"David Merrill" wrote in message
news:d40Te.87666$084.47603@attbi_s22...
snip
I'm surprised that no one has mentioned solid modeling CAD software. I
retired a few years ago from large-company engineering where wireframe CAD
has long since given way to solid modeling CAD, which is much easier (as
distinct from easy) to use. It's definitely much easier to visualize the
resulting design. Most of the packages being discussed on this
rec.woodworking thread are the old wireframe CAD. One good reason home
users haven't heard about solid modeling has been cost, which used to run
several $10K's per user and was used on UNIX terminals. More recently,
several software vendors have brought out PC versions which run very well,
given an adequate graphic card (same as required for some games).
Professional versions of these CAD packages still typically cost
$500-$2000
but a couple of the vendors have offered 'express' versions of the same or
similar package for free download to schools and home users in the hope
that
more widespread familiarity will lead to future sales to the future
employers of these users.

For example, I have been using for several years Pro/Desktop Express from
PTC, the publishers of Pro/Engineer, http://www.ptc.com/. It was a free
download (now discontinued), was not a 'trial' version and was not
significantly crippled. It is full featured, even does lofting (as in
sculptured boat hull shapes) and does most everything I want for home use,
including assemblies, file saves, and export of *.jpg files for show and
tell. I'll post a file of my design of a tablesaw extension router
installation on alt.binaries.pictures.woodworking. Even commercial use
was
permitted; some European users designed entire industrial plants with it.

I had the same thought regarding solid modeling vs. CAD. However, IMHO, if
one thinks the learning curve is high for AutoCAD, Pro/E is even higher. I
downloaded the free trial when it was available and found it to be extremely
non-intuitive. I used a solid modeling package several years ago from Aries
Technologies (now part of MSC, I believe). That experience plus about 15
years of AutoCAD experience did not seem to help. Heck, maybe it hurts
because I have a pre-conceived notion of how it should work.

For visualization of 3D models, I've found SketchUp to be handy.

todd