Easy CAD Program ?

[Betelgeuse]

hi all
i'm looking for an easy to use CAD program to design some of my planned projects on.
been using google sketchbook only so far, but could do with something a bit more powerful.
suggestions please
thanks

 

[rtbcomp]

CadStd. Lite is free, the pro. version is a few quid and worth every penny (even I paid for it).

Dead easy to use.

http://www.cadstd.com/

 

[Pete.]

I use Draftsight, coz it's free and it's good.

 

[stuvy]

whats the best for a mac?

 

[rtbcomp]

Draftsight has a MAC version, Cad Std doesn't.

 

[rtbcomp]

Just had a look at Draftsight

Much more complicated than CadStd, but not as intuitive. Tried a simple task of drawing a comman tangent between two unequal circles. Failed in draftsight, took about 5 secs in CadStd.

 

[Country Joe]

Draftsight has a MAC version

Can't make it run on mine, though!
Having read your next post, maybe it's just as well!
Oh well!
Cj

 

[Pete.]

Just had a look at Draftsight

Much more complicated than CadStd, but not as intuitive. Tried a simple task of drawing a comman tangent between two unequal circles. Failed in draftsight, took about 5 secs in CadStd.

Well, I just drew two circles, select line, type tan in the box, selected the first circle near to where it should touch, repeated tan, select second circle in a similar way and it was done.

 

[rtbcomp]

Tried that it works, but took me a while to find the box to type in though and I would never have worked that out by trial & error or without instructions.

With CadStd you draw your circles, select line, select the symbol showing two circles joined by a tangent and then select start & end points for the line near to where to where you want them to be.

Intuitive and much faster.

 

[Pete.]

Ok granted. The reason I knew it is because it's the same command as Autocad.
Draftsight also does fillet, chamfer, arc etc which you have to pay for in Cadstd.

 

[rtbcomp]

I was quite happy to pay for the extras. AFAIK CadStd is written by a bloke and his daughter and you can't expect them to work for nothing. You also get 1-to-1 email support if you pay, but there doesn't seem to be a user forum.

IMHO CadStd is lacking in the following areas,

1) No fill/shade
2) You can't group entities
3) Can't import JPEGS

I used to use Autosketch (from the days of DOS) but it became too geeky, and unless I used it all the time I found it difficult to get back into. Changing layers was a bit complicated IIRC. With CadStd it's just one left click, use a right click to hide/show layers. Simples.

 

[rtbcomp]

Hyperlinks would be nice too!

 

[troppo]

I`ve just been told about this one, dont know what its like but it looks simple enough
http://www.3ds.com/products/draftsight/download-draftsight/#xtor=AD-508-[facebookwelcome]-[middle]-[0]-[www.facebook.com

 

[rtbcomp]

That's Draftsight - we've been talking about it for the last million posts

 

[troppo]

That's Draftsight - we've been talking about it for the last million posts

sorry, only trying to help

 

[Wedg1e]

I use AutoCAD, used TurboCAD as well pre-2000 but Acad sort of took over. Now I've acquired :cough: Solidworks but can I hell get to grips with the 2D drawing routines... Acad seems easier to me.

 

[Normsthename]

Now I've acquired :cough: Solidworks but can I hell get to grips with the 2D drawing routines... Acad seems easier to me

I use Solidworks at work, it's a love hate relationship, mostly hate!
The most annoying thing is there are so many different ways to draw something.
When I get a customer supplied Solidworks file, I can guarantee that it has not been drawn using the optimum method
Most times I end up having to redraw it from scratch

Andy

 

[Betelgeuse]

thanks for the replies
is autocad easy to work with though ?
had a look at a demo and seemed very complicated to me.

 

[langy]

Whats AFAIK mean ???

That's Draftsight - we've been talking about it for the last million posts

 

[Country Joe]

Whats AFAIK mean ???

Hi Langy,
"As far as I know"
CJ