however

means no longer a student. free - 30 days

 

I just took AutoCad & SolidWorks last semester, no previous CAD experience. I love using AutoCad, it seems user friendly and intuitive to me, great for sketching out ideas, haven't really tried much with Inventor. SolidWorks I hate, maybe the bad teacher owns some of that but I find it to be buggy and non-intuitive. I have spent hours trying to get one simple command to function. When I don't get hung up its fantastic but I don't know if I am willing to put in the hours on something I'd have to fork over so much money to get a seat of.

It's probably one of those Ford or Chevy questions, for me I will buy Autodesk when the time comes.

 

I have run Autocad versions 2 thru 2012, Inventor 4 thru 2012, and solidworks 6 thru 2012. Autodesk products are far superior when it comes to the drafting portion and ease of fully customizng. 3d Solids, its a tie, they both have advantages over one another.

-Mark

 

As people, the views - even more. Everyone praises "his" program. The question is what to learn properly.
I think we have to start in 3D. Solid Works, Inventor or another - in the beginning there are no major differences.
Why 3D?
For machines where everything is 3D. Someone previously wrote that these programs are parametric - Yes.
Better to model in 3D
Then - views, sections - all 2D. No annoying bugs, no wrong sizes.

 

I couldn't agree more!. Not to mention, the newest version of Inventor 2013 is far superior to Solid Works with the extras at no extra cost.

 

SolidWorks is getting more and more ridiculously priced.
They need to have a $500 version for the non-corporate buyer.

 

Let me add another 2 cents, there is nothing that beats a properly dimensioned 2d drawing. Learn drafting FIRST! As others have said, the 3d stuff is fairly similar, Solidworks may be a tad more intuitive. There is enough freebie help on the net to get you started for any of the software mentioned.

-Mark

 

I think Autocad.It is several modules and great online support.For beginner you can certainly use this one.
Thanks

 

If you design mechanical projects, the best thing is to draw the project in 2D with the normal views and later make the parts 3D and the project 3D aasembly with Solid Edge.

 

You can choose any package as your choice.The point is that you should know the basics of the package at first.
Thanks