3D Modeling/CAD Computer Components

[jdbrindis]

In our teams rookie year, we had trouble running CAD software on the computers available to us. Being such demanding and essential software, our team is now allotting funds and as a summer project to build a 3D modeling specific computer. If any teams in the past have done this, are there any suggestions on graphics cards, other components, specs, etc. to be considered or bought for this endeavor? I appreciate all suggestions! Thanks.

[Thad House]

Originally Posted by jdbrindis

In our teams rookie year, we had trouble running CAD software on the computers available to us. Being such demanding and essential software, our team is now allotting funds and as a summer project to build a 3D modeling specific computer. If any teams in the past have done this, are there any suggestions on graphics cards, other components, specs, etc. to be considered or bought for this endeavor? I appreciate all suggestions! Thanks.

Last year we actually bought a gaming/multimedia laptop to use for CAD. They have enough power, and its nice to be portable around the lab.

Personally, I would recommend on of the 15 inch models out of Lenovo's Y series. I know many people that own different models and they are all very reliable. The only thing is to make sure you get a model with at minimum a 1080p display. But they are nice, and good value for money.

If you do want a desktop, you need to look more towards the gaming side. This would mean at minimum an i5 quad core haswell, and a decent gaming graphics card, such as an R9 270 or a GTX 760 or above. 16 GB of Ram is definitely a plus, but you can get by with 8 if you are short the money for more.

[mman1506]

Originally Posted by Thad House

decent gaming graphics card, such as an R9 270 or a GTX 760 or above.

Those will do absolutely nothing to help your CAD performance. In fact the Intel HD integrated graphics included with the processor will perform slightly better as it shares its architecture with the Intel IRIS graphics which is optimized for CAD (I upgraded my HD 3000 integrated to a R9 270 so I've used both)

Even a workstation card won't make much of a difference in CAD performance besides rendering and in my opinion not worth the price if you already have Intel HD integrated graphics. If you do get a workstation card the AMD firepro V4900 is the best value by far.

[rcmolloy]

Originally Posted by mman1506

If you do get a workstation card the AMD firepro V4900 is the best value by far.

I can vouch for this as well. Not only do I have a 4900 but I have also recommended it to many people who also have great things to say about it. I have a decent mid level CAD station that I got together about a year and a half ago. I can certainly post up all the components that I have put into it thus far.

On a side note, it does display most games fairly well.

[sanddrag]

The FirePro V3900 is a little less $ and should give almost identical performance to the V4900 so long as you aren't running more than two monitors. Our two primary CAD workstations are i5-2400s with 16GB RAM and V3900s. We're very happy with the setup. One thing I should mention is that Inventor uses DirectX while Solidworks uses OpenGL. So Inventor most likely will work nicely with a gaming type card whereas Solidworks will not.

As for RAM, we maxed out 8GB with our full robot model. Our mid grade systems have Core2Quad processors, 8GB RAM and V3800s and work just fine for everything except the full robot model.

[artdutra04]

Make sure you get a professional graphics card - either an AMD FirePro or nVidia Quadro. The hardware and drivers are tailored for CAD/modeling performance instead of gaming performance, and are thus the only officially supported graphics cards for most CAD software.

[Jared]

Originally Posted by artdutra04

Make sure you get a professional graphics card - either an AMD FirePro or nVidia Quadro. The hardware and drivers are tailored for CAD/modeling performance instead of gaming performance, and are thus the only officially supported graphics cards for most CAD software.

Agreed. See this (https://forum.solidworks.com/thread/64436) for some details.

If you want to save money and are willing to take a chance, you can pick up some used workstations (typically dell or hp) off of ebay for cheap ($200) with a quadro card.

I would stay away from gaming cards if possible just because of driver issues. You'll get great performance with way more stability on a cheaper workstation gfx card.

As others have said 8 Gb of RAM is enough, though I wouldn't go much less, especially if you like to have an internet browser, excel, an email client, and a music player running at the same time. It doesn't use 8 Gb of RAM to open the robonauts 2013 or 2014 assemblies in SolidWorks or Inventor.

As for CPU, higher clock speed is better. This is why laptops aren't always the greatest for CAD. Getting a CPU with a million cores doesn't help that much with SolidWorks. Most tasks, like importing, or general modeling don't take much advantage of having a bunch of cores. Importing the robonauts 2014 model only maxed out 1 core on my computer. I would prefer a higher clock speed over a just released quad core CPU, but that's me.

Don't get an SSD unless you like spending money.

[Chris_Ely]

Originally Posted by Jared

Don't get an SSD unless you like spending money.

A 120 GB SSD is only about $90. Using it as the boot drive and installing the CAD package to it will drastically increase boot and load times, both new and over the long term. Get a cheap hard drive for everything else.

[cadandcookies]

Originally Posted by artdutra04

Make sure you get a professional graphics card - either an AMD FirePro or nVidia Quadro. The hardware and drivers are tailored for CAD/modeling performance instead of gaming performance, and are thus the only officially supported graphics cards for most CAD software.

Though some companies only certify full systems, not individual components (for example, PTC only certifies workstations, not sure about Solidworks, and I haven't heard of Inventor outside of educational anyways...)

[mman1506]

Originally Posted by cadandcookies

Though some companies only certify full systems, not individual components (for example, PTC only certifies workstations, not sure about Solidworks, and I haven't heard of Inventor outside of educational anyways...)

http://www.solidworks.com/sw/support...rdtesting.html

If you happen to be running a gaming card generally AMD cards have less driver issues than Nividia cards when running solidworks.

[pmangels17]

For Solidworks, I love my Lenovo in every way. Specs:
Model: Y510p
8 GB RAM
1 TB 7200 RPM hard drive
Quad Core i5 2.4 ghz (i think, my memory fails me at the moment on the exact speed)
Dual Nvidia GT 750M graphics cards (2 GB memory each)

Obviously you could get by with a bit less but you can never have enough power, and if you want a laptop you will be hard pressed to find one with a professional graphics card instead of a gaming card. For every FRC application I've needed, including full robot modeling and rendering, gaming cards do just fine, even the mobile ones I have.

If you can, definitely go with a laptop, it'll be easier to move around the shop and take to competition if you wanted to show a judge or another team.

[mman1506]

If your putting together a inexpensive computer and you are ok with something a bit adventurous might want to look at the newly released Intel Pentium G3258 Anniversary Edition, it's a 68$ processor that can be easily overclocked to 4.5-4.8 GHz. When overclocked the processor is comparable to a 379$ i7-4790K in single threaded applications like Solidworks and Inventor.

[evanperryg]

Originally Posted by artdutra04

Make sure you get a professional graphics card - either an AMD FirePro or nVidia Quadro. The hardware and drivers are tailored for CAD/modeling performance instead of gaming performance, and are thus the only officially supported graphics cards for most CAD software.

YES. Workstation cards can be pretty expensive, but they are absolutely worth the money. My machine runs a FirePro v4800, and the performance is absolutely flawless. Also, 6+ core processors and 8gb+ of RAM. This combination will allow you to work with multiple files at the same time, and allow you to use raytracing while working.

Edit: This doesn't mean normal video cards won't work. I used an AMD HD5450 for CAD for quite a while, and although I couldn't keep raytracing and shadows on all the time like I can with my v4800, it was sufficient.

[headlight]

+1 for the SSD. Best choice I made for my computer.

I use this site when I'm putting together a computer.

http://pcpartpicker.com/

It makes it pretty simple and I've never had incompatible parts.

[AdamHeard]

If you can get your hands on a decent gaming card for free, it's certainly okay to use that for a budget build.

That being said, if you can afford it the workstation card is a better option.