Setting up with the right tools defining our needs for designing at home and choosing a CAD program. So what are we looking for in a CAD program? First of all, we want to be able to produce complex shapes efficiently any idea that we might have, no matter how complex we would like to be able to dry. In 3d, we want to be able to produce useful file types. So as we said, Our CAD model is used for many different things. It's used directly in manufacturing, we're going to be sharing our CAD model with others to get design feedback.

It's used for computational calculations. So we want to be able to produce the file types that are associated with this. For Speed considerations. A cloud based CAD system is ideal. So this came about very recently, within the last five years, cloud based CAD systems and cloud based would mean that when you're running the CAD program, it's not just running on your computer, but it's running on other computers through the internet. This means that you can run CAD and you can run complex simulations, you can run complex CAD models.

And you can do it all on a more inexpensive computer. We want ideally for the CAD program to be free or inexpensive. We want it to be supported. So we want it to. So we're only going to look at popular CAD programs that are that have a large support base, we want to have direct and parametric modeling capabilities. So both of these have to do with the the ease at which once we create a part, the ease at which we can modify or change that part.

We'll get into more of this later. But ideally, we have both of these and we have sculpting capabilities for creating surfaces. So this just gives us more options, a different way to to create parts. So let's look at some of the most popular CAD programs that are used by engineers in the industry. This might give us a clue as to what we're looking for, for designing at home. First of all, there's SolidWorks, which is arguably the most popular CAD program people TC creo, Katia, Autodesk, AutoCAD and Siemens Solid Edge.

So these are all great CAD programs. They're very common in industry. And they're all used for a similar similar reason which would be product design or mechanical design. The thing is, is that the minimum price among these would be about $1,000 per year. So we asked the question, are there other options for us? So fortunately, a new category has come about and there are professional home use design programs available to us.

So these programs are free. They are used by hobbyists building things and designing things at home and they're used by professionals as well in industry. Autodesk fusion 360 is a popular program, which has direct and parametric modeling on shape has a parametric modeling focus tinkercad is building 3d models from common shapes. SketchUp with a focus on our Architecture Blender has more of a sculpting focus, and is more common in the film and animation industry. And there's open s CAD, which is creating 3d models using programming. So looking at the the needs for designing at home that we have just talked about, we can knock off some of these programs.

So SketchUp has a strong focus on architecture and wouldn't be ideal for us. So Blender would not be ideal for us it has a much stronger sculpting focus and is much more common in the film and animation industry, where you are creating people creating cartoons, etc. Open s CAD is creating 3d models using programming but it's not as user friendly. It's not as visual focused when you're creating your parts. tinkercad is building 3d models from common shapes. This can be a little bit too simple for us if we want to be able to create Produce complex designs.

So that leaves us with Autodesk fusion 360. And on shape these are definitely two of the the prime contenders for designing at home. So let's line them up. Both of them are free for at home used are both cloud based CAD systems. They're both quite strongly supported fusion 360 is is probably more strongly supported. So it has a large YouTube channel that you can continually learn from and has a strong follower base.

Fusion 360 has both parametric and direct modeling whereas on shape is more parametric modeling. So on shape would be very similar to say SolidWorks where it's purely a parametric modeling program. Fusion 360 has a few more options available to us here a fusion 360 has sculpting capabilities, whereas on shape has very limited sculpting capability. that are built into the program. So among these when we line these two programs up, fusion 360 would come out as our recommendation. The thing is, though, is that once you learn to program well, such as fusion 360, you'll be able to quickly learn other programs such as on shape SolidWorks, Katia, PTC, creo, and others.

I've professionally worked with both SolidWorks and PTC creo. And they are very similar to fusion 360. So once you learn to program Well, you're going to be able to transfer your skills to other programs, a lot of the CAD programs work in a very similar way. So what can we draw in fusion 360 we can really create anything in this program. It's primarily built for product design or mechanical design. If you were to build items and other categories such as if you're building a lot of if you're drawing a lot of people or animals things in nature, such as trees or grass or rocks, etc.

Ketchup is great for architecture as we mentioned. So trying a lot of buildings and then Blender would be good for cartoons, fictional characters, etc. So there are other programs that are more dedicated to these categories. We're building products. We're designing things at home and fusion 360 is a great choice for us. So we've found a CAD program to be able to use in our homes and let's put it to work in the next section.