I’m completely new to using a CAD software to design a Vex EDR robot. Which software is a better choice to design my robot: Onshape or Autodesk fusion 360?
Use Inventor because there are already established part libraries for it.
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100% personal preference, however inventor has a lot of support in the community, still free and as @evangs1 said nice established libraries.
I used inventor in my professional career so it ended up paying me back to learn it early…
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There’s other choices for CAD software to consider. All commercial CAD packages have free educational licenses, and libraries are available. Here is more information:. CAD for VEX Robotics.pdf (199.4 KB)
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Autodesk has part libraries for both Inventor and Fusion. You can also import Inventor part libraries into Fusion.
To be perfectly clear, VEX Robotics has NO parts libraries. What you can find from VEX are the official CAD models for every part in a universal format (*. step) that can be imported into any CAD software. Various people and teams have created libraries of parts for Solidworks, Inventor, and Fusion 360, and the engineers at Autodesk publish a library on their site.
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I guess that I was thinking of Autodesk’s part library.
Fusion 360 is best than any other
Inventor does have a lot of support and some good part libraries, however my personal preference is for Onshape, not only because I can share my designs with my peers more easily (so many of us can quickly bounce a CAD file back and forth between us as we make changes), but because I can reach my design on any computer by logging in. However, Onshape is typically a CAD software that is a difficult adjustment from other non-browser based softwares, so it is definitely not for everyone.
While I work with Onshape, what you should work with could be completely different. I don’t think anyone can really tell you what the best CAD software is for you specifically to work with because you have to try a bunch of different softwares and decide for yourself which software’s configuration you like the most. Every suggestion for CAD software you get on VEX forum will be great, but what it comes down to is personal preference. If you are comfortable with your software, you can make your designs really good on any platform. Every designer will have a different preference for CAD software because it is what they work with the most and/or are most comfortable with, so I think it will be hard to find a consensus on what the ‘best’ CAD software is for building your robot. Testing out both Onshape and Fusion 360 is your best bet for figuring out which software is better to design your robot, because it really depends on what you work best with/prefer to work with.
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