Any Cad Operator/ Desginers in here?
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From: North Ridgeville (suburbs of cleveland) Ohio
Any Cad Operator/ Desginers in here? Well im currently going to school for mechanical design (associate degree) and eventually for my bachelors in mechanical engineering. Im just curious to see if there are any guys on here that actually are doing this for a living or use CAD in their job. What software are you running? What would you recommend learning? I have a license for ProE 4.0 and Autocad 2008, and next semester Ill be taking my final cad classes (3d, solidworks, dimension and detail,) as well as geometric dimensioning and tolerancing and other core courses needed for the degree. I have applied to several compaines and im trying to get my foot in the door doing basic Cad work. Ive done a lot of 2d in my first class (gaskets, housings, mechanical parts, hydraulic and electrical systems etc.) and Im working with PRO E almost on a daily basis going through the tutorial and making their parts they have and trying to get the hang of everything. I know you guys have some suggestions and guidance for me so lets hear it.
I'm currently in school working on my BS in Mechanical Engineering as well and co-op at a building infrastructure design/contracting firm. I use Autodesk Building Systems (basically AutoCAD 2009 with an ABS add-on) and Revit 2008 on an everyday basis. I just took a Solidworks class as well. From what understand Solidworks and ProE are very similar so you shouldn't have too much trouble with that. Good luck!
I use Autocad and Inventor 2008 every day to design Hydraulic System Seals and Pistons, as well as tooling. I must admit, I thought it was going to be alot cooler in college, and was sort of let down in the real world. But that may be because i dont exactly design the most interesting things in the world. Im currently pursuing my bachelors in Business. I have my associates in Design Engineering from Community college. At the time i had a full ride scholarship because of a design portfolio i submitted into a contest. I sort of wish i had just spent the money and went in another direction. Sorry to be a bummer. I also know people who had the same degree as me and now work on long wall mining machinery and love their job. It just depends.
Teching In
Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 6
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From: Tustin, Ca
BSME from UCLA in 2004 and have been using Solidworks since 2001. Worked for an aerospace company in SoCal for a year using Solidworks to design hydrulic parts and hated it but loved Solidworks so I went to work for a Solidworks reseller and have been here ever since. To me it is the perfect job cause I get to play with the software and use my engineering brain but I don't have deadlines and I don't stare at the same widget for 5 years at a time (that seems to be the going complaint in the aerospace industry down here from young engineers). I mainly do software demos and stuff like that so I see different things all the time and get to work with all kinds of industries to show them Solidworks can do what they are looking for.
As far as what CAD tool to learn, SOLIDWORKS!!! That may sound a little biased but the numbers are out there and don't lie. A cool thing to do is check out YouTube. Search for Solidworks, then ProE or Pro Engineer and then Inventor (basically the top 3 3d tools). You will get WAY more hits and videos of Solidworks stuff. Do the same on Monster.com and the trend in the industry will be pretty clear.
GOOD LUCK!
As far as what CAD tool to learn, SOLIDWORKS!!! That may sound a little biased but the numbers are out there and don't lie. A cool thing to do is check out YouTube. Search for Solidworks, then ProE or Pro Engineer and then Inventor (basically the top 3 3d tools). You will get WAY more hits and videos of Solidworks stuff. Do the same on Monster.com and the trend in the industry will be pretty clear.
GOOD LUCK!
Mechaincal Engineer here with 4 years experence in design.
I have worked with both Solid Works and Pro E. Both have pros and cons. I personally would learn both.
Key when learning this type of 3d modeling software is understanding the process beind making the part. This will make modeling it much easier. If you can take a machining class to help with the design for manufacturability that lots of larg Companies are looking for.
In my experence Proe Is more complicated to navigate then Solidworks. This goes along with the fact that most larger Companies use ProE over solidworks. The file structure in ProE is complicated depending on the PDM structure. SloidWorks relies on Windows type structure making it far more user frendily.
Catia, I have not personally used it but my understanding is its a superior system for large more complicated systems. In fact I believe it would be more used in my industry(Defense) if it had been developed by a US firm.
If you have any questions PM me I will do my best to help out.
I have worked with both Solid Works and Pro E. Both have pros and cons. I personally would learn both.
Key when learning this type of 3d modeling software is understanding the process beind making the part. This will make modeling it much easier. If you can take a machining class to help with the design for manufacturability that lots of larg Companies are looking for.
In my experence Proe Is more complicated to navigate then Solidworks. This goes along with the fact that most larger Companies use ProE over solidworks. The file structure in ProE is complicated depending on the PDM structure. SloidWorks relies on Windows type structure making it far more user frendily.
Catia, I have not personally used it but my understanding is its a superior system for large more complicated systems. In fact I believe it would be more used in my industry(Defense) if it had been developed by a US firm.
If you have any questions PM me I will do my best to help out.
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I have experience in all three 3D softwares. I Currently work with Inventor & AutoCAD everyday for huge Industrial fans & blowers. Like mentioned, Pro-e was not as user friendly as Solidworks & Inventor. It would be a tough call to say which software is more popular in my area. Id have to vote Inventor or Solidworks. Pro-E seems to always have nice pay though.
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I'm a mechanical engineer PE with 7 years of design experience, and I've dabbled in most of the major CAD softwares. I currently use Solidworks and CATIA based upon the job (customer really) and have used Solid Edge, Pro/E, and Autodesk. My personal favorites are Solid Edge/Solid Works, but all the systems are getting more like each other. If you learn one system well you can bounce to another fairly easy once you learn the minor interface differences. I agree with GTA that having manufacturing/machining experience helps a lot when designing parts. Machinists also give you props when you can dimension and tolerance a part properly.
I am a Product Engineer at Turbonetics. I have used AutoCAD, Mechanical Desktop, Inventor, Solidworks when I worked for B&M Racing ... pretty much all of them, except for Pro-E and Catia. I really enjoy my career desinging turbo and intercooler assemblies for both motorsports or industrial applications. I have been designing since 1997 and I prefer Solidworks over the others. As was said, a thorough understanding of how parts are manufactured really helps, not only to dimension, but to also design in the software. As many have been setup to only allow certain features be accomplished in a certain sequence to achieve the desired goal. 
I use Solidworks and found it very intuitive . I also use Camworks which runs inside Solidworks and has an Auto Feature Recognition which can make CAMing the drawing super easy but it does depend on how you draw . I learned to make the AFR more useful to save time . I have no experience with Pro E but some of my customers use it , I believe it's a pretty expensive program but will shine on complex parts/assemblies .
