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Posted by on September 20, 2006, 1:33 pm
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Since the subject was brought up in another topic, I thought I would
make it a topic itself. A few companies have started to offer drafting
and 3d design software for free (in hopes you will eventually purchase
one of their products)
QCad; Matthias Melcher mentioned using the shareware QCad, which is 2d
Only.
Alibre Design; I've worked a bit with Alibre Design. They have a
freeware "Alibre Express" which does 3-d parametric design. This is a
very professional, full package. The Express version is limited to 3
parts in an assembly, and requires that you maintain an internet
connection which will provide advertisements. ($50 to turn off the
ads). www.alibre.com
Solidedge; Another freeware 2D program is offered by Solidedge. I
haven't used it. http://www.solidedge.com/free2d/
Anyone else want to add to the list?
Joe Dunfee
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Posted by Wayne Lundberg on September 20, 2006, 3:37 pm
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> Since the subject was brought up in another topic, I thought I would
> make it a topic itself. A few companies have started to offer drafting
> and 3d design software for free (in hopes you will eventually purchase
> one of their products)
>
> QCad; Matthias Melcher mentioned using the shareware QCad, which is 2d
> Only.
>
> Alibre Design; I've worked a bit with Alibre Design. They have a
> freeware "Alibre Express" which does 3-d parametric design. This is a
> very professional, full package. The Express version is limited to 3
> parts in an assembly, and requires that you maintain an internet
> connection which will provide advertisements. ($50 to turn off the
> ads). www.alibre.com
>
> Solidedge; Another freeware 2D program is offered by Solidedge. I
> haven't used it. http://www.solidedge.com/free2d/
>
>
> Anyone else want to add to the list?
>
> Joe Dunfee
I use AutoCad 2000 and Personal Designer. PD is now public domain, but
requires DOS which has now been obsoleted in Bill Gate's universe. But..
here is an interesting program that allows you to sketch in a detail part
and submit it for quotation to an infinite number of job shops. The benefits
of this program: input dimensions, coordinates and the like then print them
out for templates to make your own details using sabre saw or the like....
or simply getting a decent bid from a waterjet, laser, Amada puncher, or the
like and get a fully functional detail part in the mail in a day or two for
a reasonable price. Check them out:
http://emachineshop.com/
They have a superb demo to illustrate the system.
Wayne
>
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Posted by Gordon McComb on September 20, 2006, 6:26 pm
Please log in for more thread options I have not been happy with the freeware/shareware CAD programs I've
looked at. A good CAD program takes a lot of time and effort to write,
and the open source ones I tried were buggy, lacked decent
documentation, and other problems. You spend more time dealing with
shortcomings of the software and would save money just by purchasing a
commercial product.
Though I use the full TurboCad package for many 3D tasks, my CAD-CAM
machine runs off DXF files I create with the low-end TurboCAD. They're
up to version 12 now, which is 2D/3D. The one I have is 2D only, which
is fine because that PC can't handle a more elaborate program. TC-12 is
about $80. Most people don't need the features of the full pro version,
which is around $900.
-- Gordon
cadcoke3@yahoo.com wrote:
>
> Since the subject was brought up in another topic, I thought I would
> make it a topic itself. A few companies have started to offer drafting
> and 3d design software for free (in hopes you will eventually purchase
> one of their products)
>
> QCad; Matthias Melcher mentioned using the shareware QCad, which is 2d
> Only.
>
> Alibre Design; I've worked a bit with Alibre Design. They have a
> freeware "Alibre Express" which does 3-d parametric design. This is a
> very professional, full package. The Express version is limited to 3
> parts in an assembly, and requires that you maintain an internet
> connection which will provide advertisements. ($50 to turn off the
> ads). www.alibre.com
>
> Solidedge; Another freeware 2D program is offered by Solidedge. I
> haven't used it. http://www.solidedge.com/free2d/
>
> Anyone else want to add to the list?
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Posted by Matthias Melcher on September 21, 2006, 3:02 am
Please log in for more thread options cadcoke3@yahoo.com wrote:
> QCad; Matthias Melcher mentioned using the shareware QCad, which is 2d
> Only.
QCad (http://www.ribbonsoft.com/de/qcad.html) is a small package that
fulfilled all my 2D needs. Mainly, it reads and writes dxf which my CNC
friends need, and it runs on Windows, Solaris, Linux, and Mac. It's 24
Euros (about 28$US), a demo version is available.
I am new to CAD and I have little comparison, except the other open
source packages that I tried. QCad was easy to get into and it seems to
have all that a beginner needs. It reads the dxf files from professional
packages and writes files that my buddies can read, which is not always
the case in dxf world. Also, QCad's developer is continously improving
the program. Too many shareware programs are abandonware. QCad does
*not* calculate my tools paths. I wrote my own little package to do
that for my hobby mill (which does not understand G-Code anyways).
Matthias
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Posted by on September 21, 2006, 12:23 pm
Please log in for more thread options > Solidedge; Another freeware 2D program is offered by Solidedge. I
> haven't used it. http://www.solidedge.com/free2d/
I've had a chance to install and spend a few minutes with Solidedge. I
was surprised to see how functional it was. It is a fully parametric
2D drawing program... in fact the only one I know of. It imports and
exports DXF and DWG.
It seems you can use it without having to go through the process of
making the drawing fully parametric. This is good because the
parametric process can be daunting at times. Of course, it is also a
very powerful thing, because a parametric model can easily be modified
by changing the number on a dimension.
Be aware that it is a 230 megabyte download... definitely not for
dial-ups.
Joe Dunfee
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> make it a topic itself. A few companies have started to offer drafting
> and 3d design software for free (in hopes you will eventually purchase
> one of their products)
>
> QCad; Matthias Melcher mentioned using the shareware QCad, which is 2d
> Only.
>
> Alibre Design; I've worked a bit with Alibre Design. They have a
> freeware "Alibre Express" which does 3-d parametric design. This is a
> very professional, full package. The Express version is limited to 3
> parts in an assembly, and requires that you maintain an internet
> connection which will provide advertisements. ($50 to turn off the
> ads). www.alibre.com
>
> Solidedge; Another freeware 2D program is offered by Solidedge. I
> haven't used it. http://www.solidedge.com/free2d/
>
>
> Anyone else want to add to the list?
>
> Joe Dunfee