CAD Class Research

[PeterCip]

Re: got some help possibly.

Im not 100% sure what aluminum wheels are cast in but for my formula car we used a 6061-T6 which should be more than strong enough and ductile enough. Most people I know use solidworks cause Pro makes everything a major pain when it dosent ned to be. Its a powerful program, it just has ghetto user interface. SW is powerful enough for what most people need to do and is much better to work with IMO. Both programs have their flaws. I have spent tons of time In various CAD programs and refuse to use Pro-E if that gives you any insight. If you get the wheel finished I can alwas FEA it for you in whatever material you select. Depends on if you want to have it cast or machined ect.

Pro-E what? 2001? cause that is Garbage.. Wildfire 2 is our latest and greatest. Don't get me wrong, I love and would rather use solidworks, but you hit the limitations of the software pretty quickly..
The parts that you have shown are all basic modles. Once you get into surfacing, large complex assemblies, oridnate dimensions, etc. you will reach the limitations of solidworks pretty quick...

[wazzu70]

I BELIEVE its the wildfire 1, Im not sure when it was loaded on, or when wildfire 2 came out since I dont really follow Pro-E stuff. You are correct in that I have a assembly with well over 100 parts and assemblies in it and it bogs any computer down I have ever put it on. SW has a big problem with not dumping the ram completely which really sucks when working with a big assembly. I also agree that SW has limitations, and Pro-E is a much more powerful program. For most peoples personal use SW is much easier to learn, and all the businesses I interviewed with only use SW or are dumping Pro-E to get SW. Only very large corporations or companies that do very complex things use Pro-E because the price tag is so much more than SW.

None the less it sounds like you have a sweet job man. Keep working on the user interface of Pro-E and It will definately take over....

This is all from an engineering standpoint, I dont use a solid modeling program which isnt an engineering standard because everyone I work with either has SW, Pro-E and or Catia (Boeing) so I cant comment on any of the other programs out there.