Preferred CAD/Modeling apps for OSX users?

[replicant]

Howdy all,

Coming from TinkerCAD, I'm ready to put my big boy pants on and get into a REAL CAD/modeling app.

I'm finding out REAL quick that the offerings for OSX users that want a native solution (e.g. not running the app in a VM, wine derivative, or boot camp) are SUPER slim.

I would like an app that is flexible and will let me grow into it, and also has some level of standards and compatibilities with the heavy weights (like inventor or solidworks for windows).

I've demoed the beta of Rhino 3D, FreeCAD, and ViaCAD 2D/3D V8.

Any preferences, specific to 3D printing, or any others I should try?

Thanks much (my Rostock Max full kit should be here Thursday!)

[Eaglezsoar]

I am not an OSX user so I cannot help you there but I did want to welcome you to the Forum.
Since you have a new build coming up make sure you have the latest assembly / calibration manual
available under the Documents sub-forum. Be sure to contact us if you run into any problems.
Can someone help him out with OSX Cad apps? Happy Printing!

[Captain Starfish]

Autodesk had Inventor Fusion for the mac out as a freebie. Ok once you get your head around it.

I'm using AutoCAD 2013 and on the Mac it's an utter dog of a thing, just like the Windows version, but it's missing heaps of functionality. I happen to use it for other things so it's a learning curve I can avoid and good for engineering type objects. Organic style freeform surface manipulation is crap, though, as are the parametric modifiers.

Want a more sculpty feel, blender3d is pretty cool for an open source jobbie.

[barnett]

I just use OpenSCAD & Sketchup.

For other options, I've seen some nice models on thingiverse made using MOI. Lots of people like FreeCAD, but I haven't tried it yet, nor have I tried Sculptris.

[replicant]

Thanks for the responses so far fellas! I feel like I should just learn FreeCAD as it seems to be pretty well user supported (with irc chan on freenode too).

I am curious though, to hear of successes/failures/deficiencies with Autodesk's Inventor Fusion if anyone cares to elaborate. The reviews for the app are lackluster, unfortunately, and it looks like Autodesk may have abandoned it? No updates on it since March 2013.

[Batteau62]

Thanks for the responses so far fellas! I feel like I should just learn FreeCAD as it seems to be pretty well user supported (with irc chan on freenode too).

I am curious though, to hear of successes/failures/deficiencies with Autodesk's Inventor Fusion if anyone cares to elaborate. The reviews for the app are lackluster, unfortunately, and it looks like Autodesk may have abandoned it? No updates on it since March 2013.

They "evolved" it into Autodesk 360, a web based app. I liked the UI in fusion for windows better than Mac, seemed to have more functionality. I still use it. Web based seems to be where things are headed. I recently signed up for the beta of "Honeycomb" http://www.3ders.org/articles/20131209- ... owser.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; It looks interesting, and the guy is a 3d printer

[replicant]

Hey thanks @Batteau62. I just signed up for Honeycomb's beta. Looks promising, the next generation of TinkerCAD basically. I didn't realize how many cad/modeling/etc packages that Autodesk now owns. There are many on their product offerings page that I remember using in high school and college that WEREN'T owned by them. I hope they don't abandon so many of their smaller products.

Anyway, I guess for now I'll focus on either FreeCAD or Inventor Fusion until the Honeycomb beta links are sent out.

Though, I'd still love to get more OSX-user's input.

[Captain Starfish]

If you get desperate, Inventor (windows) works fine on windows under virtualbox, too.

[dpmacri]

Hey thanks @Batteau62. I just signed up for Honeycomb's beta. Looks promising, the next generation of TinkerCAD basically. I didn't realize how many cad/modeling/etc packages that Autodesk now owns. There are many on their product offerings page that I remember using in high school and college that WEREN'T owned by them. I hope they don't abandon so many of their smaller products.

Anyway, I guess for now I'll focus on either FreeCAD or Inventor Fusion until the Honeycomb beta links are sent out.

Though, I'd still love to get more OSX-user's input.

I'm a Mac/OSX user and I've been using FreeCAD. I played around with Inventor Fusion a bit but it would randomly crash, so I quit using it. One issue with FreeCAD is that the Mac platform isn't very supported, so builds lag behind Windows/Linux. And there's an issue right now with OSX Mavericks (it's tricky to get it to work).

