Auto CAD

[Rusty Nuts]

Wanted to play around with a free CAD drawing package does not need to be too complex just needs to be well supported. Has any body any knowledge or experience of any of these:

Free CAD Software

Thanks for looking

Shindha

[XTR2Turbo]

Try the free Google Draw app

[Mark (smokey mow)]

Try the free Google Draw app

Sketch-up is fine for simple stuff and but as an engineering tool it's somewhat limited.

I was using AutoCAD 2004 until I upgraded my PC to windows 7 and it was no longer comaptible     so since then and for the last year I've been using draftsight which is a free download.  all it's functionallity and commands are exactly the same as AutoCAD and it'll write dxf/dwg files.

The software is from the same company that do Solidworks which is the 3D CAD package I am using in my narrow body rebuild thread (see link below).

[Ian Podmore]

Draftsight is excellent - easy to use and as Smokey says. Comes recommended.  Wouldn't bother looking at anything else now for 2d drafting.

[Dibby]

Everything's free with the power of the internet

If you don't want to pay the full £3k+ for a full CAD package, could you get a 2nd hand copy of AutoCAD Light.

Nothing beats AutoCAD R14, the good old days

[Paul Hurdsfield - Joint Manchester AO]

Nothing beats AutoCAD R14, the good old days

You call that the good old days?

I started on R10 for dos  

[Mark Stanton]

QUOTE

Nothing beats AutoCAD R14, the good old days

2004 was better and the latest 2011 with Revitt is excellent - altho I do prefer the graphics and layout of 2004.

[lippydave]

Seriously what the devil would any one want a 2d cad package for?  

Do it with a 3d package instead ....My 2p worth

The world has more than 2dimensions...

[mjones31]

I agree lippydave. 3d is the way forward!! Been on unigraphics nx7 for about 12 months now. It's b****y brilliant!!!

Mark

[Marcus Barlow - Show and Events Co-ordinator]

Seriously what the devil would any one want a 2d cad package for?

the jump from 2d to 3d is too much for most  

then theres 4d ime still scratching my head over that one lol

[Mark (smokey mow)]

For engineering and manufacturing drawings IMO nothing beets 3D for the visualisation that it provides and that would be my first choice.  

But for Architecture, floor plans and elevations etc 2D wins hands down for speed.

[Mark Stanton]

AutoCad LT is 2D and just fine for most straightforward basic layouts. AutoCad is used for 2D and 3D - just depends on what you require for your own industry use  

[Dibby]

Seriously what the devil would any one want a 2d cad package for?  

Do it with a 3d package instead ....My 2p worth

The world has more than 2dimensions...

Bit of a blinkered statement. All depends on what you're doing with it? ... anyhoo, the world's got 4 dimensions and you could say 3D is for dummards, adding time into animation is the real way of modelling.

2D is good for site layouts, water mains, pipes, cables. You'd never model a water network in 3D and it's  unnecessarily complicated and expensive for a lot of engineering, your water bills would suddenly become horrendously expensive for no benefit other than engineers having pretty pictures.

3D is good for modelling components/ parts, finite element analysis, computational fluid dynamics, but only if you need it.

4D for rendering 3D scenes for computer games/ films/ demonstrations, rendering a construction site layout in 4D would blow your project budget in modelling fees alone .

All depends on what you want to do, not one size will fit all. We start with process flow diagrams (1D if you like), block diagrams, develop them into process and instrumentation diagrams (more 1D scematics), develop that into general arrangement drawings for construction and 99% of the time 2D is fine for construction