What are the best design modeling softwares for jobs in Dublin?

kevincool

Hi,
I am a mechanical engineer. Could you please say what are the best design modeling softwares to learn for jobs in Dublin? I know AUTOCAD but like to know what are the other softwares in demand? Ex: solidworks, catia etc.?

Regards,
Kevin

TheBoyConor

Autodesk inventor.

Plain old AutoCAD is fairly old hat at this stage. I don't know are many people using it anymore unless it's one of the hifalutin versions like AutoCAD Civil 3D or some of the others.

Twenty Grand

TheBoyConor wrote: »

Autodesk inventor.

Plain old AutoCAD is fairly old hat at this stage. I don't know are many people using it anymore unless it's one of the hifalutin versions like AutoCAD Civil 3D or some of the others.

Inventor and Solidworks are the main two programs taught in colleges.

kevohmsford

Autodesk Revit and Solidworks.

kevincool

kevohmsford wrote: »

Autodesk Revit and Solidworks.

For mechanical engineers, is it revit mep which I need to learn?

kevohmsford

Yes you need Revit MEP. I have been using it the last few months.

TheBoyConor

Depends with Revit. If you are a mechanical engineer working in building services or anything relating to buildings then Revit is absolutely essential. If you are working on other things though, like machinery, automotive, etc then Revit isn't really relevant.

kevincool

TheBoyConor wrote: »

Depends with Revit. If you are a mechanical engineer working in building services or anything relating to buildings then Revit is absolutely essential. If you are working on other things though, like machinery, automotive, etc then Revit isn't really relevant.

What’s relevant for other things like machinery etc.?

TheBoyConor

I'd be thinking Inventor, Solidworks.

But I am civil/structural engineer so I wouldn't be as well up on the mechanical modelling side of things. What I would say unless your work has a heavy element of building services or similar to it, then Revit or any of it's verions like MEP would be of limited beneefit to you.

Microstation, but I think that's more geared towards structural engineering and is, at this stage, way behind the competition as it is very old hat from my limited experience of it. The only user I know is Gas Networks Ireland who use it for asset management but it seems they only use it now because it was what they used in the past and all their records are in that format.

Twenty Grand

One plus of Solidworks is the absolutely huge community around it.

Every question you have has already been answered on some forum.

Thousands of videos online too. Inventor is just not as prolific as SW.

Turbulent Bill

OP, you're better off searching for jobs you're interested in and seeing what packages they require. It varies by company, mech design is generally Solidworks or Inventor, maybe Catia in aero or auto. However, there'll be some NX users and others around too.

godtabh

TheBoyConor wrote: »

Autodesk inventor.

Plain old AutoCAD is fairly old hat at this stage. I don't know are many people using it anymore unless it's one of the hifalutin versions like AutoCAD Civil 3D or some of the others.

I use autocad on a daily basis. Some drawings/designs aren't automated.

kevincool

Do we need a dedicated graphics card for these softwares to run on a laptop? I am planning to buy one for practice.

Twenty Grand

kevincool wrote: »

Do we need a dedicated graphics card for these softwares to run on a laptop? I am planning to buy one for practice.

Nope, not at the start.

Maybe when things get complex you can invest in one.

godtabh

Twenty Grand wrote: »

Nope, not at the start.

Maybe when things get complex you can invest in one.

You can get cad specific graphics cards.

G-Man

I am using Fusion 360 a lot.. Its my first 3D cad.. I find it very good. I guess experienced users might say something else. Huge community as well. Runs well on i5 laptop 8Gb ram, regular intel graphics, but maybe my designs are not very big.