Speaking of CAD software, we have been really impressed with Solidworks. I must caution readers, however, Solidworks is a resource hog and you must have an extremely high performance computer to drive it effectively--especially when you get large assemblies. We use twin dual-core Opterons made by AMD. Without such computing power, you will spend most of your day waiting for the parts to render.
Also, the 2008 software version of Solidworks is not debugged very well and it sucks for stability. So, you need to SAVE OFTEN because it crashes often!
Back to the being impressed part. We have really been impressed with the part fitment. Obviously, we have made many, many parts and they ALL LINE UP! All the holes, all the edges, all the corners. Frankly, I have been very, very surprised that what we drew on the computer is really what we got out of the machine--even after long strings of parts are bolted together.
David
