Nakedanvil - Grant Sarver Posted November 23, 2009 Share Posted November 23, 2009 Been playing with different 2D and 3D CAD programs and thought I'd share. My default CAD for twenty years has been DynaCadd. Well, they're no longer in business and it won't load on Vista/Win7. So I've been looking at different things. Seemed like a good time to go all 3D. Played with a number of free downloads, wow! Lotta cool stuff out there. Kept coming back to Google Sketchup. It's pretty easy to use and a lot more powerful than it seems at first. I think the way they're giving it away and the wide support this is going to take over. It's really huge on the net and there are thousands of videos. Plus it has a scripting language so there are people making all kinds of plug-ins for it. I happened on the FREE DoubleCADDoubleCAD > Products > DoubleCAD XT because it will open Sketchup .skp files and allow you to make nice three-view drawings. Also, it's nice to have a 2D program for many reasons, plus you can do a lot of your geometry in DoubleCAD and export it as .dwg files and import them into Sketchup. Lotta powerful stuff out there for free. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pkrankow Posted November 23, 2009 Share Posted November 23, 2009 do...w...n...lo...a...d....i....n....................g...........s......l.....o.......w...........ly rather large file Phil Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nakedanvil - Grant Sarver Posted November 23, 2009 Author Share Posted November 23, 2009 So, which one are you downloading? Don't tell me you have dial-up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nakedanvil - Grant Sarver Posted November 23, 2009 Author Share Posted November 23, 2009 Uh Oh. I just read read that the free version of Sketchup does not import .dxf and .dwg. Sorry, I have upgraded to Sketchup Pro, and thought it was in the free one too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pkrankow Posted November 23, 2009 Share Posted November 23, 2009 The free one. DoubleCAD XT. However my ASUS eee 1000 with its intel Atom processor just lacks the...xxxxxx... to run it. It installed, but won't fully launch. I think the wireless here at home was also flaking out some. I had to reset the cable modem and router not long after the download finished. Tomorrow I will try on the desktop machine, a P4 core duo. Makes this netbook look like a toy! Oh yea, this netbook IS a toy! Looks like a neat package from what I read on their site. If it is as featured as they seem to indicate this should be a nice package for what I need CAD for. Thanks for the link. Phil Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
K. Bryan Morgan Posted November 23, 2009 Share Posted November 23, 2009 When I'm looking for software, I usually go to SourceForge first. Just on a hunch, and also because of this thread, I went there an looked up CAD. There were 209 different open source free programs for cad applications. Not all would work for what we do. But many would. I'll go through the reviews on them and see which is better. I am used to Autocad. It's very pricey, and I don't need it anymore. But I can see having a cad program for doing scrolls, gates doors and the like would be very helpful. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rstegman Posted November 23, 2009 Share Posted November 23, 2009 I use Autocad and MS-VISIO. Both cost, but are good MS-VISIO is 2d but is powerful. My company use it for our drawings and we found that EVEN SALESMEN can use it to some extent. Recently, when not having work to do, I went through the help files and also found some things on line that expanded what I could do with it. It is a simple program to start but is powerful enough for doing something serious. You can download a trial version on the microsoft site. I got my disks on discount. Autocad is not easy to use unless you are serious, but it does things that VISIO cannot do, such as 3D. There are some things that it is simply easier to do with autocad, but you have to know the typed commands to do it easier. My experience is that programs will do some things better than others, you just have to find the ones with the features that work best for you. I have not found it, nor have I looked, but autocad can go directly to CNC machines. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nakedanvil - Grant Sarver Posted November 23, 2009 Author Share Posted November 23, 2009 Yeah, there IS a lot out there. As I said I chose DoubleCAD because it will import .SKP files from Sketchup and allow working with them. After using it I'm very happy with the way it works and the tools available. I don't think AutoCAD will generate G-code for CNC. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CBrann Posted November 23, 2009 Share Posted November 23, 2009 Grant, you so far are the only person I have ever heard of who uses Dyna Cad. .. I got it taking a CAD class in college... 10 years ago... and the version I have.. 4.0... fraught with errors and bugs... Straight drawing was great... 3d generating and facing was dicey at best.. I keep trying to get work to train me on Auto CAD... but.. not so much.. I may give Double CAD a run... Thanks for the heads up, Cliff Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nakedanvil - Grant Sarver Posted November 24, 2009 Author Share Posted November 24, 2009 Well, I never used the so-called 3D in it. I Did upgrade, last one I got was DynaCADD 98. Worked great on XP but not vista/win7. I really liked it. Many features it had are common today, like the smart cursor. Started using it on my Amiga 3000. Even at 15Mhz I'd put it against my new wizz-bang 64 bit Win-box for graphic speed. 'Course they wrote it in assembler not C++and the OS was in ROM not disk. Oh well, nostalgia ain't what it used to be. