New with lots of questions..

Hello All, my name is Rick.

First time on this forum and have read some posts and probably not enough but this is my story.

I’m 36 yrs old, live and work in NYC and am tired of working in the airline industry. I work in the System Operations Department. We look after the Pilots and Flight Attendants. It’s no longer fun or challenging. So I’m looking to start a new career. I know that my age may be an issue but its better than where I am now. I’m currently planning a summer wedding as well as children in the not so distant future.

I’m into motorcycles and track days. I currently own a 97’ Gsxr 750 which is only used on race tracks here in the north east.

Now the reason for me joining this forum and writing this is to get an idea of where I can go with this industry. I would like to design my own parts and or motorcycle. I have a lot of ideas and would love to make them available for sale. I’m thinking that I can design my own parts and have it manufactured either by myself using small CNC machines or hiring a machine shop to do the work for me. But first I figured I’d better know what I’m talking about other than drawing on napkins. I had some questions that I hope you all can answer.

• What is the best software to design parts and or motorcycles, 2D or 3D, don’t really know where to start?

• What is the best computer or laptop to run that software? I only have had access to PC and don’t have a clue about MAC’s. Is MAC a better choice for these type of programs?

• Is it possible to learn this on your own or is schooling necessary, if so are there online schools or are there any schools in NYC that I can attend? Please keep in mind that life in NYC isn’t cheap. I would appreciate low budget schools or books. Or basically anything that will help me start this new chapter in my life.

• Where can I find deals on software?

I think AutoDesk Inventor would work best for designing motorcycle parts.

Since CAD programs are resource hogs purchase the most computer you can afford. Physical memory (RAM) and a good graphics card will go a long way towards working with CAD easier.

Yes, you can learn on your own but expect the process to take longer. I would recommend considering attending a community college or signing up for an online course.

There are many "deals" on high-end CAD software if you are going with the main packages (AutoCAD, Inventor, Solidworks, etc.). There are cheaper (even some free) CAD programs out there but they may lack some features important to you.

You might also want take a look @ http://talkgraphics.com in the 3D Graphics area. They have very talented guys that use various types of software that make things like you are inquiring about.

AutoCAD isn't the best tool in the toolbox when dealing with 3D solids and stuff. IMHO. -David

PS You might want to look into SolidWorks as it is becoming very popular with engineering types here in the US

Haven't used Inventor as ReMark recommends.

But, I agree. I know a number of Inventor users and the number is growing. Same with SolidWorks.

I know of one machine shop, swears by BobCAD(?).

Welcome to the forums! Also from NYC, born in Manhattan. Love

the city!

Hey Guys,

Thanks for all the feedback and i'm sure have a tons more questions as I learn about this new field.

I have been reading some more posts and noticed people mention 64 bit and also RAM. So I guess I should go for the 64 bit and is 8 GB of RAM enough or do I have to buy a MAC. I've never used MAC other than browsed in the IMAC store.

What do most of you guys use? Again I will be learning and hopefully design motorcycle parts soon.

thanks again.

I think most of use here use a PC-based computer running Windows. I have only come across a couple of people who have gone the way of the Mac. Obviously, you're going to pay more for the privilege of being a Mac user. If you have no place better to spend the difference then go for it.

64-bit is the future and it is probably a good idea to be thinking along those lines. 8GB of RAM sounds great and should be more than enough for what you want to do.

You'll have to stay on PC to use SolidWorks or Inventor, no OSX version. You can get 64-bit PCs, no issues there. Using a mac to run PC sotfware will incure extras costs. No need in that, speed that money on ram

Dell Studio XPS:

$1,499

Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium Edition SP1, 64-Bit

Intel® Core™i7-920 Processor(8MB L2 Cache, 2.66GHz)

4 cores w/ HT = 8 processing threads

6GB Tri-Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1066MHz - 6 DIMMs

750GB - 7200RPM, SATA 3.0Gb/s, 16MB Cache

Single Drive: 16X CD/DVD burner (DVD+/-RW) w/double layer write capability

Dell 24 inch Consumer™ S2409W Flat Panel, Adjustable Stand

512MB ATI Radeon HD 4850

Hey Guys,

 

Thanks for all the feedback and i'm sure have a tons more questions as I learn about this new field.

 

I have been reading some more posts and noticed people mention 64 bit and also RAM. So I guess I should go for the 64 bit and is 8 GB of RAM enough or do I have to buy a MAC. I've never used MAC other than browsed in the IMAC store.

 

What do most of you guys use? Again I will be learning and hopefully design motorcycle parts soon.

 

thanks again.

