I looked at Solidworks, and it looks great however the steep price tag, along with the requirement to purchase yearly upgrades, also at a steep price, didn't work for me. Ditto for Autodesk Inventor. Those programs make more sense for an engineering design firms and the like and for people who do nothing but CAD full time, at least so it seems to me.durbien wrote:If you're still drawing with surface meshes (like SU) I think that's a mistake. I think Rhino will really be great should you decide to use it for your metalwork, with all of its organic surfaces. It should also work well with curved members/logs. However for rectilinear objects like TAJCD projects I think a solid modeler like SolidWorks or Inventor might've been easier to learn - albeit at a hefty price.
I've been learning slowly how different Rhino is from SU, and nothing like wading in and making every mistake I can. At first it was a triumph to construct a rectangular box! Now I feel like I am beginning to have the vaguest idea how to use a few tools. So much to learn yet. Love it! Hate it!
The reason I want to get into Rhino is specifically for modeling curved surfaces, something Sketchup remains poor at and will always be poor at, as it is not NURBS based. Sketchup is also poor at holding high precision I have found. Also, with Rhino I can export files which can be coded more directly for CAM work, which is something I have subcontracted on occasion at a facility in upstate New York. When I have used Sketchup files in the past, I've had to pay them hourly to convert my drawings - meaning copy my drawings - into a format which can be directly programmed.
I'll keep Sketchup around though. It works well for conceptual modeling, quick 'sketches', and all, and that does encompass 95% of the drawing I do.