Cheap CAD/CAM Software

Hi everyone,

I would like to get a cheap CAD/CAM software package for home use that I can do some 3D modeling with. I need to be able to assemble components after I make them so I can design my own locost. Can anyone recommend a reasonably priced program? My experience is all with Pro-E (which is not what I would consider reasonbly priced) so something with similar interaction would be nice. I know Kimini recommends Alibre. Any other reccomendations?

www.mininova.org Its all cheap.. It's almost free..

I've heard good stuff about Alibre - http://www.alibre.com/, but I've never used it myself.

~POWERSTATION~

Decent. I've been using it for years.

Student version of Pro/E for $100; includes Mechanica and other modules. http://www.journeyed.com/itemDetail.asp?ItmNo=86274903

The upside is that you won't have to learn a new cad package. The downside is that you can't share files between the student version and a full licensed version.

TurboCad

This is the cheaper 2d version for $40. I have used it for years and it is vastly easier to use than say AutoCad. They have more expensive versions. It reads autocad files and writes in a variety of formats. Use is more intuitive like a drawing program rather than the command line method of Autocad.

edit: Ahh, I re-read your initial post. 3-D is $100. A limited version of Alibre is free. For 30 days it is their deluxe version.

Get the student version of Pro-E. It's cheap and you know it already. I'm going to pick up a copy for my laptop when school starts. I've been using the commercial version of NX 5.0 all summer, and I must say, it is an extremely impressive package. There's all sorts of really nice features that I'm not sure Pro-E does (or if it does, I never knew they were there), such as the ability to move the WCS.

I'd forgotten about the student version of Pro-E. My wife's a student. I'll order with her proof. I just hope they didn't change Wildfire as much as I heard they did. My working days stopped with v20.

Depends on how serious of a CAD pacage you need, Try google sketchup it might not be a professional level CAD program but it may do what you need it to do and you cant beat the price since it is FREE. Furthermore for a small fee I think you can get the pro version wich will yet you output it in formats that a Real CAD program can read.

Sketchup and TurboCAD are fine....and cheap / free.

Actually, there's plenty of free / cheap CAD software

But I thought the original question also involved CAM?

I don't have any CAM software, but I'm still using my free copy of IntelliCAD. Same command sets as AutoCAD and uses .dwg files.