I'm looking around for software with which to do drawings, e.g. a mechanical drawing of a part I'm making. I'm really good at software like MacDraw, but of course MacDraw is dead 10+ years now.

I've picked up Google Sketchup and QCAD, but I find them just impossibly difficult to use. Like, I need to draw an 8x24 rectangle, and place 0.25" radius circles at certain points. I'm sorry, this should not be hard. Yet you can't express things like that in these programs, using any method which might be found on the menus, toolbars and the like. For instance, Google Sketchup wouldn't let you set dimensions AT ALL, and QCAD gave you only one choice for radius: 1". It's just impossibly obtuse. What am I doing wrong?

And what programs do you use for drawings?

I use a program called PowerCADD that is only available for Macs. It has evolved to be oriented towards producing presentation drawings, but has a number of decent features for architectural and mechanical drafting. It is not a big powerful beast like AutoCad, but is good for producing small-to-mid sized projects. Unlike Sketchup, it is not free.

For those used to AutoCad, it would probably drive you mad, it is completely WYSIWYG, and everything is in what A-Cad users would call paper space. In fact, the program thinks of everything in terms of how big it will be when you print it out. If you tell it the drawing scale is 3" = 1'-0", then when you go to draw something 6 inches long, the program is secretly thinking, "yeah, sure, its 1 1/2 inches."

Anyway, its pretty easy to use, but that just might be because I've been doing so for about 15 years.

I am currently drawing a Central Pacific passenger depot with it, but that is a topic for another day.

For years I used Generic Cad until AutoCad deemed them competition and bought them out. That was the end of that - or was it?

A group of users continued to want to use GCD and came out with General Cadd Pro. This is a very user friendly program which is totally compatible with the earlier software, uses the same commands and keystrokes, but with the added benefit of using windows fonts and texts imported. It can also import any previous .gcd files, and export in image formats, or .dxf.

Altogether a wonderful compromise and update from DOS.

It draws in real world inches scaled to the screen, or outputs scaled to almost anything you choose. It is basically a two dimensional drafting program and can include text, dimensioning, sectioning, fills and hatches, colors, layers, etc.

If you took a drafting course in school with a pencil and ruler you can use this. It has myriad toolbars you can set up, but also has the option of using two character keystrokes for many items - like LI for drawing a line, XT for extend, FI for fillet, or RM for trim.

Not free, but reasonable I think in terms of todays prices. It is only avalable as an on line download, and I think they offer a trial version for free. Try it.

I also have AutoCad but seldom use it.

Bob Kutella

I have used CorelDraw for many years. Mine is version 7, I think Corel is up to about version 14 now.

I have used it for creating decal artwork from photos and scant other data on rolling stock and motive power, which I print out on an Alps printer. I have also made drawings for structures and simple machinery such as a fork lift attachment for my front loader. Circles, rectangles and lines are simple to draw and fill. I have created special alphabetical characters in all scales.

I cannot attest to whether or not CorelDraw is better or worse than AutoCad or any other program. Nor can I say it is cheaper or more expensive. I paid $125 for a student edition many years ago. I do not know how much it is now.

dan

Vectorworks is a user-friendly graphics oriented CAD program, and they have platforms for MAC and PC. I use both Vectorworks and AutoCad, and they are not too hard to go back and forth from/to.

http://www.nemetschek.net/

Chris Allan

I am an AutoCad user myself. Have been for dare I say 19 years now (ouch)!

Although I am a civil engineer, most of the designs I work on are 2D and I don't use an add on civil design package.

I took a quick look at eBay and several copies of AutoCad 14 are in the $100 or less range. Its an old version of the software, probably 5-6 upgrades since then, but it is a good program. New copies of the software are way overpriced.

Good luck.

Well, so far every response has endorsed a different drafting application. I don't know QCAD, but I can say that Sketchup is just not meant for technical drawings. It is best used for quick and dirty 3-D modeling when precision is not crucial. You can make things more precise in Sketchup by using CAD drawings as backgrounds, but then you need to have made a CAD drawing.

If I might make another suggestion, if the part is simple enough, you might be better off drawing it by hand. Hand drafting is still the fastest way to bang something out. The advantages of CAD are not realized until the Nth revision, or if your planning on some kind of CNC fabrication. I also think that hand drafting is significantly less error-prone. People have this strange idea that stuff done on a computer is inherently correct and that is just not the case.

How many still own T-squares and triangles?

No surprise, I'm with you Randy. Most of my parts and such are sketched out in pencil on scrap paper or in soapstone right on the metal. Why complicate a simple process with a computer? Einstein used to work out the dimension of the universe on the backs of old envelopes........

dave

Yeah, but he didn't have to build it....

