If you can, try Solidworks. I know it's expensive, but if you're resourceful, try it out. I tried Sketchup and Inventor Fusion, but for some reason, it didn't help me much. My job gave me a copy to use, and it's, imho, very easy to use. They even have tutorials built into the program.

Which one was easy to use? The Solidworks or the Inventor Fusion?

ronsii wrote:

For using sketchup just start by making everything 100 times the size you really need ie... if you need a circle with an OD of 10mm make it 10000mm instead then when you are all done just scale it down 100 times, sketchup supports numeric input on all actions, just start the action you wish and then type in the sizes or movements.

I don't know what you mean by sizes or movements? I haven't had much luck finding the scales of things. With autocad anyway there was always line showing at all times what all measurements are.

Whenever you are making, moving or changing objects in the sketchup main window there will be a small white box in the bottom right corner of the screen with numbers in it... say you are making a box... start by clicking and dragging the box out... now when you let go of the button just click in the number window and change the numbers to match what you want...x,y,z... voila, it instantly changes the object you were working on. This coordinate entry can be used with all of sketchup's tools and functions, while it is not autocad it is useful for lots of 3d printing tasks.

For using sketchup just start by making everything 100 times the size you really need ie... if you need a circle with an OD of 10mm make it 10000mm instead then when you are all done just scale it down 100 times, sketchup supports numeric input on all actions, just start the action you wish and then type in the sizes or movements.

I don't know what you mean by sizes or movements? I haven't had much luck finding the scales of things. With autocad anyway there was always line showing at all times what all measurements are.