Lewis Posted January 3, 2015 Share Posted January 3, 2015 . . . . And some CAD software for the laptop So I want to refresh my skills on CAD in preparation for building a SimonR CNC Plasma. The only thing is I don't have a computer of any kind, not even a tablet. And the last time I used CAD was Autocad in 2006 during my apprenticeship. I thought the CNC Plasma would be a nice CAD learning curve as I wouldn't need to learn 3D at first I have to use a PC at work, but it doesn't hold any interest for me, its just a tool for email and MS Dynamics NAV which clutters up my desk. My budget has an absolute limit of £500, although I would prefer to pay less. This must cover both hardware and software I haven't a clue what specs to look for on a Laptop, nor do I know which program would best suit my needs, please help Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
B reg 90 Posted January 3, 2015 Share Posted January 3, 2015 If your buying new then look on line. I found that PC world and co have year old models at best. The new models are on the manufacturers web sites. Typically you cpould get one model/revision up for the same money for buying on line form the manufacturer. You can 'acquire' AutoCAD and similar for free on line if you know where to look. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
discomikey Posted January 4, 2015 Share Posted January 4, 2015 I have an hop envy, it was ££££££'s but can cope with anything I throw at it running creo2, full machine assemblies FEAs the lot it's much quicker than the uni supplied desktops in the 'engineering suite' haha Most probably overkill but the speakers are good too Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vulcan bomber Posted January 4, 2015 Share Posted January 4, 2015 to do cad you can get a cheap laptop, it isnt a demanding bit of software. All sorts of software is available, autocad imho is carp, i use MegaCAD for all the design work on my Steam Locomotive, and i do it in 2D as well. Solidworks is what everyone will suggest. Theres stuff also like Sketch available online and Alibre and lots more. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cynic-al Posted January 4, 2015 Share Posted January 4, 2015 Draftsight is a free copy of autocad by dassult systems, you just have to re register every year. It's almost identical to autocad and there are online user guides etc. You can always pop around here if you want a few pointers in the basics. You won't need anything amazing spec wise unless you want to venture to 3d, if you do a £500 laptop will be steady and you'll probably have graphic problems. If your in education you can get full solidworks for £100 otherwise your looking at thousands. I would also check what you need for the plasma software mainly in terms of connections and operating system. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FridgeFreezer Posted January 6, 2015 Share Posted January 6, 2015 I'd suggest a desktop may be better value, and will (probably) have useful things like a real serial port & parallel port, often used by budget CNC controllers, and a real hardware port is far preferable to most of the USB-converters if you have it. One major factor for CAD is the biggest & highest resolution screen you can get, or even twin screens. That's not an excessively spendy thing to do these days and makes life so much lovelier for so many things. Most laptops & graphics cards these days will support a 2nd screen, and £100 gets you a full HD (1080x1920) 20+ inch monitor. A few quid on a graphics card may also help things along, nothing flashy, £30-£50 is plenty to get an unglamorous card that will perform way better than most on-board graphics. A 2nd hand pc may already have something usable inside, especially if it's an "obsolete" gaming machine. I paid £50 2nd hand for an nVidia Quadro 600 which is a fairly respectable CAD-targeted card. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cynic-al Posted January 6, 2015 Share Posted January 6, 2015 Agree with the above, a desktop will wipe the floor with a laptop. At work I have a high end of each and the desktop is leagues ahead. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CwazyWabbit Posted January 6, 2015 Share Posted January 6, 2015 Desktop will be more powerful agreed but there are a couple of advantages to a laptop and you can still have a second monitor on a laptop to increase your screen real estate. Obviously laptops are smaller, they also use less power and another less obvious benefit is the battery. I live in a reasonably built up area and we get a surprising number of powercuts, I don't mean long power outages, just a few seconds at a time but that's long enough to really annoy you when you lose your work. That said I'm using a desktop for my cad and cnc plasma (once I've built it) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cynic-al Posted January 6, 2015 Share Posted January 6, 2015 You think it's annoying when your working on a pc? Try it when you have a 3 hour restart time on machines 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lewis Posted January 7, 2015 Author Share Posted January 7, 2015 Thanks for all the advice guys, I tried to take on board as much as I could. In the end I chose a Dell Laptop, with 17" screen which thought would be beneficial. I did consider a desktop, but the lack of a desk, and the flexibility and mobility of a laptop ruled them out Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cynic-al Posted January 7, 2015 Share Posted January 7, 2015 I'm sure it'll do he business have fun Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
simonr Posted January 8, 2015 Share Posted January 8, 2015 My top recommendations for Solidworks: Buy something with an Nvidia Quadro graphics card. Top two (cheap) machines from eBay: Dell M4400 Laptop. Last one I bought was £200 Dell T1600 Desktop - Similar money. I have one of each and a Dell M6600 Laptop at work - which actually isn't any quicker than the 4400, though it's a fair bit newer. Go for as much memory (RAM) as you can. This is more important than the processor speed - so spend the money on RAM instead. A SSD (Solid State Disk) makes startup a lot quicker, but they tend to be expensive for a given amount of storage and don't make a huge difference to Solidworks performance. I know it's too late for Lewis, but it might help someone else one day! Si Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cynic-al Posted January 8, 2015 Share Posted January 8, 2015 When picking a solidworks graphics card use this site for compatability and use the recommended driver. http://www.solidworks.co.uk/sw/support/videocardtesting.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simon_CSK Posted January 12, 2015 Share Posted January 12, 2015 I use Autocad and Revit for my Architectural Practice. Both are serious number crunchers and for 5 years only used laptops. I wear a laptop out in a couple of years as I take them everywhere including on holiday. Currently have two old HP's and my latest one is a Sony Viao. Forget the Sony it is the worst laptop I have ever owned. I also now have two desktops as I was doing high end rendered images that were taking 24 hours to crunch through on the laptops. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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