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View Full Version : What program should a mechanical engineer be learning?

Kavone
03-20-2010, 06:23 PM
This fall I will be going to college for mechanical engineering and I was wondering what program I should learn in order to get a head start on my education. I have a moderate knowledge of 3ds max and Cinema 4d, but I am not sure if I should continue working with max or if I should begin learning something different? I await your answers, thanks in advance.
sMC2k9
03-20-2010, 07:22 PM
I would recommend Solidworks, Autodesk Inventor or Autodesk AutoCAD

Sam
Kavone
03-20-2010, 07:44 PM
Could you tell me which of those is most similar to max or cinema 4d, or most widely used, or anything to help back up a decision, thank you for the quick response.
wwswimming
03-21-2010, 01:55 PM
the "Big 3" of industrial strength solid modelling - Solidworks, ProE, One Space Designer (OSD was developed @ "CoCreate", an HP spin-off, which was then bought by PTC, the people who sell ProE).

also, Unigraphics & Catia.

as far as Autocad - my last exposure to their solid modeller was in about 2003. i can't recommend their solid modeller, but obviously they're a big player in engineering drawing with Autocad.

for finite element analysis - ANSYS, MSC-NASTRAN, Cosmos. MSC has in the past discontinued software abruptly, thereby rendering customer databases un-useable; i suggest avoiding them.

for students - CoCreate used to have a "personal edition" for free, that would let you model a limited series of objects, and export them via a few file formats, e.g. *.stl. Solidworks also has (or had) a good deal with some educational software vendors.

knowing Pro-E can be a door-opener, but my experience with the software & the VAR's & the parent company leaves me wanting to avoid all 3.
KevBoy
03-22-2010, 08:35 AM
You will notice that mechanical engineering software works quite differently than a 3ds Max, or a Cinema 4d. This is not altogether to surprising, considering the fact that the softwares serve different needs and different end goals.

I would say Solidworks is a good bet, it's a mid-range solid modeler. Quite an impressive presence in schools, and used in many small to medium engineering firms.

Pro/E, Catia, Unigraphics are much bigger packages that will likely have jobs that are more demanding (5+ years experience and such...) so it will probably pay less to know those, at least for now. Do know that the fundamentals of say Solidworks are almost identical to the fundamentals of these three so it is not "lost time and effort".
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