Help finding good CAD Software

Okay, I'm new, but I just got my BfB Rapman. I want to start designing stuff while I wait for it to get here, but I've tried all of the CAD things listed in the wiki under software, and I don't get any of them. I'm familiar with sketchup, as well as Autocad Mechanical, but I can't get skeinforge to take either format (or any at all really.) Assume I know nothing. Please help me get software and stuff from the ground up.

Skeinforge, just like all the other slice/dice/print stuff including the official java host, expects a STL file.

Most design software will have an option to export a STL file, it's a very common format. There exists a free plugin for STL export from google sketchup. Some free versions of full CAD packages omit that feature.

Skeinforge doesn't have rotation support - the orientation that the STL is exported it in is the way it'll print. Note that the STL format doesn't specify dimensions, and skeinforge doesn't support scaling the model last I heard, so you may need to double check that it's exported in mm. The java host does support scaling and rotation, last I heard anyway.

There's been some discussion of supporting other file formats, mostly because the STL format stinks. I don't know how much of that's working yet, and STL is more compatible.

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I'm building it with Baling Wire

Alibre.com has some good CAD software - I liked it well enough to buy the cheap version, but they have a free version as well that's pretty good. It's more for mechanical engineering types, but it does the job.

Blender is my next favourite, but it's more of a mesh modeller than an actual CAD package.

AOI is similar to Blender, but crashes too much for my tastes.

Openscad is a modeller for programmers - I think it's not bad, used it a couple of times, but it's the wrong paradigm for the way I think about designing. It works well for some folks though, judging by the things I see on Thingiverse.

The most important thing is to find something you're comfortable designing with.

Wade

Yeah, I checked for free STL plugins on google. They say I need to have pro. Any CAD stuff works, as long as it can save or export as an STL, right?

HeeksCAD, freeCAD, NaroCAD and CAD Exchanger will convert IGES and STEP files to STL, if your CAD program doesn't do STL directly.

I really recommend openSCAD. I am not a programmer and started messing around in it a few days ago and it's very intuitive to me - instead of actually 'drawing' an object, you describe it as the shapes that make it. The only tough part is hat the documentation is a little weak. The tutorial on iheartrobotics.com ( [www.iheartrobotics.com] ) is really helpful, and so is the wikibook openSCAD manual ( [en.wikibooks.org] ).

No, I tried OpenScad. But I got my CAD teacher to land me an educational version of AutoCAD Inventor, which can export the STL's. w00T!