Mechanical Desktop difficulties

[EngJW]

Anyone using Mechanical Desktop? I have MD5 available to me and I tried to use it for some concept work- laying out a combustion chamber and ports for an engine. After many hours of attempts, I am afraid my opinion of it is not very good.

If you have a picture in your mind, you spend most of your time trying to make the program do what you what than actually creating anything. If you make more than a simple object and want to try some variations, you just about have to start over. MD ties your hands with the parametric dimensions- it won't accept some that you want to add, or says the object is not constrained even as you keep trying to find the right dimension to satisfy it.

I am finding it easier to do concept work with 2d Autocad, and then use MD to see what a part looks like once it is designed. I am disappointed because I know people who easily became productive with ProE, Solid Works, or Ideas without a lot of experience.

What are your experiences?

Thanks,
John Woodward

 

[smcadman]

My experience has been quite contrary. Since it is built off of AutoCAD, I found it very easy to move to MDT. As with any software, there is a learning curve. I believe it also depends on the individual. Whenever I was in college, even regular AutoCAD blew some fellow students minds away, and they could not comprehend as easy as most students. I haven't encountered anything that MDT has been unable to make, while I have some friends that have stumbled a few times in Solidworks.

Flores