How To Choose the Right CAD Software For your Career

 

Best CAD Software For Industrial Design Workplace

Earlier, the rise of technology in the industrial design workplace saw the drawing board and drafting pen replaced with a computer screen and mouse. Computer software applications enabled designers of top engineering college in Jaipur to draw lines on a screen just as they had done before with a pen and ruler. This type of drafting became known as computer-aided design (CAD). Over the next few years, CAD programs largely replaced physical drawing boards and drafting pens in the workplace.

The most popular CAD software to emerge from the switch to computer software was AutoCAD. Early versions of AutoCAD required large, expensive mainframe computers, but with the introduction of smaller desktop systems, AutoCAD became more popular. Both AutoCAD and SolidWorks are similar tools. AutoCAD is better adapted for general-purpose 2D and 3D drafting, while SolidWorks surpasses developing advanced 3D models and simulations. Let’s learn the basic structures of these two CAD software.

1. Introduction

a. AutoCAD: Widely used for 2D drawing

AutoCAD has continued to develop and remains the most commonly used CAD software today. While it has 3D capabilities, too many, it remains primarily a 2D drawing tool. AutoCAD users today follow the same technical drawing rules they used before.

Designers of engineering colleges create lines to represent real-world objects and text to describe those objects. Different views, sections, and projections are drawn separately. The only difference between drawing in AutoCAD and drawing by hand is that AutoCAD is done on a computer.

b. SOLIDWORKS: Designed for 3D modeling

SOLIDWORKS was designed to create a 3D CAD Package that was both affordable and easy to use. Since 1997, it has become one of the leading 3D CAD packages in the mechanical engineering industry.

Designers of Best Engineering College In Jaipur use SOLIDWORKS for more than just publishing design information. They can also use SOLIDWORKS to check product clearances and tolerances between different component designs. It contains tools to simulate object movement and ensure that the final product will work and move exactly as intended.

2. SOLIDWORKS vs. AutoCAD

While SOLIDWORKS has many advantages, there are some good reasons why students of computer science engineering colleges in India are still choose to work with AutoCAD.

SOLIDWORKS requires a lot of information to create a good 3D model. In some cases, and especially early in the design process, there is not enough information to create a functional 3D model in SOLIDWORKS. While AutoCAD allows for more freedom in creating and editing early-stage designs and models. In addition, the amount of information required to create a 3D model means that design changes can be more time-consuming than with a 2D model. This may be worth the extra time only in larger projects where SOLIDWORKS’s automatic updates save more time in the long term.

Although AutoCAD has its own 3D capabilities, drafters of BTech colleges tend to use them to refine the early design process rather than the final design, as with SOLIDWORKS. However, AutoCAD does include some advanced 3D tools such as realistic materials and lighting.

AutoCAD also comes in different versions, such as AutoCAD Architecture, AutoCAD Electrical, and AutoCAD Mechanical. These versions contain enhanced, industry-specific tools that allow the design to be more streamlined.

AutoCAD and SOLIDWORKS use different file formats. AutoCAD uses the .dwg file format, which many other CAD software packages can read. SOLIDWORKS uses its own set of file formats such as. sldprt for part files and. sldasm for assemblies. Both CAD software packages can read and export to different file formats. This makes it easy for SOLIDWORKS to read an AutoCAD file and vice versa.

Both AutoCAD and SOLIDWORKS have their pros and cons, and each program is the better choice at different parts of the design process. Many users find that the best way to work is to use AutoCAD during the early stages of the product design process.

Designers of best btech colleges in India can use AutoCAD to create a preliminary design and separate it into the various required sub-assemblies. After this, the designer can then assign sub-assemblies to other members of the project team. Then, they model the components in SOLIDWORKS based on the design parameters.

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While SOLIDWORKS is well suited for mechanical designs for the students of Mechanical Engineering Colleges in India, other industries have their version of 3D software, such as Revit for architects. The design process for these industries works along with similar principles; users develop the early design using AutoCAD before moving the design to the 3D software for detailed modeling.

Thus, while each sector prefers its specialty 3D software, almost everyone uses AutoCAD at some point in the design process. This is why; AutoCAD still has such a large user base and remains the most dominant design package used throughout the world today.

Because of the differences between AutoCAD & SOLIDWORKS, they both use a different file format. AutoCAD works on the .dwg format, whereas SOLIDWORKS uses its own set of extensions such as. sldprt for part files and. sldasm for assemblies. As with most CAD packages, both software can import from and export to various file types to enable ease of file sharing.

Conclusion

While comparing AutoCAD with SOLIDWORKS, it is not a simple case of identifying which is better. Both design software packages have their strengths. SOLIDWORKS is more potent for mechanical design, while AutoCAD is more versatile for early-stage design. That is why, you will find that the same design companies and even the same people use both AutoCAD and SOLIDWORKS. You can expect that both CAD software packages will be around for years to come. 

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