Open source 3d engineering software - anyone ideas?

[Ahriman]

Ave!
I'm on Ubuntu Linux, and I'm rather satisfied with it.
But...
As I'll launch my company in a few months, I'll need to be able to design my stuff more precisely because when I'll become a professional I won't really have the time to check designs by making them and seeing if there's anything wrong with them. (I could do without the more complex equipment, but it seems that some are willing to pay nice amounts of money for more advanced siege weaponry like a polybolos)
So far I experimented with Art of Illusion (gives nice results, but I can't really use it for anything else than pure graphic fun), brlcad (so far it seems usable but it's a bit... user-unfriendly) and freeCAD (so far the best. So far. ). All of these had their flaws and merits, but I somehow feel that there must be other good engineering software out there, so I thought that I'll ask for input.

I can work with scripts (trivially it'll be the only way to do some of the work), but I'd prefer if I could create at least primitive solids through a user-friendly GUI.

Anyone, anything? Oh, and thanks in advance!

 

[Monadnock]

IntelliCAD maybe? I don't know if it runs on Linux or not but it might....

What kind of engineering are you designing for?

 

[Ahriman]

IntelliCAD? I'll check it out tonight.
I'd need this for making both "concept art" for simpler stuff (knives, swords, armour and the like - the armour part is the tricky here as I'll need to be able to show the costumer how would that work), and precise working models of either combination or advanced siege weapons (this is the most difficult as these things have multiple cogs, levers, springs, flat-link chains, ropes and the like. I already have nightmares when I think about the things DaVinci designed )
I can manage things with what I already have, but some parts would need either extreme amounts of scripting or editing the source code, and even as I could do either I'd like to avoid this path IF possible.

 

[jlhummel]

For real 3D modeling and design Solid Works is what we use for military heavey vehicle design. Might be more exspencive than u want but u can design anything u might want.

 

[terry_gardener]

try the following sites for open source and free software

also try the following for windows alternative software for linux

also you could also try using the windows software that you are use to using WINE.

check the following sites for info.

http://www.jevontech.com/open-source-software.html
http://www.winehq.org
http://linuxappfinder.com/alternatives

hope this helps.

 

[TheOriginalName]

If you have the budget there is CATIA V5.
Besides being one of the leaders in 3D modelling (aerospace standard) it's also got a lot of cool stuff animation and analysis stuff as well.
The down side is it's expensive......

 

[Andrew Green]

For models / meshs my understanding is http://www.blender.org/ is quite good, but its graphics orientated, not engineering. So it may or may not be of any use.