Society of Robots - Robot Forum

Software => Software => Topic started by: parisa on February 07, 2007, 01:42:58 AM

Title: Robot deign software
Post by: parisa on February 07, 2007, 01:42:58 AM
Hi all
I am looking for a software for robot design.I saw in the 'Sumo Robot Construction' tutorial that
the Autodesk CAD was used.But I'm not sure which of the Autodesk's products
(namely AutoCAD,Autodesk Inventor,...)is useful for robotics design for beginner to intermediate.
Can anyone help me please?
Cheers.
Title: Re: Robot deign software
Post by: annoyin_kid on February 07, 2007, 11:42:20 AM
try google sketch-up. we use it in our school and it is quite easy to get the hang of.
Title: Re: Robot design software
Post by: hgordon on February 07, 2007, 02:13:55 PM
What is your objective ?  Are you trying to build a model that can run in a 3D robot simulator such as Player/Stage/Gazebo or Microsoft Robotics Studio or Webots ?  Or are you modeling a robot for fabrication ?

We used SolidWorks to model our robot, since the machine shop could work directly from those files - here's a photo of the model - http://www.surveyor.com/images/SRV1-050706.jpg .  We subsequently exported the model to VRML so that it could be imported into Webots and MSRS, though we don't have an MSRS simulation working yet.

Title: Re: Robot deign software
Post by: dcole07 on February 07, 2007, 05:27:57 PM
Is SolidWorks free?

There website isn't so clear... looks like there is a translater for AutoCAD, a viewer, and a what ever else...
Title: Re: Robot deign software
Post by: hgordon on February 07, 2007, 05:34:56 PM
SolidWorks is expensive ($6k or thereabouts), but I believe some low-cost student editions are available
Title: Re: Robot deign software
Post by: TK on February 07, 2007, 06:18:57 PM
I am new and also looking for software if you find any please tell me and you might want to look at the soft ware squeak i can't install it but maybe you can
Title: Re: Robot deign software
Post by: Admin on February 07, 2007, 06:55:39 PM
I use Autodesk Inventor, which costs about $1,295. Its really nice easy software, and I like it better than SolidWorks . . . but it has annoying bugs like random crashing and constraint detection issues . . .

www.autodesk.com

JesseWelling also recommended this one, which is free:
http://juergen-riegel.net/FreeCAD/Docu/index.php/Main_Page
Title: Re: Robot deign software
Post by: ed1380 on February 07, 2007, 07:45:02 PM
I like google sketchup, becuase it is easier to make many shapes there, compared with solidoworks. but for real complicated stuff where you want to have every part defined then get solidworks. trust me it is hard to learn solidworks, so many options. Also you need a pretty good computer to use those programs.

Autocad is based on shapes more.
I've seen a student edition of solidwords for $90.
Title: Re: Robot deign software
Post by: groovy9 on February 12, 2007, 10:04:47 AM
Here's another vote for Sketchup.  But keep in mind that it's not meant to for precision engineering.  It's for "sketching" your design, as the name would imply.

It's good enough for a regular Joe to visualize how everything will fit together than then go cut out the parts.  It's not good enough for professional mechanical design.

It's also really cool and really easy to use, especially if you follow some of the online tutorials.
Title: Re: Robot deign software
Post by: JonHylands on February 12, 2007, 10:36:38 AM
I use Rhino3D, but it isn't free...

- Jon
Title: Re: Robot deign software
Post by: ed1380 on February 12, 2007, 03:28:34 PM
Here's another vote for Sketchup.  But keep in mind that it's not meant to for precision engineering.  It's for "sketching" your design, as the name would imply.

It's good enough for a regular Joe to visualize how everything will fit together than then go cut out the parts.  It's not good enough for professional mechanical design.

It's also really cool and really easy to use, especially if you follow some of the online tutorials.

You can imput the dimensions if that helps with acuracy.
Title: Re: Robot deign software
Post by: Hal9000 on February 13, 2007, 06:17:27 AM
I do like Sketchup a lot, mainly because it's free