Which CAD package for pencil and paper man

[martinw]

Dear All,

I have spent some considerable time hunched over a drawing board. Pencils, blocked-up expensive German pens etc. The drawing board is usually used as a table-saw out-feed table these days.

There comes a time when a simple CAD package looks pretty attractive..my problem is which one should I choose?????

Here is what I want

1) No shading, or colours

2) No perspectives

3) No volume or weight take-offs

4) No flash presentation facilities

5) Easy means to dimension components

6) A4 printer output is fine

Any package that is pretty much a 2D one , and with the facility for the odd axonometric would be great.

At this stage, plug-ins to Mach 2/3 are not needed.


I would be very grateful if you could give me a few informed suggestions


Best Wishes

Martin

[tobyaxis]

http://www.bobcad.net/index.php?sele...&keyword_page=
http://www.alibre.com/

This is a good start for you. Also Alibre is Parametric and their base Model with Solid Modeling is FREEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!

[riverrat]

autocad light, if it's still availible would be an option, if not i'm sure
someone (NOT ME!) has a copy of some newer software they would be
willing to share.
do you fish martin?

[martinw]

Originally Posted by riverrat do you fish martin?

Dear riverrat,

Cornwall, UK. Some mackerel, and if I'm really lucky, a bass. The latter happens very rarely. I'm a hopeless fisherman.

Best wishes

Martin

[riverrat]

bummer on the bass. if you ever get to the us, let me know.
i'll take you on the missouri river, you will have FUN!!

[martinw]

Originally Posted by riverrat bummer on the bass. FUN!!

Dear riverrat,

Is that open-sea bass or the weedy others???????????

Best wishes

Martin

[ger21]

It's pretty tough to find a strictly 2D CAD package these days. If you want to try some free ones, there's A9CAD from www.a9tech.com and ProgeCAD at http://www.progecad.com/

I haven't used it in a while, but I learned on DesignCAD and always recommend it. Easy to learn, powerful and cheap. http://www.imsisoft.com/faminfo.asp?fam=2

[martinw]

Originally Posted by ger21 It's pretty tough to find a strictly 2D CAD package these days. If you want to try some free ones, there's A9CAD from www.a9tech.com and ProgeCAD at http://www.progecad.com/ I haven't used it in a while, but I learned on DesignCAD and always recommend it. Easy to learn, powerful and cheap. http://www.imsisoft.com/faminfo.asp?fam=2

Dear ger21,

Thank-you for your advice. I guess there comes a time when a person does not want more "features". It is not a message that product producers seem to take on board.


Please keep giving more CAD advice

Many thanks

Best Wishes

Martin

[DareBee]

Do not pay for 2d CAD.
IMO AutoCAD is way too labour intensive compared to a lot of others (although it is better than pencil).

I have heard good things about the free Alibre but haven't had a chance to play with my copy yet.

This Solid Edge Free 2D Drafting is supposed to be very good as well. http://www.solidedge.com/free2D/

I am a SolidWorks guy myself, but my endorsement to you is obviously 1 or both of these 2.

[Willbird]

I would say get one you can buy a xxxCAD for dummies book for, I jumped into Autocad 14 with the dummies book for it and can draw and dimension stuff pretty decent.

I used BobCad at work for awile with nothing but a few pointers here and there from other self taught guys and did ok with it, it has some WEIRD things you have to learn like how to trim circles and such, but not tooo bad with a few pointers here and there as I said :-)

To be fair on the circle.arc issue I'll explain, in most other cad software a circle is a continous thing, in BobCad it seems to have a definate start and stop position in degrees...so if you want an unknown degree length arc with a vaguely known start and stop point it can be a bear to trim if the start/stop point is in the middle of the arc you want to end up with :-). The work around that worked best for me was to draw the arc a little long each way and trim it back...as opposed to just drawing a circle like I would in autocad and cutting away what I didnt need :-)

Bill

[WEDDLETON]

I would suggest that you try SMARTSKETCH by Intergraph.

It is easy to use and very powerful.
It can read and write Autocad files with no problems.

Any version that you can find will do what you are looking for.
This software has a very short learning curve, and is probably the
best , but least known software on the market for 2D.

Download a copy from www.smartsketch.com

The only drawback is the price , but the ease of use is better than
anything else ( in my opinion )

Good Luck

[Komissar]

Hi Martinw,

Have you tried QCAD? (http://www.ribbonsoft.com/qcad.html)

I use the linux version on ubuntu dapper and have always been pleased with the results. I will admit it takes some perseverance to learn but it gets easier. If you need to use it on windows you can get it fro 24 euros. Hope this helps.

Cheers