On Sun, Apr 18, 2021, at 9:47 PM, caveman رجل الكهف 穴居人 wrote: > hi. > > i want to design complex shapes, and then > send them to some manufacturers. so my > drawings need to be very accurate, and > compatible with the manufacturers. > > plus, it would be nice to have the ability > of being able to test how structurally > strong my design is. e.g. how well it > supports loads, and where are the pressured > points, etc. > > thoughts on what to use? should i use > autocad? else? how should i think? any > tips? >
As the other poster has suggested, FreeCAD can *technically* do all of these things. But the biggest issue with it is that its constraint engine is not as advanced (by way of heuristics) as that of Autodesk or Solidworks. Practically what this means is if you change a base feature FreeCAD will give you gibberish instead of what might make sense in context. If you are a hobbyist, and are not very RMS-inclined, then just using a subscription to Fusion 360 will be fine. It is what a lot of hobbyists use. In fact, even if I were RMS-inclined, I'd probably use Fusion 360 for prototyping and *then* put the design into FreeCAD. Fusion 360 will do stress analysis for free, I think. The other CFD analyses are paid, and can run upwards of $13k/yr, so in case you need them it would be worth it to use FreeCAD.
