AutoCAD 2007

AutoCAD 2007 is a great program.
I was also wondering about Inventor.
It seems to be able to do everything AutoCAD can do and more.
Is this true?



This program is great, and has more improvements than any AutoCAD upgrade I have ever seen.

I'm having a problem moving my 3D objects.
I have a sphere with center located at (4,4,0).
I want to move the center of the sphere to (1,1,0).

Normally, I do the following:
Click the sphere to select it.
Click the center of the sphere to pick it up.
Type in (1,1,0) to drop it at (1,1,0).

This does not work. Instead I have to do the following:
Click the sphere to select it.
Click the center of the sphere to pick it up.
Type in (-3,-3,0) to drop it at (1,1,0).

This is a displacement.
When I use the normal method, typing in (1,1,0), it moves to (5,5,0).

If I use a # sign in front of my point, it will abide by normal standards.
Instead of enetering "1,1,0", I have to enter "#1,1,0".
This will send the center of the sphere to (1,1,0).

How can I set it so that it so that it abides by the normal method without having to use the # sign?

 

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Perhaps there is something in the options menu. I use Delcam Powershape myself.

 

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I like Powershape, so easy to use.

 

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I've figured it out.
There is a DYN button at the bottom of the screen. If you turn off the DYN, it will work.


What about Inventor?
Will that do everything AutoCAD can do?

 

I liked Inventor, a much better 3D package than AutoCAD. But its mainly for presentation.

 

you think AutoCad is awsome....try Catia

it will blow the reality off limits.

http://www.3ds.com/products-solutions/plm-solutions/catia/overview/

 

Now THAT is something we use at work. Its probably the best CAD package I've come across. Catia V5.

 

As a CAD novice who just wanted to sketch out his ideas and get them in a form that could be worked with quickly and easily, Inventor was MUCH better than Autocad in my opinion. I am building a very simple 2-axis robotic setup and Inventor let me do in a few hours what I tried for a week to do in Autocad.

Simply opinion though. I have no doubt that someone with some actual skills would be much better in AutoCAD.

-AntonK

 

AutoCAD was (and still is) the worst CAD software (at least for mechanical drawing). It is the least intuitive and not initially created for 3d.
I learned and used CadKey about 15 years ago and am still using it today to some extent. It was discontinued about 5 years ago and replaced with something called KeyCreator.
A few years ago, I also took some courses on Pro/Engineer and it was my introduction to parametric solid modeling. Pro/E is very powerfull but still difficult to learn.
I started using Solidworks last year and it is by far the BEST I have ever tried. Very easy to learn and very powerfull. I guess Catia is similar beacause it's from the same company DeSault. I've heard good things about Catia.
I've never used Inventor, but I know someone who is an expert in Inventor and when he tried Solidworks, he switched and never touched Inventor again.
Again, AutoCad sucks!

 

How accurate is Catia?
How large can you build with it? Can you build a whole city?

 

AutoCad is, sadly, a standard, and I was taught (only two semesters ago) with AutoCAD 05' and Inventor Version 10. Inventor rocks compared to AutoCAD, but that's in terms of what you can build with it within the program. When we use it to, say, make component shapes to be laser-cut from balsa ply to be built into an actual product, we need to go through the headache of converting the Inventor files to AutoCad because the guy doing our wood-cutting wanted it that way. Kind of a shame, put some limits on what we could design.

But Pro/Engineer is by far what companies ask me for when I look for internships. They draw a blank expression if you ask about Inventor, but if you have AutoCad or Pro/E on your resume, they love you, well, at least a little more.

But for as basic as AutoCad is compared to parametric modelers, I think that's what makes it a standard.

 

I'm looking for the ability to byuild entire buildings and cities as well as devices and machines. Also to render good environments for 3D animation.

Probably might need separate apps for these.
Probably can use Inventor or Catia to model the objects/structures/devices. So is it true that inventor can do everything AutoCAD can do, but better? (Even build large buildings as well as precise devices?)
Then end up using 3DSMax or Maya for rendering environments and aesthetics.

 

AutoCAD was one of the first pieces of software, however they've never really done a reinvention of it's initial concept but just keep pumping out updated versions with a few added things over previous versions. The main reason for this though is purely down to the people that use the software that would be alienated by any real changes.

You could suggest that having AutoCAD being so diabolically designed as to even get intermediate computer users shuddering with fear at it's name, it's lead to the develop of other software that people feel is "Superior" because the "End User" just happened to be a group of programmers wanting an easier life.

(Admittedly Autocad was really only meant for 2D Schematical diagrams and slowly evolved to modeling the 3D shapes when Processor and Resource capacities finally became available on computers.)

You should perhaps identify that any number of these programs can "Draw" the overall wireframes of any 3D model, but it's really the Rendering system thats the final kicker. Some packages come with decent Rendering systems added while others your probably best finding a thirdparty one and placing your drawn model into a format it can read.

 

3DS MAX is what probably will be the best.
Check out the first few videos.

I don't think any of those other programs can do this. Not even Maya.

 

you are talking art-wise...we are talking engineering-wise.

 

CATIA is mainly for 2D/3D drafting (like technical drawings), if you just want a 3D modeling package to create landscapes or for purely visual purposes then you are probably better off using something else.

I liked 3Ds Max, I used it once to create 3D animations and I found it quite easy to use, as well as being quite capable. But Maya is better.

 

Yes. In terms of engineering, does Catia beat Inventor?
How good is AliasStudio? Formerly called StudioTools.

 

Is Catia similar to Inventor and AutoCAD?

 

No CATIA was developed by Dassault, as a 3D solid modelling package for military (mainly) aircraft design, AutoCAD was originally an architectural package (and Inventor is just as "bad" - I know of one firm that uses it and logs over 30 system crashed per month on a 20-system setup).
No one I know likes Inventor (or AutoCAD) as a serious CAD package.
SolidWorks, Solid Edge, good grief, even MicroStation are better than AutoCAD and/ or Inventor.
For a home-based system see if DesignCAD3D is still available, that cost me less than £250 about eight-ten years ago.

Hands down.

 

That Dassault website is so confusing. I cannot figure out what their 3D apps are. They have so many apps.
I think their 3D apps are CATIA V5R17 and SolidWorks. Does anybody know the difference? Then there is Virtools which looks like 3DSmax. Anybody ever used Virtools?