CAD software for D&T

cheredenine · 23-10-2008, 01:28 PM

Our D&T head of department has been offered 30 licenses for Solidworks. The problem is the PCs in his class room are a little old and will need replacing; I'm trying to weigh up whether this is worth it considering we as a school haven't used Solidworks and don't know if its suitable.

Do any of you have Solidworks in your schools? If not, what do you use instead? Any opinions on quality or usability?

Also, for those who do have it, have you tried it on PCs of a lower specification than that recommended? The Solidworks website suggests all manner of high-end nVidia and ATi graphics cards as being suitable, but including this would drive the replacement cost of the aforementioned D&T PCs up markedly...

Cheers!

EduTech · 23-10-2008, 01:30 PM

We use Pro Desktop for our CAD lesson's.. was running on P4 HT 3.0Ghz 1 Gig Ram at one point.

Running Version 8 now.

James.

Geoff · 23-10-2008, 01:36 PM

Pro Desktop here too.

rush_tech · 23-10-2008, 01:37 PM

Pro desktop here too

Sylv3r · 23-10-2008, 07:02 PM

We use Solidworks here, but I have never been able to package it up for rollout to our workstations even folling the step by step instructions. So we have had to manually install it on our worksations. The licence server correctly limits the number of users to 10 however.

actech · 26-10-2008, 03:01 AM

We use the Autodesk 2008 Suite (Cad, Inventor & Revit).

I know that most of the uni's and TAFE's around here still use it as do a lot of industries, which is why we went with it

e_g_r · 26-10-2008, 09:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sylv3r

We use Solidworks here, but I have never been able to package it up for rollout to our workstations even folling the step by step instructions. So we have had to manually install it on our worksations. The licence server correctly limits the number of users to 10 however.

Am haveing the same problem, follow the instructions and then nothing happens.

kmount · 26-10-2008, 09:43 AM

PD8 here too.

richardharris · 26-10-2008, 11:11 PM

We use ProDesktop - pretty nice & simple piece of software, but the diadvantage of having to log in as "administrator" to get all features fully working first time.

kmount · 27-10-2008, 07:49 AM

We didn't need to do that.

EduTech · 27-10-2008, 08:05 AM

We never had to do it either

Andrew_C · 27-10-2008, 10:59 AM

Turbocad and Google Sketch-Up.

john · 27-10-2008, 03:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by EduTech

We never had to do it either

Quote:

Originally Posted by kmount

We didn't need to do that.

You must be lucky, unless an Administrator extrudes something before a student it will crash. Once done once by an Admin its fine though

markwilliamson2001 · 27-10-2008, 08:53 PM

Depends on what you mean by "CAD", this could be paint (a design program used on a computer - computer aided design! LOL).

However, we use PD8 at our place, and had the problem of extruding when deploying the MSI, so included it as a manual install on workstations, with the extrusion trick completed.

We also have Techsoft 2D Design V2 which is excellent and comes with its own MSI and excellent deploy instructions. I think i just used a startup script for the license file. The only issue with it was that I had to install certain drivers for printers cutters and engravers seperately (but the older version natively supported them).

Mark

richardharris · 27-10-2008, 10:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by john

You must be lucky, unless an Administrator extrudes something before a student it will crash. Once done once by an Admin its fine though

Yep, thats the experience I had!

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23-10-2008, 01:28 PM	#1
cheredenine Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Norfolk Posts: 65 Thanks: 1 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts Rep Power: 0	CAD software for D&T - what do you have? Our D&T head of department has been offered 30 licenses for Solidworks. The problem is the PCs in his class room are a little old and will need replacing; I'm trying to weigh up whether this is worth it considering we as a school haven't used Solidworks and don't know if its suitable. Do any of you have Solidworks in your schools? If not, what do you use instead? Any opinions on quality or usability? Also, for those who do have it, have you tried it on PCs of a lower specification than that recommended? The Solidworks website suggests all manner of high-end nVidia and ATi graphics cards as being suitable, but including this would drive the replacement cost of the aforementioned D&T PCs up markedly... Cheers!

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		EduGeek.net Forums > Technical > Educational Software
CAD software for D&T - what do you have?

23-10-2008, 01:30 PM	#2
EduTech Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Birmingham Posts: 1,085 Thanks: 25 Thanked 36 Times in 33 Posts Rep Power: 13	We use Pro Desktop for our CAD lesson's.. was running on P4 HT 3.0Ghz 1 Gig Ram at one point. Running Version 8 now. James.

23-10-2008, 01:36 PM	#3
Geoff Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Fylde, Lancs, UK. Posts: 9,932 Thanks: 42 Thanked 230 Times in 209 Posts Blog Entries: 1 Rep Power: 67	Pro Desktop here too.

23-10-2008, 01:37 PM	#4
rush_tech Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Nottingham Posts: 499 Thanks: 24 Thanked 45 Times in 25 Posts Rep Power: 13	Pro desktop here too

23-10-2008, 07:02 PM	#5
Sylv3r Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Co. Durham Posts: 1,127 Thanks: 32 Thanked 54 Times in 42 Posts Rep Power: 19	We use Solidworks here, but I have never been able to package it up for rollout to our workstations even folling the step by step instructions. So we have had to manually install it on our worksations. The licence server correctly limits the number of users to 10 however.

26-10-2008, 03:01 AM	#6
actech Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Australia Posts: 63 Thanks: 10 Thanked 3 Times in 2 Posts Rep Power: 2	We use the Autodesk 2008 Suite (Cad, Inventor & Revit). I know that most of the uni's and TAFE's around here still use it as do a lot of industries, which is why we went with it

26-10-2008, 09:43 AM	#8
kmount Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Northamptonshire Posts: 1,649 Thanks: 57 Thanked 132 Times in 129 Posts Rep Power: 34	PD8 here too.

26-10-2008, 11:11 PM	#9
richardharris Join Date: Sep 2008 Posts: 28 Thanks: 1 Thanked 1 Time in 1 Post Rep Power: 0	We use ProDesktop - pretty nice & simple piece of software, but the diadvantage of having to log in as "administrator" to get all features fully working first time.

27-10-2008, 07:49 AM	#10
kmount Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Northamptonshire Posts: 1,649 Thanks: 57 Thanked 132 Times in 129 Posts Rep Power: 34	We didn't need to do that.

27-10-2008, 08:05 AM	#11
EduTech Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Birmingham Posts: 1,085 Thanks: 25 Thanked 36 Times in 33 Posts Rep Power: 13	We never had to do it either

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27-10-2008, 10:59 AM	#12
Andrew_C Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Winchester Posts: 913 Thanks: 5 Thanked 25 Times in 22 Posts Rep Power: 13	Turbocad and Google Sketch-Up.

27-10-2008, 08:53 PM	#14
markwilliamson2001 Join Date: Sep 2005 Posts: 149 Thanks: 1 Thanked 4 Times in 4 Posts Rep Power: 7	Depends on what you mean by "CAD", this could be paint (a design program used on a computer - computer aided design! LOL). However, we use PD8 at our place, and had the problem of extruding when deploying the MSI, so included it as a manual install on workstations, with the extrusion trick completed. We also have Techsoft 2D Design V2 which is excellent and comes with its own MSI and excellent deploy instructions. I think i just used a startup script for the license file. The only issue with it was that I had to install certain drivers for printers cutters and engravers seperately (but the older version natively supported them). Mark

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