Hi guys,
Basically I am a manufacturing engineering graduate and new into the area of composite engineering. I was wondering which is the cad software best suited for designing composites?
Many thanks in advance.
I think the CAD programme will be more suited for the industry that the your making teh composites for.
3D would be the way to go. I like solid works, inventor and rhino.
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I would use Fibersim if I could justify the expense . http://www.plm.automation.siemens.com/en_us/products/fibersim/
Is fibersim widely used by Manufacturing companies using composite materials such as Boeing or Airbus? I am about to do a course in composite materials which cover the basics such as types of matrix and fibers used and the different production processes used to make composite materials, so I thought it would be good to also get some experience with design software before actually applying to any Manufacturing companies. Would solidworks knowledge not be enough?
Is fibersim widely used by manufacturing companies making composites such as airbus and boeing? I’m just about to do a course that cover the basics of composite materials such as types of fibers and matrix and the different types of production processes used to make composites, so I thought it would be good to get some experience with design software used for composites. Are manufacturing companies not using a specific software, like solidworks for example to test the mechanical properties of their products made by composites?
CATIA from Dassault has a ton of options (Don’t they own Solidworks now? )
CDS (http://www.ccm.udel.edu/CDS/ )from Uni. of Delaware is not really a modeling suite, but has a lot of design applications that no one else has.
Catia is what is used by a lot of companys, aviation and automotive at least.
Haven’t found a course near me, one in the UK but $$$ …
I see, I’ve heard there’s a few cheap courses in Catia in southern Spain, which is where I’m based, so I’ll have a look into those. Anyways thanks a lot for your help!
If you find one, please let me know, I don’t mind staying in Spain for a bit, but my spanish could be a problem, haha. (Alicante is nice too 
)
Definitely, I would say its one of the top 5 places to visit in Spain :). The course I’ve just found is just a beginners course to mechanical design using Catia V5, and is actually distance learning though, they offer a 87% discount for jobseekers, so the final price is 69 euros, 150 hours of duration. But I’m pretty sure the discount only applies to spanish citizens. I’ll put the link below so you can have a look though. I’m not sure if there is a way to translate the page into english.
http://www.qualityformacion.es/formación-desempleados/
There’s another company (www.ctformacion.es) which is offering a course in February, which is about using Catia V5 for designing composite materials, this one is a bit more expensive though, around 550 euros for a week and a half, based in Madrid and Sevilla. The beginner course in mechanical design is a must before doing the design course in composites, and I assume fluency in spanish is a must aswell hehe. If you are interested in Catia courses I am sure there are a few british companies selling distance learning courses for beginners and also applied to composites. I am not sure what they will charge though.