Posted: 5/2/2011 11:46:12 AM EDT
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Okay, I am finally getting a halfway decent home mill/drill to do some hobby milling. I did a bit of machining years ago (nothing beyond rookie stuff, but I can do the basics) and I had access back then to Autocad (mid-90s). Is there any freeware that will allow me to do basic drawings (layout bolt holes and such) like Autocad. I do not need high end rendering, just basic stuff. Thanks in advance |
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Not trying to shit on your post, but I downloaded that out of curiosity because I use autocad all the time at work and it's a shitty program. Edit: It's a shitty program for drawing plan designs. I tried the engineering, plan view, and beginner templates. The view may be good for people who are use to seeing the whole 3d picture at once, but most aren't. |
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I work in Rhino3d, but it's more 3d contour milling and rapid prototyping.
www.rhino3d.com You can download the full version for free. It's good for 25 saves, and then stops saving, but you can still learn on it. Might not be your cup of tea. There's lots of them out there. www.cnczone.com is the ARFCOM of CAD/CAM. They've got good forums over there, and are usually very easy on noobs. Best, JBR |
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Quoted:
Quoted:
I have a full version of AutoCad I got from my company (legally) in 2006. I no longer work for that company and don't use AutoCad. If you want it, it's yours for the cost of shipping. Thanks, I appreciate the offer, but I wouldn't feel right doing that. No problem. I just dug it out of a box in my garage and it's actually Autodesk Inventor 11. I got this through a home use program and although I know I installed it on my computer, I doubt I used it more than a couple of times. I also found in the box the user agreement. Seems I was suppose to return it to the company once I was no longer employed. But I honestly forgot about it till I saw it cleaning my garage last weekend. Guess I'll take it to them next time I pass close by them. |
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I use DeltaCAD, 2D-only and $40. Free trial at website.
So simple to use it almost doesn't need instructions. It has a few bugs but it hasn't ever lost a file. For visualizing in 3D, I use [free] Sketchup. Google Sketchup seems to be the only easy-to-use (mouse-driven) 3D CAD/modeling program ever made, by anyone, in the entire world, ever. It's the only one I would consider buying now, but I have concluded that for what I do I don't really -need- 3D CAD ability at all (mainly since I have no CNC machines to feed files to) The holy grail of a 3D modeling/CAD program is the ability to do constraint-based drawing, so that part faces or entire parts designated to remain as separate parts, aren't ever allowed to interfere or combine with each other in the CAD file. Below that you have some programs that have a feature to "check for interference" after you have drawn pieces, but I dunno any cheaper software that does either of these things. ––––––- I bought a copy of DesignCAD 3D Max a few years back to use at home, and it was impossible to use. It is totally incomprehensible, the big book it came with turned out to be pretty useless, and the program's own help files didn't work. I've also not ever heard of any decent open-source CAD program either, 2D or 3D, except to diehard Linux aspies mainly concerned with 'never using Windows'. If you just gotta have 3D,,,, nowadays a lot of people say Alibre is pretty nice, for the $200 home version. |
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Quoted: I use DeltaCAD, 2D-only and $40. Free trial at website. So simple to use it almost doesn't need instructions. It has a few bugs but it hasn't ever lost a file. For visualizing in 3D, I use [free] Sketchup. Google Sketchup seems to be the only easy-to-use (mouse-driven) 3D CAD/modeling program ever made, by anyone, in the entire world, ever. It's the only one I would consider buying now, but I have concluded that for what I do I don't really -need- 3D CAD ability at all (mainly since I have no CNC machines to feed files to) The holy grail of a 3D modeling/CAD program is the ability to do constraint-based drawing, so that part faces or entire parts designated to remain as separate parts, aren't ever allowed to interfere or combine with each other in the CAD file. Below that you have some programs that have a feature to "check for interference" after you have drawn pieces, but I dunno any cheaper software that does either of these things. ––––––- I bought a copy of DesignCAD 3D Max a few years back to use at home, and it was impossible to use. It is totally incomprehensible, the big book it came with turned out to be pretty useless, and the program's own help files didn't work. I've also not ever heard of any decent open-source CAD program either, 2D or 3D, except to diehard Linux aspies mainly concerned with 'never using Windows'. If you just gotta have 3D,,,, nowadays a lot of people say Alibre is pretty nice, for the $200 home version. 2-D is okay for me (the Autocad I used was 2-D, the 3-D stuff was just coming out back then). I just need something I can use to draw and dimension with (if it will layout a bolt pattern that is gravy). Thanks. I will check into that DeltaCad. |
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progeCAD Smart
Runs on the IntelliCAD Engine... * reads and writes AutoCAD® DWG files from 2.5 to 2009 * has industry standard AutoCAD Commands * has AutoCAD® Menu, Script, Font Compatibility * has AutoLISP® Compatibility! * has Basic Rendering Options * has Express Tools * export to PDF and JPG * 11,000 standard symbols and blocks available for free |
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I do some stuff on a CNC router table (kind of a homemade "shopbot"), and for basic 2D layouts I use CorelDraw 12. It's not free, but it's an older version and you can probably pick up a copy for under $30 if you shop around.
Regardless of what package you use to do the linework, you'll still need something to turn it into gcode for the mill. I like Vectric Cut2D. Again, it's not free... runs about $150. But you get a LOT of program for the money. The Vectric packages are sweet. |
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Might be interesting for you:
http://lcamtuf.coredump.cx/guerrilla_cnc1.shtml |
