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CAD Workshop #1
The purpose of this tutorial is to provide a central location for CAD tutorial resources.
Computer Aided Design (CAD) is a tool which is often used to design 3D parts. The 3D designs created can then be used to perform various types of computer simulated analyses such as FEA and CFD for structural and aerodynamic evaluation. Once the designs are made, the file can be shared in various types of formats to be manufactured.
Numerous CAD softwares exist. Popular industry software suites include Creo, Solidworks, and Autodesk. We at DEV and at Duke in general tend to use Solidworks, but Autodesk is also popular for its ease of accessibility and installation. Most CAD software is very similar so which one you decide to learn first doesn’t make a huge difference. If you don’t already have Solidworks installed, we’ll recommend that you start out with OnShape (an online platform), Autodesk Inventor (Windows only), or Autodesk Fusion360. These options are all free for students.
As we move forward throughout the semester, our team will primarily be using Solidworks in conjunction with GrabCAD for version control. We will be distributing a limited number of Solidworks licenses once the sub-team is well-established.
See our YouTube series here.
You can find a YouTube video here.
The best way to become proficient at CADing is to design many parts, independently. Learning how to create detailed and organized sketches, properly using built-in features, and developing a good intuition for design intent are absolutely crucial to create robust, complicated models. Here, you can find a list of 20 example designs to practice with by replication. Reverse engineering parts will aid in accurately converting your own ideas into models later on.
Credits to Gerry Chen, Duke class of 2019.