Wanting to get into CAD ( Computer aided design )

[Evil Ninetales]

Ok so I've been really facinated by many different things that were made through CAD and it's something I'd like to get into as a hobby.

my current PC specs

i5 6600K ( 4.7GHZ Delidded, Water cooled )
2x MSi Gaming X 8G GTX 1080's ( HB SLi ) ( Not water cooled )
16GB DDR4 ram
primary monitor is BenQ XL2730Z 2560x1440x144hz
Secondary monitor is Acer XB280HK 3840x2160x60hz

I've been told CAD doesn't support SLi but even one 1080 should do the job to some extent.

I'm certanly not ready yet to blow all my tech money on a quadro.

Any arrows in the right direction would be

What programs are recommended?

Thanks everyone.

[TehSpoopyKitteh]

You will want a NVIDIA Quadro gpu.

[ulia]

Depends on what type of design you're looking at, entry level software would be Fusion360 which is somewhat beginner friendly and good for component design, 3D printing and CNC. Sketchup and Autocad are other alternatives if you're wanting to get in to architecture/interior design.

A 1080 is perfectly applicable for most of the work you'll be doing on a hobby level.

[pasa]

For the record we were doing CAD alright around '90 ans all you really needed was a 80287 coprocessor. Okay, having 4 Mb ram helped too.

[_I_]

i7 and 32g of ram

144hz monitor isnt going to help with cad

depending on the software the 2nd gpu would be better solo than sli
the quadros are more specialized for cad, more and faster vram but slower/fewer cores

the quadro numbering has been all over the place
but the newer quadro rtx 5000-7000 are simiar to the rtx 2080 dekstop cards

quadro p 400-6000 are pascal gtx 1050 to titan xp based cards
and gp/gv 100 are 1080ti/titan v based

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nvidia_Quadro

[Evil Ninetales]

Origineel geplaatst door 🎃The Spoopy Kitteh🎃:

You will want a NVIDIA Quadro gpu.

Eventually I will but I'm not quite disney or pixar yet.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Forget the Quadro, just get an RTX 2080 or 2080 Ti; they are the best of both Geforce and Quadro

Honestly I'd just keep the current PC as-is for Gaming.
Maybe consider a new PC build using:
Ryzen 2700X + X470 Motherboard
2x 16GB RAM @ 3200 CAS-14
RTX 2080 or 2080 Ti

[Evil Ninetales]

Origineel geplaatst door Bad 💀 Motha:

Forget the Quadro, just get an RTX 2080 or 2080 Ti; they are the best of both Geforce and Quadro

Isn't a decent 2080 ti about the same price as a quadro p5000? give or take £100

[calluM]

Origineel geplaatst door Evil Ninetales:

Isn't a decent 2080 ti about the same price as a quadro p5000? give or take £100

Yeah, but with a 2080 Ti you will have the advantage of being able to game at ultra settings in 4k as well as run CAD. Like you said, it's just a hobby. If it becomes a money maker in the future then get a quadro, until then a 2080/2080 Ti will do great.

[Evil Ninetales]

Origineel geplaatst door calluM:

Yeah, but with a 2080 Ti you will have the advantage of being able to game at ultra settings in 4k as well as run CAD.

I can see where you are coming from but the p5000 is basically a GTX1080 with other enterprise features and double VRAM.

The thing is. I don't game at 4K. I game at 1440p @ 144hz.

I'm not trying to persuade myself to spend £1,500 on a quadro p5000.

I'm just looking at both potential use cases.

If anything. I may just go build a completely different system for non-gaming purposes. Video editing, CAD and other uses.

It all depends on how much I'm willing to save for the build.

[calluM]

Origineel geplaatst door Evil Ninetales:

Origineel geplaatst door calluM:

Yeah, but with a 2080 Ti you will have the advantage of being able to game at ultra settings in 4k as well as run CAD.

I can see where you are coming from but the p5000 is basically a GTX1080 with other enterprise features and double VRAM.

The thing is. I don't game at 4K. I game at 1440p @ 144hz.

I'm not trying to persuade myself to spend £1,500 on a quadro p5000.

I'm just looking at both potential use cases.

If anything. I may just go build a completely different system for non-gaming purposes. Video editing, CAD and other uses.

It all depends on how much I'm willing to save for the build.

If it were me I would get a Quadro if I were using the system for CAD primarily and gaming on the side because Quadros aren't the worst for gaming but their cost makes them terrible for only gaming or I would get a 2080 Ti if I were primarily gaming and doing CAD on the side. To be honest though even if only one of your 1080s are working with whichever program you decide to use, you should be fine because it's at a hobby level. Once you get great at CAD and feel you can profit from it, get a Quadro because you can make the price back on it through doing CAD for clients.

[Evil Ninetales]

is 8GB VRAM enough for "hobby" level CAD.

obviously I'm being hyperthetical. I'm still looking into how to do it and how it works etc...

[calluM]

Origineel geplaatst door Evil Ninetales:

is 8GB VRAM enough for "hobby" level CAD.

obviously I'm being hyperthetical. I'm still looking into how to do it and how it works etc...

It depends on the application you're using, if it's Direct3D or OpenGL youll have no problems using your 8GB 1080. The 1080 and P5000 perform similarly though in cinebench and other benchmarks, but for alot of everything else to do with CAD, a P5000 is much better due to the 16GB GDDR5X and the optimised drivers.

Take a look at the results of 4.8 - GeeXLab: two sided lighting test between a 1080 and a P5000.

https://www.geeks3d.com/20170515/test-nvidia-quadro-p5000-vs-geforce-gtx-1080/2/#_44

There's a few other tests on that page as well if you wanna look

[Evil Ninetales]

Origineel geplaatst door calluM:

a P5000 is much better due to the 16GB GDDR5X and the optimised drivers.

I don't think its gddr5x ( as if that makes much difference )

https://www.pny.com/nvidia-quadro-p5000

EDIT : Specs say GDDR5 and other spec on same page says GDDR5X so I dunno...

[Washell]

I do IT support for a small firm that handles the designs for remodels and renovations. They do their drawings in autocad and they use i5s with a gt730 because no, you do not make back the price of quadros in a highly competitive market.

You don't need the heavy stuff until you need photo realistic results in less than two weeks. You don't need quadros until you run into vram issues or need the double precision so you can trust the load calculations of the multi story apartment building or bridge that you're designing.

What you have is already massive overkill for your purposes.

As for programs, that depends on what you to design. For 3D modelling in general, blender is free, has a ton of online tutorials and the basic skills will be transferable.

[hawkeye]

I agree with Washall. I'm involved in making models for 3d printing as a hobby using blender as it has a lot plugins for making tasks easier.

There is a good market for gaming models. Google "kickstarter 3d terrain" as one example of making money.

Might sound a bit geeky, but pc game companies are already into tabletop spinoffs such as Fallout Wasteland Warfare.

If you did advance to photo realistic rendering, then an rtx card would be what I would choose.