[neurascenic]

A little late to the picnic here.

I don't use freeware modeling tools, but i suppose I could Chime in.

Modo for sculpting type work and form•Z for technical modeling.

neither are cheap. Modo is around $900 Us and f•Z is around $2000.
I have owned both for years (Modo for around 6 years, And f•Z for about 17 years) , long before free CAD at least anything Good was considered.

If I were to attempt to learn something new... the Autodesk tool pipe of Alias/Inventor looks the most interesting. Though that is quite expensive and huge learning curve.

Modo
http://www.luxology.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Form•Z
http://www.formz.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[mhackney]

O'm a die-hard OSX user. I had been using ViaCAD 3D for years for my guy reel designs and machining. It's inexpensive and easy to learn. In the last year, I've switched to RhinoCAD. They have a free OSX beta and when it is commercially available I'll buy it. It is quite capable but has a higher learning curve. But, I outgrew ViaCAD in my reel designs and Rhino has picked up the task very well.

cheers,
Michael

[Eaglezsoar]

O'm a die-hard OSX user. I had been using ViaCAD 3D for years for my guy reel designs and machining. It's inexpensive and easy to learn. In the last year, I've switched to RhinoCAD. They have a free OSX beta and when it is commercially available I'll buy it. It is quite capable but has a higher learning curve. But, I outgrew ViaCAD in my reel designs and Rhino has picked up the task very well.

cheers,
Michael

I just signed up to get the Viacad trial software which is usually crippled in some way. Do you know if the Viacad allows you to save in the STL format?

[mhackney]

Absolutely, you use the Export command under the File menu.

One reason I used ViaCAD is that it is supported on both Mac and Windows. My machine shop is downstairs and I do most of my design work in my office upstairs. So it is convenient to be able to run ViaCAD on a PC and tweak a drawing and then send it to my CAM (or slicer if printing).

This is one reason I'm keen on Rhino, it will be cross platform too (actually it is with the OSX beta now).

cheers,
Michael

[neurascenic]

Rhino has been in Beta for at least 3 years, I am thinking 5 years. It appears to be more of a hobby for them.

[mhackney]

I disagree. They make 1 to 2 releases a month and it is becoming very stable and robust. It is not a simple task to get 100% feature/functionality with an existing product - especially one as complex as a high end CAD application. I develop software professionally and admire them for putting the significant testing and feedback effort into it. I have not had any problems with the betas for the last year and each release has added more and more features. This level of commitment is not cheap. Frankly, at this point and quality of the betas, I would buy it now.

cheers,
Michael

[neurascenic]

Well, I hope you are correct, it would be better that you are, than I.

though when it was first released, I half recall that it was really an experiment. Even that they thought it could not be done, but one of their developers went rogue and proved them wrong.

I will agree that Coding is difficult, though I have never done it on a professional level. I know taking things that extra 10% is 90% of the work.
It has been a while since I looked at the Beta, when I did, there were a lot of modules that were not ported over. and there was no 3rd party dev at all (is there now?)

One other point though, the CAD code is done, it is the interface hooks that have to be re-worked.

that said, I am itching to use it on a mac! there is some excellent flat pattern tools in it. Guess it is time for me to revisit! Thanks for the heads up!

Chris

[mhackney]

This is odd, I have made several "posts" to this and other threads recently just to discover that they were not posted! It just happened on this one.

Rather than type my long response, I was going to say that I have talked to a Product Manager there and confirmed that they did indeed not know what the effort to port and that there was even a market for an OSX product. Since then they have made a significant investment and have demonstrated it can be done and the Mac community has been very positive. 3rd party plug-ins and APIs are one area that is missing and something they feel is critical to build success with the product. Personally, I do not use this capability yet, my CAD requirements are pretty straight forward. I use Vectric VCarve Pro for my CAM for milling and various slicers for 3d printing. Give it another shot and see what you think, it is very stable now (I've not had a crash for months) and the feature set is extended with every release (about 2 a month). Printing support is another area that is missing, but again, I do not need that right now.

cheers,
Michael

[neurascenic]

Well, I usually prefer to not be wrong, however this is a good one to be so. The more professional level software that comes our way, the better!

I will certainly check it out, hopefully their flat pattern modules are in.

Thanks!

Cheers