ZW3D vs Fusion 360 Lesson 7 3D Modeling Techniques Defined Streamlined Sketching/Feature Based Modeling
The modeling technique is
hugely responsible for the level of productivity. Those of you that
are only trained in the sketch, sketch, constrain, constrain world
are truly limited by not using the freedom of Streamlined Sketching
and Feature Based Design,
that is available in even the most Pro/e-ish of CAD systems. If your
designers are designing in these very unproductive and time
consuming processes it might be time to review your standard design
processes. Don't have any do you? I am not sure if it is due to these
exercises but I have replaced a few Fusion 360 with ZW3D. Listen to
what these two fellows said.
Brian
"We spoke a year and a
half or so ago about ZW3D. I took the Autodesk Fusion
360 but am becoming increasingly unhappy with it… It’s not very
productive for me, just too slow and cumbersome to get things done
quickly. On on the strength of your recommendations I am ready to
give ZW3D Standard a shot, probably as a rental for the first year.
Bottom line is,
Fusion 360 is “free” but not really free… I am finding that the
slow, clumsy pace of design with it is counterproductive… time is
money."
Thanks much,
Brian
Peter
The initial hull design was done in Rhino, which for some reason
is a standard in the boat industry.
The surface already had
a few problems!
It was imported into Fusion 360 and I did
some of the early concept design work, but when it came to surfacing
I hit road blocks every way I tried it.
At this time Phil
was not part of the project, but I suggested to my client that we
needed Phil's help. Phil also hit road blocks in Fusion 360 even
using some of his unique re-topologizing workflows and T-Splines.
The rest is history, as they say.
Thanks to ZW3D
paired with Phil’s surfacing skills we now have tooling for the hull
created.
You should see the images.
Perfectly smooth
reflections!
Peter I saw the
following video challenges on LinkedIn and thought I would give them a
try on IronCAD. I got a great response and decided to do it in ZW3D.
I was very familiar with the parts it was a bit easier. It shows
more the difference in the level of the 3D CAD experience than the
CAD system itself. You can
Download ZW3D and give it a try.
ZW3D is very similar to Fusion 360 and the
Pro/e clones with differences that make it much more streamlined. It
is very easy for those users to get up and running with ZW3D. The
unique benefits over the other systems is the multi-object
environment, for easy top down design and the the integrated
drawing. You can do complete projects (parts, assemblies and
drawings) in one file. Imagine how much this would simplify PDM?
I would do a
video, but I really am not good at it. So I will show you step by
step. I will try and get ZW3D support to create one. They are
very good. These have actually turned
these into exercises in
modeling techniques as compared to showing a more productive CAD
systems. Again, I say there are many different ways to model a part.
I see with my exposure to direct edit modelers like CADKEY, I
rarely sketch like you see the Fusion 360 fellow doing. I have always
created my basic sketches by mostly creating offsets and extending
and trimming or. It seems to be much easier. I never put in a fillet that
can be created later. What do you think? Of course, this take a good
understanding of descriptive geometry.
Here is ZW3D. We set the units to inches
If you have been
following these exercises you have may have seen this exercise done
in IronCAD. I am much more proficient in IronCAD. What do you expect
after 22 years. ZW3D is very much like Solidworks and other Pro/e
Clones. So I jump through a few more hoops to model. But I am
getting better.
These have actually turned into exercises in
modeling techniques as compared to showing a more productive CAD
systems. Again, I say there are many different ways to model a part.
I see with my exposure to direct edit modelers like CADKEY, I
rarely sketch like you see the Fusion 360 fellow doing. I have always
created my basic sketches by mostly creating offsets and trimming or
extending. It seems to be much easier. I never put in a fillet that
can be created later. What do you think?
I start with
inserting a cylinder from the primitive menu at X0Y0Z0 and sizing it.
We add the second
cylinder from the primitive menu, locate it and size it.
I will now create a sketch for the
front cut. I turn on wireframe to gain access to the default planes.
I turn on shade, for clarity, and then create a rectangle that
includes the features I am going to cut.
I offset the starting point by .5 and
then just pull the extrusion enough to include the features I am
cutting. With that completed we now create the cut in the back. We just
drag another hole block on to the face and size it.
Now
for the hole. We again drag a hole cylinder on to the face, locate
it and size it.
That's
it. We were done before the Fusion 360 fellow was done with the
basic revolve sketch. I guess it is not fair since ZW3D offers the
flexible primitive shape, virtually eliminating any sketching. As
you can see ZW3D offers a much more productive design environment.
It is much different way of modeling. It could
easily be used with Fusion 360. But when you have the sketch,
sketch, constrain, constrain mentality, there is really no
alternative, until someone shows you. Give it a try in your
software! Just substitute the basic sketches for the primitives.
It is very important that you look into
how you or your engineers are creating the parts. Streamline
Sketching and Feature Based Modeling is easy to learn and implement.
It, alone, can increase productivity 10X. Now, ZW3D with its unique
history and robust direct edit functionality can increase your
productivity another 5X or more with changes! Again, time is money
in engineering.
More on Streamline Sketching and Feature Based Modeling.
To experience this increased level of
productivity, please download ZW3D for a 30 day evaluation. Legacy
data is no problem, ZW3D can read the native files of all of the
popular programs including the PMI data of NX, Solidworks, Catia and
Creo. ZW3D is a great replacement for the subscription only Autodesk
and PTC products.
Give me a call if you have any
questions. I can set up a skype or go to meeting to show this part
or answer any of your questions on the operation of ZW3D. It
truly is the Ultimate CAD/CAM System.
