Is basic CAD design easy to pick up?

[Dunks]

Yeah SolidWorks is much more intuitive and easier to use than AutoCAD is. I learnt primarily on SolidWorks, at uni. Coming to work, using AutoCAD, was a big step up. Also, once you've done something in AutoCAD, you can't really go back on it like in SolidWorks, making it great for designers.

People still use AutoCAD to design stuff? Surely you'd be using Inventor if you're with AutoDesk?

 

[dirtychinchilla]

That's true in part, but it really depends what you're drawing. I do a decent amount of 3d work, but rarely have to create any parts from scratch. If I do, they're generally valves, so easy revolutions. It's a lot of assemblies really. I work in HVAC. I can really see the advantage of inventor, but it's in the higher level building design suite, and therefore probably not worth the extra cash. I might have Inventor Fusion though...

Btw, OP, sorry to hijack the thread! You'll definitely need to get learning if you're going to be 3D printing. If you're in education, you can get educational versions (if you have a teenage or university student son/daughter etc, you could use their emails, which is what you need).

 

[stufflol]

U wont really use autocad to create the format used for printing, you would use inventor/Cinema 4d/Blender/3Ds/Solidworks

 

[Golf1.6]

I'm pretty sure:

"creating wordpress websites is dead easy"
"changing brakepads & discs is dead easy"
"doing your self assessment is dead easy"

The problem is time. The first time you do anything it will take you 4x 5x of the time (and lots of mistakes along the way) than someone who does it proficiently.

I bet a lot of people above who said cad drawings are dead easy would not bother to change their brake pads & discs and just pay a garage to do it for £200-£300