Any one for CAD...?

[PeteThePen1]

Dear Steamboating Colleagues

No doubt the real engineers amongst you will have no need of this snippet, but here it is anyway.

1. In the UK, Maplin, the electronics retailer, is selling TurboCAD Deluxe 16 for less than £9. For those who want a cheap entry to reasonably powerful computer aided drawing, I can recommend it (at leat now that I have mastered the 2D drawing bit!). The software is for Windows XP and Windows 7, or you can run it in Virtual Box under Linux.

2. By pure chance I came across this site which appears to offer free CAD drawings of standard components. I have tried a download and the files are commendably small. However, I have not quite cracked the scaling thing. I suspect that is the famous "User error" so popular in IT.

http://www.tracepartsonline.net

I found the search facility very hard to use, so resorted to Google, but I imagine if you know what you are looking for, it should be possible to put in the right search term.

Regards

Pete

[SailorHarry]

Hello,

I am not familiar with those programs, but I recently used DraftSight to draw up bulkheads and frames to be water-jet cut for the boat I'm building. The program is free. I had drawings from Selway-Fisher which I digitized myself. I am computer savvy but had no prior CAD experience and it got the job done. It's 2D only but that's all I needed. There are a few minor glitches and it's not the most user-friendly but hey, it's free.

Harry

[Dape1]

Hi, guys! Except that site what Pete mentioned, another one is:
http://b2b.partcommunity.com/community/
I managed to get some parts and free download of catalogs. Good Thing is they have 3D models, so you can move it in all directions to see if they fit to your Needs. Hope it will help to somebody and good luck!

[Dhutch]

Never used the aforementioned program, but if it works you cant fault the price! I have heard people using google sketch-up for 3d modelling but have yet to see an engineering drawings produced from that.

At work we use NX (Unigrahpics) but the annual cost of about £4000 is out of most people price range!

SolidEdge (now stable-mate of NX) is a little more affordable at £140.00/month for a basic package or £220 with sheet modelling, as good for most needs, with a 45day free trial and free 2d drafting packages also available.


Daniel

[oldnicos]

Moin,

hm, its difficult to say yes or no.
I'm just able to say what kind of CAD I use .
As first , nearly every day at work and private office I use draftboard by porsche design.
The second way I use for is the OpenSCAD. Its just possible to program it by prompt.
The others I use somewhen: FreeShip (Ship Design and calculate), Compass 3D.
I'd learned also AutoCad till R13 and I've had used it till 2002. Anyway I don't have anymore an key to use it.

Maybe there will be anther kind of CAD, which is usefull and simple to use like WYSIWYG.

Thx and best regards
Nic whit co

[Dhutch]

Maybe there will be anther kind of CAD, which is usefull and simple to use like WYSIWYG.

If you are not familiar with modern 3D modelling packages (Solid Edge,Solid Works, UX, ProEngineer, etc) they I expect you would be blown away by the capability and the speed at which parts can be modelled, placed into assemblies, and developed into engineering drawings.

Other than a few small dabble during my a-levels, I have only been using CAD for the last 9 years starting at university, graduating in 2010 and moving to JCB Excavators where I work designing new machines.

We do a lot of work with sheet metal, and within an hour I can model a fairly complex bracket, with several sets of holes, couple of bends/tabs/flanges/joggles, with a welded in gusset or two, and produce the two piece part drawings and the welded assembly drawing and have them with the supplier. Flat patterns and DXF files to go straight into laser cutter are produced automatically.
All the design work is done with the part 'in-situ' so you can live adjust it to mate up with the chassis and the part it is supporting, as well as missing all the other parts, hoses, harnesses, etc. using synchronous modelling to drag faces around live, either to reincorporated back into the controlling sketches and commands, or to be left in as controlling sketches of there own.

I am sure if you google 'synchronous modelling demo' or 'NX sheet metal demonstration' there will be videos on youtube, most are training or promotional footage, but if you know what you want you can drive it that fast in real world applications.

There is still then scope and room for specific packages for things like generating ships lines, performing structural analysis, modelling hydraulic behaviour, etc
and typically the more specialist the tool the less user-friendly it is as the development budget and need for mass acceptance decreases rapidly
but while it takes a while to learn the details of all the features and many will never know it all, they are very easy to pick up and very much wysiwyg.


Daniel

[Mike Cole]

I am also a user of the free 2D Solidedge. I only used it so far for the valve gear on my traction engine. I found it very easy to pick up.
Model Engineer Workshop( MEW) I hear is going to give away a CAD package as a coverdisk and also run a how to series in the magazine.

Mike

[TahoeSteam]

This may be of some interest: http://www.emachineshop.com/