I have a wood workshop (in Belgium) and use exclusively MoI for designing and manufacturing (both with power tools and CNC). I have Sketchup on my computer for when clients send me .skp files, but it is not a very user friendly or intuitive program, compared to MoI. The only drawback of MoI (as mentioned before) is the lack of dimensioning and annotations, but that is coming in the near future as I read somewhere. And you can export Moi to .skp and add the dimensions there with the free SketchUp Make version.
MoI is easy to learn, cheap, simple yet rather complete, and one can always upgrade to a "real" CAD program if the need for something more elaborate comes up.
<< but it is not a very user friendly or intuitive program, compared to MoI.
Moi is the "SketchUp of the Nurbs"! ;)
So SketchUp is some friendly against other Polymodelers
and has the best Plugin Libraries, Objects System etc...seems rustic but so efficient! :)
You can but for this take ZBrush ($) or Blender (free)! :)
The right tool for the right function! (it can or Moi can but with very difficult efforts !)
Hi keith,
I would also encourage your son to look into a manufacturing forum. Although it appears he wants to avoid the "cnc and robotics" (i could have mis intetpreted that part) what he can get there are the "real world" tips and info on actual cuts and gap tolerances for building.
The number 1 lack of understanding from CAD engineers....
