Mechanical Fabrication design 6

[ASHWA]

Dear All,
I need to know the best design software for - Mechanical Fabrication design. How is the field of fabrication design for next 20yrs.

Can anyone help in this regard...!!

Thankyou.

 

[mfgenggear]

You mean mechanical design

 

[Jboggs]

That's a good question, and I have my recommendations, but something tells me I should also say this: Good software does not produce good designs. A good designer produces good designs, regardless of what software is used, if any!

I have seen hundreds of horrible designs created on all kinds of software. Make sure your focus is on learning the lessons from examining how the masters of the past have created successful designs.

That said, my software of preference is Solidworks. But I also still fall back on good old 2D Autocad on almost a daily basis.

 

[3DDave]

Anyone who knows the next 20 years in any field will be very wealthy as an investor.

The first step is getting a good description. "Mechanical Fabrication design" could be setting up a factory to fabricate mechanical items, or it could be design of tools and machines for fabrication, or it might be the design of mechanical parts with an understanding of fabrication techniques.

 

[CWB1]

The answer depends on your budget, needs, and wants. If you're selling contract design services for customers who use a variety of different modelers then you will want a similar variety of modelers to earn their business. OTOH if you're designing entirely for internal use then you will want a single tool. If your users are mainly design engineers then you'll want a fast, powerful tool like Creo or Catia. If your users are mainly shop floor technicians then you can trade speed and power for something easy to learn like Solidworks. The need to easily integrate models into an existing PLM, FEA, CFD, or CAM tool might also drive different decisions. Before doing anything else I'd recommend ranking needs vs wants.

 

[ASHWA]

Thank you Friends,
There are software's like,

Autodesk Advance Steel 

Revit® BIM software

IronCAD is designed FOR fabrication & assembly

These are specific for Mechanical Fabrication purpose, any idea regarding this?

 

[3DDave]

You have obviously done a great deal of research in naming those programs. Please tell us every detail of the work you intend to do and the company you intend to do the work for.

 

[ASHWA]

I'm basically a Mechanical design engineer, would like to invest my time and money in specific core design like Mechanical Fabrication design.

I would like to know which software is used around the world specifically, for Fabrication design works.

Thanks in advance.

 

[3DDave]

All of them, and many more. Even paper and pencil. Also, "Mechanical Fabrication design" is not a specific core design area so there is no software that is best for it.

Spend more time researching the companies you would like to work for - you can see from the job postings what software they use.

 

[mfgenggear]

it really depends on the size of the compamy, some large aerospace companies use mainframe like Unigraphics, and others like it.
medium to small companies use solid works, AutoCAD, and Inventor. it really depends on the product.

 

[BEMPE16524]

as a beginner, i would strongly suggest Solidworks.
I self learned SW in uni, and use Pro/E in my carrier for almost 10 years and now back to SW for almost 5 years.
you can have all important features in SW library and i feel SW is the most user friendly software as a Mechanical engineer personally.


R.Efendy

 

[TheTick]

Any mid-tier CAD is fine (list below). None of them will limit your designs unless you are getting really freaky.

Worry more about your design and visualization skills. Turn your mind into a design machine, and all CAD essentially looks the same.

Top-tier (NX and CATIA) can of course do all the things. If you are getting into a field where they are predominant, then it's worth your time.

Mid-tier CAD (short list)
[ul]
[li]SolidWorks[/li]
[li]SolidEdge[/li]
[li]Creo[/li]
[li]Inventor[/li]
[li]OnShape[/li]
[/ul]

 

[ASHWA]

Thankyou friends for your needed feedback,

Hope Solidworks-Weldment serves the most which i intended.

Do i need to learn the basic's of Medelling and Assembly of Solidworks, inorder to work in Weldments?

Thanks in advance.

 

[TheTick]

Do i need to learn the basic's of Medelling and Assembly of Solidworks, inorder to work in Weldments?

yes

 

[Jboggs]

"Do i need to learn the basic's of Medelling and Assembly of Solidworks, inorder to work in Weldments?"

How strongly can I say this? YES!! YES!! YES!!
SW Weldments is an extremely strong tool. But it takes a while to really learn to master it. To do that one must learn the power of non-merged bodies, patterning, how to manipulate configurations, sketch parent-child relations, weldment cut lists, reference views of individual bodies, and some other tricks. I've been designing machined weldments on it for over 10 years and I'm still learning. I look over some of my earlier designs and cringe at the immaturity the show.