Peter wrote:
the cost of the learning curve to become productive is going to be way more than that
Perhaps, but lots of homebuilders already have previous experience in CAD/CAM/FEM etc as well as working with engineering drawings, machine components and so on. If you start with Solidworks with no sort of previous engineering experience at all, I would think you will be near completely lost though.
It is rather different from 3D modelling in games also (flight sims for instance), and the difference sits at the very concept. CAD is the digital version of paper engineering drawings. The drawings are made to produce physical objects of correct size, correct material, correct fit, correct strength etc. 3D modelling for flight sims is more a digital version of free hand drawings, the only criteria is it shall look nice/cool.
Airborne_Again wrote:
Sapphire Radeon RX 580 Pulse
OK. I thought AMD had their “Pro” line for CAD (OpenGL). Nvidia have the “Quadro” line.
LeSving wrote:
What card is that? Some Nvidia Quadro card?
Sapphire Radeon RX 580 Pulse
I went looking for the price of this thing and found a vast range of options.
It looks like this is a $150 student edition which works for just 1 year. After that it gets a lot more expensive…
This type of software is useful if you want to design parts to be 3D printed, or CNC machined. This can be done straight out of the data file. Then you can go to a moulded part for production.
Otherwise it’s a fun toy 
Frankly, I would not get out of bed to save $150 on this, because the cost of the learning curve to become productive is going to be way more than that. I have seen this so many times, starting with AutoCAD in c. 1982 (it came on a load of 5.25" floppies then). Great fun mucking about with the models they bundle in with it, but actually doing something you want takes serious effort. Exactly the same with video editing software; something I spent a lot of my time on and I am still using just the very basics, and anything more clever (like making a text caption track an object moving in the image) is forgotten if you don’t do it for a few months.
My son does a lot of this 3D stuff and uses Fusion360.
arj1 wrote:
LeSving, did I understand the EULA correctly that you have to stay EAA member to be able to continue using it?
Yes. At least I had to insert my name and EAA member number to be able to download etc.
In any case, works like a charm on my “aviation simulation training platform” aka gaming laptop (Lenovo Legion Y740)
Seems the license is time bound. It says it expires 31.12.2021. Everything is included, all the modules, simulation, PCB etc etc. Now I have to figure out what to use it for
LeSving, did I understand the EULA correctly that you have to stay EAA member to be able to continue using it?
Airborne_Again wrote:
Aha! So that’s why the most recent graphics card I bought had a “Games/CAD” switch…
What card is that? Some Nvidia Quadro card? I think what happens is in “CAD mode” you will only be able to install drivers optimized for OpenGL rendering, while in “game mode” you will be able to install drivers optimized for DirectX.
LeSving wrote:
A CAD GPU is optimized for OpenGL while a gaming GPU is optimized for DirectX.
Aha! So that’s why the most recent graphics card I bought had a “Games/CAD” switch…
Define “well” As I said, it’s the kind of software you buy hardware for. If you are going to work all day (as a professional) using Solidworks or Ansys or whatever, you would buy a CAD station, not a gaming PC. I don’t agree they are different animals, more like different breeds perhaps. Siberian Husky vs German Shepherd more than octopus vs llama The difference is in the minute details.
The main difference is OpenGL vs DirectX. A CAD GPU is optimized for OpenGL while a gaming GPU is optimized for DirectX. Some features simply aren’t available in DirectX. This hasn’t as much to do with the hardware itself or OpenGL/DirectX as it has to do with the drivers for the cards. The result is that some rendering features aren’t available with a gaming card. This is not to say you actually need those features for the design of the occasional bracket Another difference may be that a gaming PC works well for smaller projects, but gets bogged down for larger ones.
I would say a gaming PC works “well” for CAD. The other way around is not necessarily true unless you are willing to pay 10k for a graphics card. But then again, I have not yet tried this Solidworks, maybe it doesn’t even install on my laptop
LeSving wrote:
I would think any OK PC for flight sims will run this software just fine.
It will run it, but not necessarily well, and is unlikely to be supported by the CAD publisher. Game-oriented and CAD-oriented video cards are different animals, optimised for different operations.
What about a VM with a dedicated graphic card ?
