Recommended CAD software?

[D5A1AC]

Can anyone suggest a good cad program for designing arcade machines? It would be nice if it were able to produce a 3d model on which textures could be applied. Does anyone know of a cad program like this?

Thanks.

[elvis]

Do you have price or difficulty constraints?  I ran the Australian and South-East Asian IT departments for the world's largest architectural firm for close to 5 years, and let me tell you now there's a bloody huge range of CAD software out there.  From beginner to technical genious, and from $100 to millions.

For quick and easy 3D modelling, I recommend SketchUp.  It's fast, it's friendly, and it's relatively cheap:
http://www.sketchup.com/

There's a demo for download, and the full program comes with HEAPS of tutorial videos to get you up and designing in no time.  The biggest plus for me is how easy it is to QUICKLY modify your design and get a real 3D look at the changes.  Something that is a real pain in other more complex programs from people like AUtoDesk et al.

I personally design all my cabs in QCAD:
http://www.ribbonsoft.com/qcad.html

Primarily because it's free (free speech, and free beer if you are handy with a compiler).

Outside of that are the bigger packages like 3DSMax and Maya.  These are hellishly expensive, and often total overkill for something as simple as cabinet design.  They are also primarily modelling tools, and not CAD tools.  There is a great difference, especially when you need accurate dimensioning.

[D5A1AC]

I did have price constraints but you really hit the mark with those two links. I quite like sketchup so far and I'm about to check out QCAD. I think I'm hooked on sketchup though - I really like the 3d aspect of it.

Thanks for your suggestions!

[Mark70]

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=43253.0

I did these using AutoCAD and Autodesk Viz 4.

[D5A1AC]

Thanks Mark70. I have actually had some (hardly any) experience with Blender, but it seems as though it's more for modelling games stuff rather than designing and creating plans. After making a fairly simple model in Sketchup, I'm pretty happy with that but I'll take a look into Gmax - My friend has played around with 3dsmax and says it's good.

[Mark70]

Actually I got to reading the documentation on blender and found out that it started life as a proprietary software for Neo-Geo.  How appropriate.

[JonnyBoy]

I've used Blender before, mostly because it doesn't hog all the system resources of those other programs. I like it, it's very fast once you know the commands and the install file is like....9 megs.

[elvis]

I've used Blender before, mostly because it doesn't hog all the system resources of those other programs. I like it, it's very fast once you know the commands and the install file is like....9 megs.

Blender is a great example of successful open source software and how it can often be superior to closed source stuff.

I've adminned 3DSMax networks since version 1, and in that time it has been owned by roughly 4-5 different companies over the years.  Each "new" revision just patches the last, adding a tonne more bloat for relatively few changes.  What Max needs is a complete "start from scratch" code cleanup.  In it's current form it is horrendously slow (compare the rendering speed of Max scanline to something 3rd party like VRay, Mental Ray, PRMan, etc).

Blender is coded intelligently and in a highly modular fashion.  End result is a lean, fast but incredibly useful modelling package.  And now that AutoDesk Media Inc (current owners of AutoCAD, VIZ and 3DSMax, Inventor, etc) has purchased Alias Wavefront (Maya, Studio Tools, etc) people in the film and TV business are starting to look elsewhere for viable and customisable alternatives.  My money is on the open source Blender being another "Cinepaint" - ie: a tool that started life as a relatively mid-range product, and thanks to the GPL will be worked on and shared by hollywood programmers and turned into something A-grade and film-industry quality.

But anyway, that's neither here nor there.

When modelling cabinets, I find Max/Maya/etc rather useless.  They're designed for final presentation style graphics, most of which centers more on what the human eye sees rather than strict CAD-style measurements.  All of my cabinet design is done pre-build, so I want to know what will fit and what wont (say, if my monitor will fit in the cab without decasing, or if I'll need to change something about my design).

I guess for checking out colour schemes, side art or whatever than one of the rendering-style packages would be OK for that purpose.