EAA offers free Solidworks to its members

[N601RX]

The EAA has just announced that is has reached an agreement with Solidworks to provide a version of the Software to its members for free. For those who are not familiar with it Solidworks is one of the upper end 3D CAD packages.  Previously unless you had access to it at work or was able to get a student version it was priced at around $4K per seat with an additional yearly fee of around $1500, well above the amount most hobbyist were willing to pay.  This will allow you to create 3D models that can be printed on 3D printers or machined on CNC equipment.  Expect some learning curve for 1st time users.

http://www.eaa.org/en/eaa/eaa-news-and-aviation-news/news/07-25-2016-new-member-benefit-from-solidworks

http://www.eaa.org/en/eaa/eaa-membership/eaa-member-benefits/solidworks-resource-center

[carusoam]

I'm looking forward to learning more...

I was an autocad guy decades ago.  Autocad lite was a low cost version that could be used for the basic things for part design.

Best regards,

-a-

[Hank]

Anthony--

I used many versions of AutoCAD over the years, including two versions of LT at home [which were frustrating when I had the big package at work!]. SolidWorks is a fancy 3D CAD program, and there is nothing "light" about it. It's what we transitioned to when leaving AutoCAD at my last job. Now I'm dabbling in ProE, which is what SolidWorks would be if you removed the intuitive user interface and just scrambled up all of the functions and put them in random menus.

If you've ever played with Google Sketch, you know the power of 3D design. SolidWorks is incredibly sophisticated . . .and was a quantum leap from AutoCAD 2012 or 2014 or whatever I last used. May have to pick up a free version and see how it compares. Most unfortunately, I'll have to play with it at home using Winders 10 since my hard drive crapped out and that's what the Geek Squad put on the new one.

[N601RX]

Currently setting in 3 days of Pro-R/Creo 3.0 CAD training. Somehow Hank wiggled  out of it. At least it comes with free lunch.

[Hank]

2 hours ago, N601RX said:

Currently setting in 3 days of Pro-R/Creo 3.0 CAD training. Somehow Hank wiggled  out of it. At least it comes with free lunch.

Oh, darn! Guess you won't make the Wednesday Lunch Group then?

[carusoam]

It's probably better that I send my hand sketches to somebody else to make a drawing from.

non-aviation blister cards.

Best regards,

-a-