

Texture mapping and painting for video games, movies, and art.ĬAD integration has overhauled the traditional manual drafting process in the past few decades to make 3D modelling and product production faster, cheaper, and simpler than ever before.ĬAD software offers the following benefits:.Advanced Geometric, Dimensioning, and Tolerancing (GD&T) for optimising production processes.Various simulations including drop tests, fabrics, and inflatables.Various analyses, including thermal, vibration, motion, ergonomic, aerodynamic, and stress and buckling analyses, as well as mould flow analysis for injection molding.Importing standardised mechanical parts from linked databases.Creating a bill of materials (BOM) – a complete inventory of all the materials and components required to manufacture the products – for management of production and cost analysis.Creating photorealistic renderings for presentation and marketing purposes.Creating, preparing, and modifying models for 3D printing.Some of the applications CAD software can be used for include: With a sophisticated CAD program like Design Spark Mechanical, you'll also have access to a variety of advanced and professional features (plan dependent) for 3D mechanical designs, from billions of product downloads, easy bill of materials creation, adaptable formatting, and plenty more. The company no longer develops Sketchup Make, its free desktop software, but you can download it from Trimble's archives.CAD software systems make it easy to develop precision 2D and 3D mechanical drawings ready for factory production, along with a complete package of support information, such as the manufacturing materials, technology, mould finishes, and tolerances required for production.

The SketchUp website offers a really impressive array of video and self-paced training options to help you along the way. Of course, if you're looking to put out detailed designs with accurate sizing and tolerances, you'll need to spend some time learning the ins and outs of the program. Even if you've never done any CAD work or 3D modeling before, you can pull together some really nice presentations in minutes. The interface makes it easy to get up to speed on the basics. SketchUp's free web-based version has plenty of power, but if you need additional functionality, you have to buy SketchUp Pro-and pay a hefty price tag.

Trimble has enhanced it and developed it further and now offers a slew of related products. In 2012, Google sold the product to Trimble. SketchUp was originally developed by Google and was one of the greatest free CAD packages ever put on the market. Free feature is web-only with many important features hobbled.
