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New to Design - 12/28/2006 9:34:35 PM   
Zort86



Posts: 68
Joined: 12/14/2005
From: Raleigh, NC, USA
Status: online 		Hey guiys, I know this has most likly been gone over many time, but i wanted to ask anyway.

I am starting to work on designing my own aircraft. I have been drawing them out by hand right now, but I wanted to start using the computer to help out.
What I need is some sugestions on CAD programs. I have been doing some research and it looks like alot of you have been using Rhino (I have the trial version but I have not tryed it out yet)
Audo CAD (I ave a copy of 2004 but I think it looks like the wrong ersion, it has paletts for office furniture)
and Profili (Have not gotten this one yet.

I have not used any CAD programs before so this will be a experiance, so any help on what I should be looking for and what would be the best out there would be very helpful.

Ken.
       Post #: 1

RE: New to Design - 12/29/2006 12:17:00 AM   
Villa



Posts: 872
Joined: 8/12/2003
From: Wilson, NC,
Status: online 		I recommend AutoCad. Take an evening course at a local community college. The autocad you have is very versatile.

(in reply to Zort86)
       Post #: 2

RE: New to Design - 12/29/2006 5:32:15 AM   
BMatthews



Posts: 8943
Joined: 10/4/2002
From: Burnaby, BC, CANADA
Status: offline 		Start with a Search within this Scratch Building forum on the keywords "cad" or "beginner cad" or "best cad" and you'll get a heap of background reading that is exactly what you want. There's lots of comparisons of the options as well as lots of hints on how to best learn to use whatever you get. As you guessed it's all been said before and more than once.

Profili is a great program but it's not a drawing program. However it does a great job of doing airfoils and one option is in the Print screen options along the top to export the file as a dwg (or is it dxf, either is fine anyhow) so you can easily import it into whatever CAD you get.

Any of them are a steep uphill learning curve. If you're most comfy with basic flat 2D plans from your paper drawing then it's likely best to just stick with that at first until you can easily draw in 2D CAD much faster than you can with a pencil, paper and all the rest of the tools. THEN tackle the 3D beast.


_____________________________

Bruce-
Proudly wasting balsa since 1965.

Free Flighters go that extra mile........

(in reply to Villa)
       Post #: 3

RE: New to Design - 12/29/2006 3:26:09 PM   
mcmike


 

Posts: 582
Joined: 2/19/2002
From: pekin, IL, USA
Status: offline
quote:

ORIGINAL: Zort86

Hey guiys, I know this has most likly been gone over many time, but i wanted to ask anyway.

I am starting to work on designing my own aircraft. I have been drawing them out by hand right now, but I wanted to start using the computer to help out.
What I need is some sugestions on CAD programs. I have been doing some research and it looks like alot of you have been using Rhino (I have the trial version but I have not tryed it out yet)
Audo CAD (I ave a copy of 2004 but I think it looks like the wrong ersion, it has paletts for office furniture)
and Profili (Have not gotten this one yet.

I have not used any CAD programs before so this will be a experiance, so any help on what I should be looking for and what would be the best out there would be very helpful.

Ken.


The Pallettes that you are referring to are basically a template that shows the user how to 'customize' and program AutoCAD, which is it's biggest feature! acad 2004 is a good program. If you dig around in the help files, they usually put some pretty good tutorials in there. Just adapt the procedures to your own use.

_____________________________

Real airplanes have 2 wings and round engines!

(in reply to Zort86)
       Post #: 4

RE: New to Design - 12/30/2006 5:32:26 AM   
omcusnr


 

Posts: 116
Joined: 12/1/2002
From: Medford, OR,
Status: offline
quote:

ORIGINAL: Zort86

Hey guiys, I know this has most likly been gone over many time, but i wanted to ask anyway.

I am starting to work on designing my own aircraft. I have been drawing them out by hand right now, but I wanted to start using the computer to help out.
What I need is some sugestions on CAD programs. I have been doing some research and it looks like alot of you have been using Rhino (I have the trial version but I have not tryed it out yet)
Audo CAD (I ave a copy of 2004 but I think it looks like the wrong ersion, it has paletts for office furniture)
and Profili (Have not gotten this one yet.

I have not used any CAD programs before so this will be a experiance, so any help on what I should be looking for and what would be the best out there would be very helpful.

Ken.


If you want to "learn it yourself", the best text out there is "Mastering Autocad" by George Omura. Its in an archectual background, but can be used in all disciplines. I would, however, highly recommend that you find a local community college & enroll in a night course to get you up & drafting fast.

Of all the cad packages out there, the best "bang for the buck" is Intellacad. Its about $250, and is virtually indistinguishable from acad.

Now do you have ANY drafting experiance? It'll help in setting your drawings up to be readable as plans. If you don't have any drafting background, use that CC for some basics.

(in reply to Zort86)
       Post #: 5

RE: New to Design - 2/28/2007 2:49:20 PM   
Zort86



Posts: 68
Joined: 12/14/2005
From: Raleigh, NC, USA
Status: online 		I have little drafting experiance. I have taken some classes along time agon in drafting. So that should help with the basics.
Thanks for the advise, I am goin gto look in to everythig thing I can

(in reply to omcusnr)
       Post #: 6

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