3d cad program for visualizing my ideas!

[Rochey]

for circuit board 3d images, Eagle has a 3rd party peice of software that allows you to get a 3d image of the board - it's quite cool.

http://www.matwei.de/doku.php?id=en:eagle3d:eagle3d



R

 

[Neeno]

I use AutoCAD to do mine...
AutoCAD is NOT really a 3D design program, but the "extrude" function seems to work well... :grin:

www.studio21.ch/temp/2-1176.jpg

 

[unheardof]

Just wanted to revive this thread, since SketchUp Free is available from Google now: http://sketchup.google.com/. PC out now, Mac coming soon. I have Mac, so I haven't tried it yet, but it seems like this would be ideal for laying out your components and boards in your case. Especially since companies like Hammond have CAD files for each of their enclosures that can be imported into SketchUp.

 

[EZ81]

I tried Sketchup for a few hours. It is really great for quick and dirty drawings that look beautiful enough to impress potential clients (in a positive way :thumb: ), but i pulled my hair out trying to do exact and detailed 3d construction stuff like it can be done in Autocad. I have not tried importing DXFs yet, though... If you have ready made models for cases/knobs/meters/components/... , putting together a case sketch will probably be a breeze....

;Matthias