Design Software

[ofcourseican]

I know this questian has to have been asked a bunch of times, but I still haven't found an answer that I like. What design software is best to use? Something that is free or cheap, doesn't take 3 months to learn how to use, and doesn't have a million functions that I do not need.. If it could design in round tubing and provide a materials list that would be great too. I know the most common answer is sketchup, but it is missing some of what I am looking for. Thanks in advance for any advice. I am so glad I found this site.

 

[Russ2251]

I've been playing around with THIS.
Might be more than what you might need it for.
Excellent for imagery or animation.

 

[firemanjim]

I've been playing around with THIS.
Might be more than what you might need it for.
Excellent for imagery or animation.

That was awesome Russ!

 

[landuse]

I know this questian has to have been asked a bunch of timbut I still haven't found an answer that I like. What design software is best to use? Something that is free or cheap, doesn't take 3 months to learn how to use, and doesn't have a million functions that I do not need.. If it could design in round tubing and provide a materials list that would be great too. I know the most common answer is sketchup, but it is missing some of what I am looking for. Thanks in advance for any advice. I am so glad I found this site.

I hate to tell you.... but there is no software like that. You are going to have to learn quite a bit with any design software before you can use it proficiently.

 

[BirdFanatic]

I have a bender design program i never use

 

[mckutzy]

Take a pencil, an eraser, a ruler, a piece of paper. Draw something
The complexity of the latter is entirely up to you.
Cheap and easy.

If an actual drawing isn't your forte, jot down your ideas and proceed to research what would that manifest as. Research how to draw, combine the two.

 

[HippieHeadShot]

dude use sketch-up, go back and get the plugins you need!

https://extensions.sketchup.com/


It's the defult because what you asked for is all their, unless you want to spend hours learning a program you'll have to get plugins that help.

tubing is easy, make a circle the plane it to your length needed. done

 

[itsid]

I'm with Russ here...
blender, blender or blender... unless you want to spend a fortune on commercial equivalents.

FreeCad is nice for more accurate measurements, but in the end...
as soon as you want a visualisation more than you need an accurate plan;
it's blender.

sketchup... really? You wouldn't want me commenting on that

And since Russ started with wheels...
here's one of mine (oh if you look closely actually two )

'sid

 

[firemanjim]

Sid, how did you get a reflection? That is awesome! And is that a scorpion under the tail?

 

[BirdFanatic]

never mind the program i have is called blender lol I cant take a screen shot or i would stupid png file .

 

[landuse]

never mind the program i have is called blender lol I cant take a screen shot or i would stupid png file .

All you gotta do is save the png as a jpeg. you can do this in Paint if you want

 

[itsid]

Sid, how did you get a reflection? That is awesome! And is that a scorpion under the tail?

reflection.. just a matter of paint, just as in real life.
I can't recall exactly (that's a 2010 file you see there)
but it's basically just glossy paint .
And while I'm semi proud of the ... models (I think they're okay)
the rendering is not.
the lighting is awfull and the specles (because of the sped up raytracing) are a PITA.
just one lightsource (or two?), some ambient light and a pane to set everything up on (floor);

But on my 2002 pc (the one I used to make that shot) a more elaborate scene would take days to render... so yeah.

Scorpion???

No, under the center brake light you see a reflection of the swingarm and the damper (the same as on the front, just bigger)
here's a slightly different angle...


'sid

 

[ofcourseican]

Thanks for all the great suggestions. I think old school paper and pencil might be best, but gonna look at sketchup a little closer too.