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Comment by turbinerneiter | Hacker News Reader

There is something wrong with answering someones request for learning resources with a bunch of gatekeeping.

You said Fusion is for amateurs, and that "real" MEs don't use it. That's wrong, plenty of real MEs use it. You then listed a bunch of features that Fusion 360 actually has in a way suggesting it doesn't.

You also used a bunch of terms and pointed towards the importance of knowing those terms - which is just another form of gatekeeping. You didn't mention them in a way that suggested them as useful search terms to research.

And now you are saying I don't understand your buzzwords. Well, I do. Now what?

My attitude is simple: provide op with something that helps and encourages him. Telling him his tool is amateurish and throwing around some ME terms doesn't achieve that.

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I think focusing on what cad tool to use is a bit like fussing over what brand of pencils to use as a professional artist. It really doesn't matter if you start with fusion360, Catia, inventor, AutoCAD, SolidWorks because these tools are all trying to keep the amount of surprise for people switching to a minimum. You will likely get to use whatever your employer has licensed and if you work in 2 places, chances are you will have to learn 2 tools.

I started with pen and paper and had to do the 3d part in my head, and working out the material resistance calculations with equations, no fancy finite elements...for context.

Just to add Creo and Siemens NX to your list of major CAD softwares.

There is a russian one also, but I don't know the status. Or if it is only a kernel like opencascade.

One of my favorite CAD systems to use has been one called IronCAD, but it's not huge in terms of market share.

Not OP but isn’t your definition of gatekeeping in all industries and it is wrong to point out industry expectations (of course delivery matters)? Like if a kid learns programming using Scratch, you’re not gonna be like NO! Real programmers use C++! But if at one point the kid wants to take programming serious enough, you should explain to them that the industry expect certain tools and skill set.

I would argue CAD/CAM packages are the same. While there’s absolutely nothing wrong with fusion360 (I use it to for persona use too), it is true how the market penetration is extremely slim. Even the industrial sibling Inventor has only a small percentage of the market. While a lot of it is historical reasons, there are good reasons why most small to medium sized companies use Inventor/Solidworks and MasterCAM as their main driver.

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