i’m thinking about drawing up my bikes in autocad just for the heck of it. has anyone else done something similar just for fun and not for sending to a frame builder or am i just weird?

i thought it might help me to understand geometry a bit more and also if i change anything on the bike what effect it will have on my riding position etc. am i just odd to want to do this and will it just take a long time with no actual benefit? thought i would do a side view and plan view to take in all evetualities, like changing stems, bars, forks, cranks etc.

just take a long time with no actual benefit

this, unless you use autocad a lot. and if you use it a lot then you’ll find bikecad (google it) really easy to pick up and much much more useful

I tend to make 3D models of things for no reason in POVRay, I just enjoy re-creating them. Comes in handy when planning a new kitchen though.

I’ve drawn one I plan to have made next year:-

can you export from bikeCAD to AutoCAD or is it a stand alone format?

Had a quick play and it looks like exactly what i was gonna do anyway just in a different way (if you see what i mean)

if i recall bikecad is like a java based thing that lives on the web unless you buy bikecad pro which lives on your computer or something

im not sure you can export from it but bikecad pro will export to dxf which autocad can then read

I don’t think you can export from the normal one but it otherwise gives you everything you need, like how changing one thing alters another.

I found it useful to decide what I wanted, run it through bikecad to double triple check everything then once I was happy just did a simple autocad drawing to show the angles & lengths. I may do more detailed drawings of each part later but as a lot of them are standard bits its not really worth it.

oh and if you really want to go crazy I hope to be touching up my ProEngineer skills soon which should (if I remember correctly) allow me to run the new CEN requirements through a computer letting you know if your design passes or fails without ever having to build a real life mock up.

I design bikes in 2D in Illustrator and then take them into Photoshop for a bit of semi-photoreal treatment. Completely useless for anything except passing the time.

Don’t worry, you’re not alone in being sad.

allow me to run the new CEN requirements through a computer letting you know if your design passes or fails without ever having to build a real life mock up.

lolz… all the best with that one. I’ve not heard it works like that for anyone in real life.

I use bikecad pro for initial drafting, then move to 2d, pass to Taiwan who then do Solidworks, then back to 2d for construction.

brant – lolz… all the best with that one. I’ve not heard it works like that for anyone in real life.

SHOULD allow me, not WILL deffo allow me

Yep, another sad bu&&er here – done it in Soldworks. In 3D, with a fully ‘mated’ assembly and the collision-detection apps on, you can watch suspension parts move through the stroke, track virtual pivot points, track changes in suspension rate through the stroke etc etc…. yes, very, very sad 😉

will allow you to get some kind of result wether its right or not is a completely different subject

there were some free 3d packages out there like alibre or co create and even then i think you can still buy the personal learning editions of solidworks or pro e or something

bristolbiker, how do you find Solidworks to use? its something i’m tempted to look into as there are a lot of employers looking for that at the moment and being out of work right now i’m weighing up my options and trying to work out which packages I should brush up on / lean from scratch.

solidworks is a piece of pi$$ to use.

My Dream Bike 😉

Dont forget google Sketchup 🙂

podge i used solidworks for 12 years + first place was at mountain cycle

If you can use solidworks you will have no problem picking up any other 3d package It depends what you want to do for a job (industry wise)the Military or motorsports companies I have worked in use UG or Catia ,I personally use UG now because it does my main stuff really well .But that was based purely on what i want it to do

people have personal preferences based on what they learned first

the thing i like most about solidworks is the “I know engine” which sits quietly behind the front end …it knows when your having a shitty day and when to quit immediately before you press the save button

Yep, Solidworks is a complete doddle – you can get very professional looking 3D models and generate detailed manufacturing drawings for very little effort. If you’re coming from a 2D/draughting background it can take a while to get your head round the correct ‘design intent’ to creat things in the simplest way, but after that it really is all good.

I only tend to use it infrequently (building solid geometry for FE models), but even so I’m not much slower than colleagues who use it pretty much all the time.

Seems to be the current “weapon-of-choice”, especially with the Dassult Systems empire being an ever-expanding multi-national beast!

wors – solidworks is a piece of pi$$ to use.

Really? that’s good to hear. now if only it wasn’t £1500 + VAT for the course i’d be at the top of the list.

redthunder – Dont forget google Sketchup

this is my fave bit of software at the moment, its just so easy to use.

could you not “ahem” borrow a copy off the internet? the tutorials will get you to a decent enough atandard to teach yourself the rest.

Wors

Im going to climb off my high horse and just say that that is frowned upon by us genuine licence payers

however i live in the real world and of course would agree borrow a copy off the internet

Im going to climb off my high horse and just say that that is frowned upon by us genuine licence payers

doing this commercially yes, teaching yourself new skills nah.

Podge – As compositepro alludes to, if you have previous 3D modelling experience I’d forgo the formal course, pick up free tutorial (from university websites etc) and save yourself the £1500! The help package which comes with it is really rather good nowadays

binaries

Solidworks, Mechanical Desktop, Inventor & PowerSHAPE here…not that I’m bored enough to spend my nights drawing up imaginary bikes!

If any established bikemongers wish to sub any work out though… 😉

If you are going to borrow a copy from the web, make sure it uses site license version, using FLexLM as a license server. There are plenty of ‘tools’ for writing a FlexLM license to allow you to do some ‘research’. The node-locked version has a rock-hard liecensing system whereby Solidworks hold the license centrally on there servers and when you use the code your computer requests it…. so they know who is paying and who ain’t…. 😉

wha!!! too much information at once. hold on there…

I already have loads of 2D experience and some reasonable though slightly out of date 3D experience.

Solidworks is the main structural steelwork package, that and StruCAD with ProE coming third closely followed by Inventor. I’m not that fussed for staying in structural steelwork as its dead right now but its what I know and what i’m good at so its my first port of call with other Eng disciplines being second on the list.

I already have a copy of ProE, if I could find a copy of Solidworks I’d happily give it a go. problem is most employers want to see some experience of using it or a qualification which self teaching helps towards but cant provide.

as for the whole download Vs legal thing. I used to run a small record label. that’s a mine field and i’m still not sure what side I sit on.

cheers for all your advice people, much better than the careers adviser down at Hallam Uni.

P.S. compositepro, you were at mountain cycle? the San Andreas is still one of my all time fave bikes. I still check eBay & forums in the hope I’ll come across one.

The thing is, it probably doesn’t really matter which tool you learn if you want to get into bike design. What matters is getting some real experience in designing bikes that make it into production. How you manage that is anybody’s guess.

true but bike design for me is a hobby. i’m after a proper job as i’m one of the lucky few who enjoys (enjoyed) what I do with buildings.

i went from making things, to designing things, now want to go back to making things!