CAD

[Jivemaster]

I need to send someone some files for laser cutting some ply board. I've seen (and recoiled at) the price of AutoCAD, but I've been offered use of a computer with Solidworks. Will solidworks be learnable in an hour or so to design a 2D product.

 

Does anyone have experience of AutoCAD and Solidworks to share please.

[ImagineerTom]

Nope, unless you have a foundation in 3D cad software and design principles solidworks will be impenetrable. What you’re asking is akin to saying “ive never used a lighting desk before, I can’t afford an avolites Titan, Someone has offered me use of a wholeHog for an hour; will I be able to program a west end music on it in an hour?”

 

Google sketchup is the standard entry level cad software and you should expect several hours with that before you become vaguely proficient. Your best bet is to find someone already familiar with cad software and get them to draw it up for you in return for beer tokens

[beware]

Depending on the laser and software being used, solidworks DXF files are often a bit ropey when imported.

 

Depending on the level of drawing you need versus design, InkScape (free) can create half decent files. Not CAD, but generally enough functionality.

[gyro_gearloose]

Solidworks CAD is a bit overkill for 2D laser cutting. For the plastic bits of my Miniscan LED conversion I created my designs in Inkscape using a temp,ate provided by the laser cutting company. Might be worth talking to whoever is doing your cutting and ask what file format they can work with.

[Jivemaster]

I've been asked for .dxf files.

 

Actually I think the job might be quicker and easier the old fashioned way with a saw and sand paper.

[ontoprigger]

You can download a free 30 day trial version of most cad programs including AutoCAD, if you decide you want to get it laser cut.

[musht]

Its a 2D file dinnae need Solidworks.

 

Corel Draw, Adobe Illustrator or Inkscape(free) main tools.

 

Vector drawing programs, difference between Asteroids, vector graphics point to point lines, Space Invaders, raster graphics basically pixels.

 

Vector is infinitely scalable and suits laser and vinyl cutters.

 

They`ll all output DXF though your laser person will probably take .SVG (Scalable Vector Graphic)as well which is less prone to interpretation than .dxf

 

Free online tool that`ll produce .svg file Tinkercad, its for 3d design but will export a flat .svg file for cutting

 

https://www.tinkercad.com/

 

E2A Inkscape is very handy for tracing an existing bmp/jpg to an outline and then exporting as svg.

 

Laser cutting in non metals is a commodity market, https://www.sculpteo.com big box bureau that will give you an instant quote for ballpark.

Edited July 15, 2019 by musht

[Brian]

QCAD

 

QCAD is a free, open source application for computer aided drafting (CAD) in two dimensions (2D). With QCAD you can create technical drawings such as plans for buildings, interiors, mechanical parts or schematics and diagrams. QCAD works on Windows, macOS and Linux. The source code of QCAD is released under the GPL version 3 (GPLv3), a popular Open Source license.

[Seano]

QCAD works on Windows, macOS and Linux.

 

Draftsight 2019 beta is free to use indefinitely on macOS or Linux too.