for USPS to mail you the DVDs). Inventor can be downloaded with the appropriate registration info.

[cadandcookies]

I'm in the tiny minority that prefers PTC's Creo platform to Solidworks or Inventor. This mostly comes from having plenty of resources available from my team and PTC, as well as the workshops PTC puts on in my area. Frankly, I also find it significantly more intuitive and logical than either Solidworks or Inventor (and easier to do time-saving things like UDFs and sketching constraints). Having used all three though (and having come from using Pro/E 3 at an internship), I can confidently say that none of them are impossible to learn over a summer break (I got a working knowledge of both Inventor 14 and Solidworks over a few months last summer-- they're both pretty easy to learn, even if they sometimes feel a bit dulled to me).

Ultimately though, it's as Chris said-- with something like CAD, it's best to go with the path of least resistance. If you school uses Inventor, don't teach all your students Solidworks. If your mentors use Pro/E at work, it might be worth using that because that's where their experience is and that's the way they can teach the students best. Go with the flow-- learning CAD is difficult enough for most students.

[Allison K]

Originally Posted by cgmv123

I prefer Inventor, just because I know it better. As others have said, it comes down to whichever works for you. That said, Inventor is easier to get for free as a student. Solidworks has a program for educational programs, but it requires a few more steps (and waiting for USPS to mail you the DVDs). Inventor can be downloaded with the appropriate registration info.

Solidworks can be downloaded as well, the information can be found via the Virtual KOP. Every team is eligible for 20 free licenses, and Solidworks Electrical is available to teams as well. My team used Solidworks this year and was really happy with the program and the process of obtaining it.

[cadandcookies]

Originally Posted by Allison K

Solidworks can be downloaded as well, the information can be found via the Virtual KOP. Every team is eligible for 20 free licenses, and Solidworks Electrical is available to teams as well. My team used Solidworks this year and was really happy with the program and the process of obtaining it.

And they'll give you more if you need them. Parts of our team use Solidworks and others use Creo. We have 50 seats of Solidworks and a lab license for Creo (along with a bunch of personal licenses from their site).

[Nick.kremer]

Originally Posted by Madison

CAD is an acronym that describes a type of software. Perhaps you mean AutoCAD, a particular CAD product?

I cant speak for O.P. but I think this is what they meant.

In any case I will weigh in on Autocad vs. SolidWorks.

Autocad:

In my opinion, if you are new to CAD this is the way to go. Students should get a good handle on 2-D visualization of parts, and the basic drafting techniques before moving on to 3-D parts and assemblies. Similarly, they will be dimensioning in 2-D (for any CAD program), so I believe introducing them to dimensioning initially is better in 2-D.

SolidWorks:

Solidworks is of course much better for assemblies, and visualizing the overall size of a bot, and how parts interact with each-other. You can weld parts together, limit how they move, and this really helps the design process to make sure appendages both fit in frame perimeter, but extend out the proper distance.
My problem with SolidWorks (for students who start learning CAD with it) is that it automatically generates 2-D views for you when you make drawings from assemblies, which does save time, but limits the amount of time students think about how the part looks. It also seems that dimensioning becomes almost an afterthought, which should never be the case.

[asid61]

Solidworks is pretty amazing. All CAD programs are. I can get a very accurate weight estimate including screws/rivets without too much trouble. I have had problems with motion due to a slow computer though. SW slows down a lot for smaller/older laptops like mine (4gb ram). I tried to load a particularly interesting swerve design from CD and SW crashed due to my slow computer.
I can't speak for Inventor because I;ve only seen it being used a few times, but it looks very similar to SW to me and apparently has a gear generator, which is useful if you don't want to download dozens of models of gears like me. It also has a darker color scheme to my eye.

Keep in mind CAD is almost useless if you don't use materials or dimension properly. I haven't used the stress analysis tool in SW but I plan to start soon. You should have at least one person on your team thouroughly versed in CAD (can use almost any tool in CAD) regardless of what program you go with.

[Tristan Lall]

Originally Posted by Nick.kremer

In my opinion, if you are new to CAD this is the way to go. Students should get a good handle on 2-D visualization of parts, and the basic drafting techniques before moving on to 3-D parts and assemblies. Similarly, they will be dimensioning in 2-D (for any CAD program), so I believe introducing them to dimensioning initially is better in 2-D.
...
My problem with SolidWorks (for students who start learning CAD with it) is that it automatically generates 2-D views for you when you make drawings from assemblies, which does save time, but limits the amount of time students think about how the part looks. It also seems that dimensioning becomes almost an afterthought, which should never be the case.

That would be a gross waste of time. Learning how to use a dedicated 2-D design package like AutoCAD¹ is unnecessary, because the concept of 2-D sketching is still a necessary skill in 3-D parametric CAD (like SolidWorks, Creo, Inventor, etc.). AutoCAD is a reasonable tool to use for plans, layouts and the like, but it is nowadays outclassed by 3-D packages for complex machine design. Incidentally, the fact that 3-D CAD packages generate the 2-D layouts for you is kind of the point: make a change to one parameter, and the 2-D layout is updated automatically without any further expenditure of effort.

As for dimensioning, the most important skill is understanding how dimensions define parts and establish specifications, and being able to recognize when a part is underdefined, is overdefined or could be defined in an alternative way. Knowing how to conventionally represent them on a drawing is a useful skill too, but far less critical than a conceptual understanding of dimensioning.

¹ Its 3-D mode doesn't deserve to be dignified by further discussion.

[asid61]

Generally, you can get some 2D visualization of parts when you put them into a drawing for machining.

[z_beeblebrox]

Originally Posted by asid61

Generally, you can get some 2D visualization of parts when you put them into a drawing for machining.

Yes. That's the purpose of drawings in 3D CAD.

[StillDefective]

Originally Posted by z_beeblebrox

Yes. That's the purpose of drawings in 3D CAD.

At the machine shop that sponsored our team, they use SW to design/receive parts and just make 2D prints and give them to the machinists to make the parts.

[mplanchard]

Disclosure: I work for Dassault Systemes SolidWorks.
I have used every cad system mentioned.

Check with your mentors, machine shop, recent graduates going on to college or work in the design industry.

SolidWorks sponsors First teams that apply, subject to export compliance at www.solidworks.com/first.

This year we really worked on our Kit of parts thanks to WPI. You will see a SolidWorks Electrical kit of parts later this year.

There is a local SolidWorks Users group www.swugn.org that holds its meetings at Western U in Ontario. Might be helpful in your decision. Marie