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Posted by kuikahi on June 21, 2008, 3:31 am
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I am new to cad/cam/cnc software.
What is the the most affordable or cheapest software I should
get or buy to learn?
I want to get into small metal parts manufacturing.
thanks for any help you can give.
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Posted by on June 21, 2008, 10:32 am
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> I am new to cad/cam/cnc software.
> What is the the most affordable or cheapest software I should
> get or buy to learn?
> I want to get into small metal parts manufacturing.
> thanks for any help you can give.
I'm kinda partial to AUTOSKETCH, which is a product from the AUTOCAD
people.
Cost is about $150.00 US. It permits you to create .dwg and DXF files
which are compatible with full-blown AUTOCAD programs and others.
Don't know if they are FULLY compatible... I have not explored this
fully.
It is pretty comprehensive and I use it for commercial design work.
Wolfgang
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Posted by F. George McDuffee on June 21, 2008, 12:02 pm
Please log in for more thread options On Sat, 21 Jun 2008 07:32:47 -0700 (PDT), wfhabicher@hotmail.com
wrote:
>> I am new to cad/cam/cnc software.
>> What is the the most affordable or cheapest software I should
>> get or buy to learn?
>> I want to get into small metal parts manufacturing.
>> thanks for any help you can give.
>
>I'm kinda partial to AUTOSKETCH, which is a product from the AUTOCAD
>people.
>
>Cost is about $150.00 US. It permits you to create .dwg and DXF files
>which are compatible with full-blown AUTOCAD programs and others.
>Don't know if they are FULLY compatible... I have not explored this
>fully.
>
>It is pretty comprehensive and I use it for commercial design work.
>
>Wolfgang
==========
Indeed, and to follow up on this, an AutoCAD or a clone like
Intellicad that will accept LISP or VBA add-ins [free] may be all
that you need for reasonably simple parts. There are several
free LISP programs that will allow you to use the osnap command
to pick up end of arcs, etc, eliminating any need for "trigging."
Simply more/rotate the cartoon so that the desired origin is
located at 0,0,0 and use the lisp add-in to generate the
end-points of the lines, arcs, centers, etc.
There are several "flavors" of Intellicad. the one I use is from
CMS
See http://www.intellicadms.com/
you can download a free trial version and the users guide at
http://www.intellicadms.com/products/cms-intellicad-cad-software.asp
the standard edition at 110$US may be all you need [no photo
rendering or raster imaging.]
http://www.intellicadms.com/store/catalog.asp?categoryID=Mg==
As in an other post, if you don't know at least one cad program,
contact your local vo-tech or community college and take a class.
This will greatly shorten your learning curve and get you started
the right way.
Unka' George [George McDuffee]
-------------------------------------------
He that will not apply new remedies,
must expect new evils:
for Time is the greatest innovator: and
if Time, of course, alter things to the worse,
and wisdom and counsel shall not alter them to the better,
what shall be the end?
Francis Bacon (1561-1626), English philosopher, essayist, statesman.
Essays, "Of Innovations" (1597-1625).
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Posted by Doug White on June 21, 2008, 8:25 pm
Please log in for more thread options Keywords:
wfhabicher@hotmail.com wrote:
>> I am new to cad/cam/cnc software.
>> What is the the most affordable or cheapest software I should
>> get or buy to learn?
>> I want to get into small metal parts manufacturing.
>> thanks for any help you can give.
>
>I'm kinda partial to AUTOSKETCH, which is a product from the AUTOCAD
>people.
>
>Cost is about $150.00 US. It permits you to create .dwg and DXF files
>which are compatible with full-blown AUTOCAD programs and others.
>Don't know if they are FULLY compatible... I have not explored this
>fully.
>
>It is pretty comprehensive and I use it for commercial design work.
I've used AutoSketch (and Drafix, which was what it was called before
AutoDesk bought them out) for about 20 years. It's a great 2D program,
and I've used it for everything from diagrams for business presentations
to laying out microwave circuits.
The bad news is that Autodesk hasn't realsed any updates for 4 years.
They have an on-line forum, and there has been some noise about a new
release, but I'm not holding my breath.
Doug White
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Posted by spaco on June 21, 2008, 11:33 am
Please log in for more thread options In my opinion, any CAD software you get will reqiure a BIG investment in
your time to learn. In a year or two, the cost of the software won't
seem to be that big a deal. You'll be wondering which package would
have been easier to use, whic one had the features you need that yours
does not, or which one has better tech support, etc.
I googled "compare cad software" and got lots of hits.
Here's one:
> http://www.caddigest.com/subjects/mcad/select/100704_lacourse_3d_software.htm
How many times in life has someone said: "you'll LOVE this movie" and,
when you saw it, you hated it? Many of us will be glad to tell you
what we have and/or what works for us. But, since you haven't told us
much about your interests, background, education experience with
mechanical drawing, machining, etc., what will you do with the info you
get?
I'd read ALL the reviews and all the comparisons that I could get my
hands on. NO CAD software is "easy to use". I ALL requires a lot of
rote memorization by the time you get deep enough to be able to actually
make a useful drawing of anything of moderate complexity.
I use one brand almost daily and have tinkered with 2 others. The
bright spot in all this is the some or many of the commands and
processes may be tranportable from one system to the next, so even if
you end up choosing the absolute cheapo (is 2D TurboCad still free?),
you will be a little ahead of the game if you switch later.
I am told that folks who already do a LOT of CAD find it easy to
switch between vendors.
Long time Turbocad user who loves it one day and hates it the next,
Pete Stanaitis
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kuikahi wrote:
> I am new to cad/cam/cnc software.
> What is the the most affordable or cheapest software I should
> get or buy to learn?
> I want to get into small metal parts manufacturing.
> thanks for any help you can give.
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> What is the the most affordable or cheapest software I should
> get or buy to learn?
> I want to get into small metal parts manufacturing.
> thanks for any help you can give.