Autocad for cars?

[wmd2_108]

I hate to ask such a newbish question, but is there any software out there that would be like autocad for cars? To help both with the exterior, interior, and wiring for customization and rebuilding purposes.

If you know of one it would be a great help for both the name of it and where I might find it.

Thanks

[SaabJohan]

There are several softwares that are used by the car manufacturers to construct cars (CAD, CAE and CAM). Nothing that is used for rebuilding purposes or something like that. Most brands have the workshop information and parts catalogs in electronic form tho.

[wmd2_108]

I hate to put in such an obscure reference, but is the program that was shown in "The Fast and the Furious" when they were rebuilding the junk car feasible at all?

[SaabJohan]

Originally Posted by wmd2_108

I hate to put in such an obscure reference, but is the program that was shown in "The Fast and the Furious" when they were rebuilding the junk car feasible at all?

"The Fast and the Furious" is just fiction. In reality softwares like CATIA, Pro/ENGINEER and Unigraphics are used for general construction, in these softwares all parts must be made and can then be assembled. There are also softwares for car design, CFD like StarCD and Fluent, CAE systems like ANSYS, Pro/MECHANICA, 1D and 3D CFD softwares for engines like Ricardo WAVE, AVL Boost, GT-POWER. There are also softwares for car dynamics and a whole lot more.

Some of these systems run under Windows, some can require a UNIX based supercomputer. For example a licence of a Windows running CATIA can cost you 100,000 dollars, a license of GT-POWER cost around 25,000 dollars a year.

[CBFryman]

Also, there are CAD programs that cost 50-100 dollars. great for say, deisnging woofer enclosures, but are useless when it comes to actually designing an entire car. i know of no program that is specifically written to design and help wit ha rebuild of a car.

[wmd2_108]

Thanks for the help you 2... I'll have to spend some more time looking into it and see whats worth actually getting

[CBFryman]

i say draw it all out on paper...its easyer that way

[RandomTask]

Saab said exactly it. AutoCAD is mainly used for 2D modeling is and is best used for drawings a machine shop can reference off of. Those programs that the big companies use cost incredible amounts. It also takes an enormous amount of engineering hours to get the complete design of a car into the system. However, I don't think a car company would put its ENTIRE design (but closed to it) into a program such as CATIA. CAT is mainly used for stress analysis on strutural components or any component that is subject to load. If you want to design a car on a computer, Mechical Desktop would be your best bet. Be warned: its going to take a lot of reading/learning to get learn the system especially if you've never used any modeling software. Best of luck.

[ToyTundra]

Take a modeling class. My uni offers ENGR 320- intro to CAD. We learned AutoCAD (mostly 2d), Solidworks and Pro/Engineer. I now have unlimited acces to the lab (unless a class in using it) and they update the software ever year.

[benchtest]

Solidworks would probably fit your needs, but it's still $5K to start. There is a similar program out that costs less, but I can't recall the name right now. Try a search for cad software. You're still going to have draw the vehicle and the mods you want, and that is probably not worth the time, unless a movie company pays you to do it.

[ToyTundra]

if u are or know a college student there are educational/student versions. they are around $200-400, but they only last for a year or two. They usually have full features