MCAD with a specific feature?

I'm looking for a Design/Modeling/CAD package that will understand the edges of object and know you can't put a steel bolt through a steel beam without first making a hole. Does that make sense? What would this feature be called so I can google for software packages that have it?

... try with "tool collision" or intersection ...

Viktor

While I can use QCAD with great proficiency, 3D has been an ongoing struggle. My biggest struggle is accurately lining up pieces into an assembly. However, having spent most of the weekend researching 3D CAD packages, I believe I have found the solution.

Instead of approaching the problem by find a package that will detection part collisions, I discovered what I was neglecting to include, points that I could snap to. Now I have a better idea of how I should model my pieces, Sketchup appears to have all of the tools I need after adding a few plugins.

Thanks for the help though Viktor,

Jeremy

cptwinder Wrote:
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> I'm looking for a Design/Modeling/CAD package that
> will understand the edges of object and know you
> can't put a steel bolt through a steel beam
> without first making a hole. Does that make sense?
> What would this feature be called so I can google
> for software packages that have it?

BRL-CAD will do that for you, using the rtcheck command. My first two days with BRL-CAD was utter frustration, the learning curve is quite steep. But once I got past the first hurdles, I've become more and more impressed with what it can do.

If I recall correct, Autodesk Inventor is quite friendly in this regard. There is a collision setting that allows you to slide objects until they run into things when you mate together assemblies.