Hi,
Many years ago, I learned with a pencil and paper. I later purchased TurboCAD 1.1 and have been very happy with it since it handles very similarly to pencil and paper. It is DOS based and I have a Windows ME PC just so I can run several other DOS based programs that the newer windows versions do not seem to display properly.

I tried Drafix and it was OK but I still preferred TC1.1

I added TurboCad 6.? and use it on my Windows XP to take DXF files from TC1.1 to TC6.? and then to print out.

I recently had a disk crash and found the TC 6.? disks missing so I purchased TC 9.1 to replace it. So far it is much like TC 6.?

I have 3rd Plan It for making model layout drawings. It does good except I am a Civil Engineer and I can not seem to understand how a topo line in 3PI can have changing elevations. I also have problems with meshes to get a 3D view of a layout. Oh well.

I have used AutoCad 10 (I think) for CE design but it did not have the CE package. It was during the era when they were trying to go from DOS to Windows and I found it cumbersome.

I have also used several electrical engineering CAD packages but they are not useful for parts design.

I used E-machine shop's CAD software for modeling 3D parts and it works real nice for most parts. I just wish it was not proprietary. It would be nice if TC 9.1 would have that ability. I have not yet used TC9.1 enough to see about drawings from scratch so the 3D ability may there.

WARNING. When I exported TC 1.1 files to DXF and then red them into a higher level TC, I could not figure out what sort of conversion factor was used because the drawing was some 2.2-odd times larger than in TC 1.1

I later had a good laugh when I finally figured out that TC 1.1 ALWAYS stored the information in millimeters. When it exported to DXF it was also in mm. The import from TC 6.x assumed each unit was feet.

Doug

Because in my wildest dreams, here is what I'd like to be able to do.
1. Express the shape of, say, a casting in the CAD program.
2. Print out a mechanical drawing for the machinist doing the finishing work.
3. "Print" a positive of the part on a 3-D printer (rapid prototyper).
4. Invert the design into a mold (say, for an aluminum part) and CNC mill the mold, with the software helping with correct design, figuring thermal expansion etc.

That seems like it is reachable with generally available CNC fabrication and "Santa Claus" rapid prototyping - the question is, is the software there.

That is undoubtedly the case of most of the major full-featured CAD software for the occasional user. The new price and support services are priced for the major user.

Autodesk's AutoCAD is undoubtedly the program used in most small to medium size engineering firms. I work for a water utility and we use Bentley's MicroStation for design and its GIS databased connected programs for intelligent mapping. MicroStation is used by the various state DOTs and major civil and architectural firms.

Both of these firms do offer a lighter 2D version that most users will find quite beneficial without paying the price for features they will never use. I know that the Bentley programs will read and write in both AutoCAD dwg format and the MicroStation dng format without having to convert the files.

I had a friend who tried the computer telling a computer to run a mill and ended up with a mirror image of the part he wanted - which was a one off, so any decent manual machinist could have knocked it out right the first time. I get the benefit of CNC for making a run of a bunch of identical parts, but not for a one off. Easier to just make it like you need it the once.

In general, I think the fewer layers of transformations of information you have to process through, the less the danger of misunderstanding or simple static fouling the message. The designer who sketches out his own part then machines it is about as easy as it can get.

dave

I believe that most folks that have the CNC capabilities you desire are also able to model the work themselves from drawings you provide. I would recommend having them do the modeling so that they are responsible for the accuracy and tolerances of the piece. If you do the modeling, and get it wrong, then you'd be stuck with it.

People often get themselves into trouble when they do things to "save" money on a project.

The software you want exists, but it is not available as a free download from Google. I use FormZ for modeling. I have only had one thing made from one of my models. An architectural model of a building we were working on in China. It turned out pretty nice, but tolerances were not an issue.

We were doing this as far back as 1987 at the University of Southwest Louisiana (now University of Louisiana) in Lafayette, LA. We created a 3-D model of a simple box with a lid using SDRC I-DEAS on VAX minicomputer, then exported the file and transferred it to a Compaq 386, running AutoCAD (Version 10, I believe; it was the first version to support 2 1/2 D modeling.)

We then used AutoCAD to convert the file to something that another program could import and convert the geometry to tool paths after we described the material and the cuts to make. The tool path code was then outputted to a file that was taken to CNC mill; additional code was added to cut a logo on the box lid. The CNC mill then did all the work; the only thing a human had to do was clamp the stock in place and start the program.

They even had the CNC mill, a conveyor belt, and a CNC lathe all working together as a work cell. It is hard to believe that was 20 years ago; I am sure it is alot easier and requires many fewer hoops to do the same job now.