Free CAD software (for axial flux PMG design)

[lifer]

Is there any free/shareware CAD software to help designing an axial flux PM generator?

I'm not interested in flux & thermal analysis (like Motor-CAD) but to test different coil shapes/sizes/spacing and to see the magnets/coils overlappings during a complete rotation.

I've seen many people posting such images/animations but I still don't know which CAD software did they use (hope it's not 3ds/Maya or something?).

[Alkemi]

Is there any free/shareware CAD software to help designing an axial flux PM generator?

I'm not interested in flux & thermal analysis (like Motor-CAD) but to test different coil shapes/sizes/spacing and to see the magnets/coils overlappings during a complete rotation.

I've seen many people posting such images/animations but I still don't know which CAD software did they use (hope it's not 3ds/Maya or something?).

Try http://www.emachineshop.com/ Cad software. It also gives you option to buy items from them with quote, if you want to. You design and then can view it in 3-D which you can rotate and see like live.

Note: I'm not affiliated with that website in anyway.

[lifer]

That's an excellent piece of software though you can't have multiple z-planes (so I don't know how to draw two separate disks - one including coils and other including magnets). It also lacks animation capabilities - but I could rotate (step by step) one disk to see the overlappings. Hope to make it work. Thanks again!

[Alkemi]

May be you could join them by some connector e.g. metal piece (which you can ignore in reality), so you can draw complete 3D and view it. It may be complaining because its not connected. But I'm not expert on that software, I just played with it couple of times a year back or so.

[SparWeb]

I hear good things about Sketch-up, but I haven't really tried it to know if it would work for this.

[DamonHD]

Our kitchen design was done in Sketchup by our builder and was impressive, but as SW says I can't tell if it would be good for more mechanically precise work.

Rgds

Damon

[SparWeb]

Maybe you're over-thinking the problem.
In the old days, this would be done with pencil, paper and scissors. 
Even though I do have Autodesk Inventor available to me at work, sometimes, it's still better to start a sketch with a piece of paper.

[lifer]

You've read my mind, SparWeb! I've build a cardboard "PMG" few days ago and have played with it alot. Though my son will never understand why me, "the computer freak", I'm doing this!

[SparWeb]

Ah, the old pencil-CAD wins again.
I hope the system becomes clear, too, as a result.