crap i used to have a dem ophing of one called rhinocerous. but we never got to the 3D section in autocad in my drafting class so i dont think i could be of much use with that...

 

If you can draw in 2d in autocad you can do 3d, it will just take a little guidance and you'll be fine.

 

that's the thing with autocad, it's all 3d-based. none of this 2d then convert to 3d crap like autocad. autocad is for EE and CE's, if you want something good for cars, use SolidWorks and then FEA using CosmosWorks. we draw our whole Formula SAE car in SolidWorks before building it and do a finite element analysis (FEA) on parts such as chassis, suspension, and drivetrain using CosmosWorks.



here was our '01 car

 

IDEAS is completely 3d based as well. I agree that the newer software is generally more powerful, however you can get the job done with something else, what's the problem with that?



I'm in the process of downloading SolidWorks 2003 now, maybe by the time I get home it will be done, then I'll play around with it and see if I like it.