ADS
ADS (Aircraft Design Software) is a design software developed by OAD (Optimal Aircraft Design). This program is perfect for aircraft designers and builders amateurs . If you are a beginner and you are just getting started with building aircraft, this design software will be perfectly adapted to your needs. It is great to work on aerodynamics and aircraft designs and it has a lot of tools to optimise the configuration of your aircraft.
Cart3D
Cart3D is an efficient software powered by NASA, specially made for aerospace and aeronautics. If you are specifically looking for a program to help you with aircraft design, you have to take a look at the tools offered by Cart3D called GoCart. It is made for aircraft aerodynamics analysis and design. It will allow to deal with geometry inputs and mesh preparation. GoCart has perfect visualisation possibilities and includes a lot of post processing options. Thanks to this design program you will be able to work on computational aerodynamics and control your aircraft stability.
NX
NX is a modeling software that can be used for you aircraft design projects. Airplane designers can use this efficient tool for their development process in aeronautics. NX and its various advanced features will help you to design the best 3D models, using parametric solid modeling. You will be able to create accurate mechanical designs. If you are getting started with this program, here is a video tutorial that might help you:
Inventor
Inventor is a CAD software developed by Autodesk. This professional tool is great to work on 3D mechanical designs. You can create technical 2D drawings, preliminary designs but also 3D designs, dynamic simulations and great visualisation for your aircraft design projects. These software tools are efficient enough to work on 3D aircraft designs. You can find a tutorial on our website to learn how to prepare a 3D model for 3D printing with Inventor.
PTC Creo
PTC Creo (formerly known as Pro/Engineer) is a design software providing solid modeling and assembly modeling, but also good 2D views and useful analysis. It is a good program if you need to work on product design or surface modeling. Indeed, this package will be perfect to optimize your aircraft models. It is possible to use direct modeling or parametric modeling with PTC Creo. You can watch a demonstration in the video below:
SketchUp
SketchUp is known to be an intuitive program. This free 3D modeling software can be used for many different applications, from architecture to medical, but it can totally fit an engineering project, such as aircraft design. If it is possible to use SketchUp for various 3D projects. It is also ideal for scaled and accurate 2D drawings. If you are just beginning with Sketchup, check out our Sketchup tutorial series. As you can see, there are various possibilities when it comes to modeling programs. But we hope that this selection helped you to find the right CAD software to develop your engineering projects. You are an aeronautics or aerospace engineer and you want to try 3D printing? You can totally 3D print some of the parts that you designed on one of these software, upload them to our online 3D printing service. And if you want more informations about 3D printing, subscribe to our weekly newsletter!
Source: Top 10 of the best aircraft design software in 2022 (sculpteo.com)