Mechanical Kinetic Simulation / Animation CAD Software
Posted: Wed Jan 12, 2022 11:35 am
Greetings,
I'd like to design a mechanical toy comprised of gears, levers, cam followers, and maybe springs. Trying to find some free or really inexpensive, preferably desktop, not cloud based) CAD software in which I can simulate or animate the design.
Things I'm looking at:
- FreeCAD (https://wiki.freecadweb.org/A2plus_Workbench) - Might do it, but I really don't like the FreeCAD interface. Have to keep relearning it every time I get into it.
- FreeCAD from AR-CAD (http://www.ar-cad.com/freecad/examples/expert.html) Why they named it the same I don't know. Programmed in smalltalk.
- Linkage (https://blog.rectorsquid.com/linkage-me ... simulator/) Looks good, but doesn't do cam following AFAIK.
- OpenSCAD (https://openscad.org/) Does animations, but code based interface.
- Arts programs? I've used Gearotic for gears, and have played a little bit with Auggie, but I don't recall support for cam following. Does it?
Any other possible solutions out there?
Henry
I'd like to design a mechanical toy comprised of gears, levers, cam followers, and maybe springs. Trying to find some free or really inexpensive, preferably desktop, not cloud based) CAD software in which I can simulate or animate the design.
Things I'm looking at:
- FreeCAD (https://wiki.freecadweb.org/A2plus_Workbench) - Might do it, but I really don't like the FreeCAD interface. Have to keep relearning it every time I get into it.
- FreeCAD from AR-CAD (http://www.ar-cad.com/freecad/examples/expert.html) Why they named it the same I don't know. Programmed in smalltalk.
- Linkage (https://blog.rectorsquid.com/linkage-me ... simulator/) Looks good, but doesn't do cam following AFAIK.
- OpenSCAD (https://openscad.org/) Does animations, but code based interface.
- Arts programs? I've used Gearotic for gears, and have played a little bit with Auggie, but I don't recall support for cam following. Does it?
Any other possible solutions out there?
Henry