Autocad vs Soldiworks

[QuietRiot.ISR]

As far as it goes for designing tubers and such, which will u most recommend?

[tq_racing]

Do you have experiance with either of them?

I prefer Autocad but that is only because I have 8 years of working with it for 10+ hours a day in 2d and 3d. So I can whip out a tuber in no time flat with it.

[xaruum]

That really depends on your experience in CAD.

If you have no experience, then you would be best off working with pen and paper.

If you have some experience, then you should consider your budget, Solidworks is around $5k/seat and has a pretty good conduit/routing tool, AutoCad cost about the same but I can't speak to it's ability to work with conduit, Alibre Design Xpress is free but you would have to do it all by hand.


Besides pen and paper automatically produces a template every time you draw out a plan.

[tq_racing]

Autocad is not the best for conduit work unless you know about the ins and outs of the program.

Google Sketch Up is not to bad for a free program as well, if a simple tube design is all your looking to do, much faster to learn as well.

But if you dont have any computer drafting experiance then like xaruum said above pen and paper all the way, dont try and learn on a tuber.

[gone_wheelin]

I've tried Alibre Design Xpress and Googles Sketch-Up. Alibre is better, in my opinion, for designing parts and tubers, once you follow the tutorials. Google's Sketch-up is only good if you were designing 3D objects like buildings, IMO.

The drawback to both is the ability to export files for use in other applications. Neither will export a DXF file, bummer.

[QuietRiot.ISR]

I have much experience in PS... mmm.... and i have an access to every comp design program i could ever think of thx my brothers friend which is hard in the buis... and im gonna try Alibre, thx for all the replies =) hope ill get more involved in the community =]

[STEEL_CITY_CRAWLER]

Originally Posted by tq_racing

Autocad is not the best for conduit work unless you know about the ins and outs of the program.

i think AutoCAD would work fine for conduit. i have no problems doing piping design with it.

HOWEVER......

you really do have to keep in mind that A-CAD was originally designed for architectural and structural design work when it was first devoloped WAAAAAAAAAAAY back in the '80's....