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pkrankow Posted November 24, 2009 Share Posted November 24, 2009 Now that I have this on a decent computer it seems rather useful. For starters it can save and print, which is an improvement over the last few "free" packages I have tried recently. Phil Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nakedanvil - Grant Sarver Posted November 24, 2009 Author Share Posted November 24, 2009 Well, here's my Nimba anvil in Sketchup and as brought in to DoubleCad: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tobago Posted November 24, 2009 Share Posted November 24, 2009 I downloaded Sketch Up this weekend for other uses and it appears to have a lot of functions not apparent in the basic tutorials. It took more than one try to down load. Two were very slow and resulted in corrupted files. Tried once more and it came quick and operational. Excelsior, Ted Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nakedanvil - Grant Sarver Posted November 25, 2009 Author Share Posted November 25, 2009 Managed to clean up my drawing, got rid of some extraneous lines and played with the "styles". Takes awhile, but I'm learning. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nakedanvil - Grant Sarver Posted November 25, 2009 Author Share Posted November 25, 2009 Many thanks to "Aral" for posting pictures that got me to dive into Sketchup again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pkrankow Posted November 25, 2009 Share Posted November 25, 2009 WOW! Sharp looking Grant! Here I just figured out how to draw and dimension a simple line drawing! Took 3 hours to draw up a hot-cut hardy, but only 1 minute to dimension! I haven't figured out if there is 3D line drawing in the free version yet. Man this stuff has changed from what I was using it in class 10 years ago! I'm going to draw a bottom flatter and maybe a bending fork to get a feel for this stuff. Then I don't know what! Phil Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mills Posted November 25, 2009 Share Posted November 25, 2009 from Double cad page last line " And the CAD of choice for Google™ SketchUp™ users." So what is the difference between Sketchup and a CAD program? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nakedanvil - Grant Sarver Posted November 25, 2009 Author Share Posted November 25, 2009 The line is getting fuzzy, but traditionally CAD produces line drawing usually represented by three views like a blue-print. Sketchup is a surface modelling program that produces a 3D representation that can be turned and looked at from different perspectives. Technically, it's all Computer Aided Design. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Titan1921 Posted November 25, 2009 Share Posted November 25, 2009 Of course depending on the types of machines you are dealing with a majority of them come with software that will convert Autocad (.dwg) to G-code. I spend my first ten years with a company hand writing G-code from blue prints dirctly into machines then for my last three years there they decided that training me in AutoCAD and being able to convert the drawings into machining programs was much more efficient. I think that was about the time they decided indoor plumbing was here to stay. That is long past now and since then I have become fluent in Pro-E, check it out sometime. My entire day is spent working on both Pro-E and AutoCAD drawings so if you have any questions or want to know any short cuts (hotkeys) drop me a line. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CBrann Posted November 25, 2009 Share Posted November 25, 2009 Grant, as far as drawing Dyna CAD was great, dimensioning, and drawing tools were great, both in 2D and 3D. it was flexible in how you set things up, and switching between each view and orthographic view was good... however... the 3D rendering, lighting, facing etc had a long way to go..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nakedanvil - Grant Sarver Posted November 25, 2009 Author Share Posted November 25, 2009 (edited) DBrann: Funny, the 3D part is poorly documented in the manuals. I never figured it out or had need of it. Probably should have played with that part more. My needs are minimal. I like Sketchup for presentation and getting ideas across and illustrating. Otherwise I just need to generate vector shapes (DXF or DWG) to use in my CAM program. Edited November 25, 2009 by nakedanvil Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nakedanvil - Grant Sarver Posted November 26, 2009 Author Share Posted November 26, 2009 pk: Don't feel too bad, I tried Sketchup a couple months ago and couldn't get the hang of it. Just gotta keep at it till the light bulb comes on. Yeah, DoubleCAD seems to have all the bells and whistles for regular drawing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pkrankow Posted November 26, 2009 Share Posted November 26, 2009 Bottom set took only about 20 minutes to draw and put into layout. Hot cut Hardy I made first, and then made fit in the layout, and gave up on. I felt 3 hours trying to draw a simple piece is enough. There is enough detail for me to work with. I may clean it up later. Fire off opinions please, and yes I didn't finish drawing Hot Cut Hardy to my liking, but it is enough to work off of. Phil Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nakedanvil - Grant Sarver Posted November 26, 2009 Author Share Posted November 26, 2009 Just remember; it's not drawing time, it's learning time. Few things worth doing are easy starting off, but after awhile it does get worse. Ha, gotcha! You know what I really mean. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nakedanvil - Grant Sarver Posted November 28, 2009 Author Share Posted November 28, 2009 (edited) Managed to do pretty good representations of the bick and the hardy I manufacture. Edited November 28, 2009 by nakedanvil Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.