Thank you all for you comments. I shared them with my son and he now wants to learn 3d modelling.
BW
Keith

@You : "...he now wants to learn 3d modelling."

Wow!!

I wish all the best to your son.

(Serious) 3d modelling it's such a wanderful and also very tough field!

He will have to study a lot :)

Regards.

P.S.

I apologize Keith if I tell you a thing that might seem a little bit intrusive :)

Please, don't let your son to be one of the hundreds people who waste their talents and their efforts for creating yet another 3D War game or 3D models for very violent "messages" :)

I think that too many very talented 3D artists are sacrificing their talents in that kind of things.

Have a nice day.

Hi
I appreciate your concern but I think he is only planning to make plans for furniture. Apparently he now evaluates the craftsmanship that has gone into every wooden thing he encounters.
BW
Keith

@You : "...Apparently he now evaluates the craftsmanship that has gone into every wooden thing he encounters..."

:)

Cheers!

Keith,

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.

cheers
Wim

<< 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! :)

> So SketchUp is some friendly against other Polymodelers

I don't think so when it comes to subd modeling. :-)

Regards
Stefan

That's not its primary function! :)

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 !)

@You : "...The right tool for the right function..."

Wise words my friend....wise words!

These words are the perfect summary of tons and tons of posts and forum threads :)

Ciao!

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....

A new video very enlighting! ;)
(for SKetchUp of course)

interesting work

By the way. FreeCAD has also a workbench for such things.