Originally Posted by monoman

Thanks for the advice, I've got my hands on some decent software now.

Originally Posted by jasonz

In my engineering classes, we use Solidworks. It is a simple and amazing program designed for what you are trying to do. It works similarily to sketch up but has much more functionality. You design something, then it will automatically creat isometric and side views in a autocad format.

By the way, autoCAD for the most part is not 3d, and what little is 3d is nothing like solidworks or the others. IT is not made for 3d modeling. Autodesk 3d modeling program is called inventor. I've not used it but i hear it is pretty amazing. There are a couple of other autodesk programs for 3d modeling, but i think inventor is what you are looking for.

If you are serious about what you have to do, i would really look into solidworks or inventor.