Ok so I was just looking around the web and started to fool around and had this custimized.

What do you all think? Is there anything that isn't need to bring the price down a bit or is there something that I need and should add?

Starting Price$4,042Instant Savings$589

Subtotal$3,453

As low as $104/month*1

PROCESSORS

Intel Core i7-920 Processor(8MB L2 Cache, 2.66GHz)

OPERATING SYSTEM

Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium Edition SP1, 64-Bit

WARRANTY AND SERVICE

4Yr Ltd Hardware Warranty, InHome Service after Remote Diagnosis

MEMORY

12GB Tri-Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1066MHz - 6 DIMMs

HARD DRIVE

1.28 TB Performance RAID 0 (2 x 640GB SATA 3Gb/s 7200 RPM HDDs)

OPTICAL DRIVE

Dual Drives: Blu-ray Disc (BD) Burner (Writes to DVD/CD/BD) and DVD+/-RW

MONITORS

Dell 24 inch Consumer S2409W Flat Panel, Adjustable Stand

ADVANCED DISPLAY

Dell Ultrasharp 3007WFP-HC 30-inch Widescreen Flat Panel LCD Monitor

HARDWARE SUPPORT

3Yr Ltd. Warranty- Advance Exchange

DELL ULTRASHARP 3007WFPHC

Dell High Color 30 inch UltraSharp Widescreen Digital Flat Panel

VIDEO CARD

ATI Radeon HD 4850 512MB

SOUND CARD

Integrated 7.1 Channel Audio

SPEAKERS

No speakers (Speakers are required to hear audio from your system)

KEYBOARD

Dell USB Consumer Multimedia Keyboard

MOUSE

Dell Premium Laser Mouse

FLOPPY & MEDIA READER

No Floppy Drive or Media Reader Included

ANTI-VIRUS & SECURITY

McAfee SecurityCenter with anti-virus, anti-spyware, firewall, 15-months

OFFICE SOFTWARE

No Productivity software pre-installed

REMOTE ACCESS

Dell Remote Access, free basic service

DATASAFE ONLINE BACKUP

Dell Online Backup 2GB for 1 year

MODEM

No Modem Option

Studio XPS

Studio XPS featuring Core i7 processors

Adobe Software

Adobe Acrobat Reader 9.0 Multi-Language

Network Card

Integrated 10/1000 Ethernet

Labels

Windows Vista Premium

12GB RAM

(2) 640GB hard drives

(3) Monitors listed (which one are you actually considering?)

And an ATI Radeon graphics card w/512MB vidRAM

That should be one heck of a motorcycle design.

They had a 30" moniter in the ad. I was thinking of getting that with the 12GB RAM.

Will this be enough to get me by?

I know I will just be learning and getting started but I figured if i'm going to do this might as well doing it right the first time instead of buying cheap and wind up doing it all over again later on.

12GB RAM?

You will never utilize even half of that using Autocad to just design parts.

Go with the system that f700 suggested. It will be more than enough to handle what you're going to be doing and you will save yourself a lot of money.

And don't ever finance a computer. It will be obsolete before you ever finish paying it off. :wink:

I would be using SolidWorks not autocad does that make a difference.

Autocad or Solidworks, same difference. If you're just designing parts, you could easily get by with 4GB RAM, or even less. I only have 3GB RAM with XP 32 on my home computer and I can do just about anything I want with it. RAM becomes an issue when you start building large complex scenes with poly counts reaching into the millions. But even with my 3GB system, I still don't experience too many problems.

The system that f700 mentioned will easily do everything you need it to do and then some. And with a price tag that's less than half of the system you posted.

Well, I'm partial to recommending 4GB RAM these days (min.) if you're going 64-bit and using Vista. But it is all personal preference. Right? You could always spend the money you save on RAM on the graphics card and bump that up even further.

Well, I'm partial to recommending 4GB RAM these days (min.) if you're going 64-bit and using Vista.

Don't get me wrong. I agree with you, and it doesn't hurt to have more RAM than you need. I'm just saying that 12GB is overkill and it's way more than he will ever use if he's just designing parts. I would be amazed if he even utilizes half of that. To me, that's money wasted. Like you said, he can take the money he saves and put it into a faster processor or a better Motherboard or a high end graphics card. Plus, RAM is easy to upgrade if he finds he needs more. Just grab two more sticks and plug them in. Motherboards, processors and graphic cards are a little more involved if you decide you need something better.

Or, if money is no object, then go for broke. Get yourself that $4,000 box. If I could, I would grab Nvidia's "Tesla" supercomputer. It's just a little out of my price range though.