Free cad drawing software..what/where

[OneKiwi]

HI all
Whats a good cad software thats easy to use cheap or free that produce dwg/dxf drawings?

What are you guys using?

[Welshy40]

HI all
Whats a good cad software thats easy to use cheap or free that produce dwg/dxf drawings?

What are you guys using?

Im using the real thing, costs a lot but is a great bit of kit.

[mattr]

google sketchup seems to be well liked by most. Not sure if it will output dwg/dxf, but i'd be surprised if it didn't.

[AmiSMB]

I use FreeCAD (http://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/free-cad/index.php?title=Main_Page) which has been great.

[dale]

For 2D drawings DraftIT (http://www.cadlogic.com/products/draftit/) is superb. There is a free version which works very well. There are fairly cheap (<£100) paid upgrades which add a lot of useful functionality, including DXF/DWG exports.

I've used this for my F1 project here:

http://www.oople.com/forums/showthread.php?t=42235

And my TC project (still in progress) here:

http://www.rctech.net/forum/electric-road/595348-new-car-project-tc6-c.html

[OneKiwi]

Ok so I now have installed both freecad and google sketchup

How DO I go about making a cube with specific measurements?

[blue_pinky]

For free 2D CAD I use Draftsight ***CLICKY*** (http://www.3ds.com/products/draftsight/overview/)

Made by the same folk who make Solidworks, and completely AutoCAD (so DWG & DXF) compatible.

I now use this for work (I work in engineering design) in preference to AutoCAD as it has all the functionality that I use in AutoCAD and none of the fluff that I never used...so it's perfect!

Doesn't do 3D though...and you'd just asked about making a cube...which is a 3D shape, are you really meaning a square?

If your really meaning a 3D shape, then you probably should be looking for 3D modelling...and getting that for free is not so easy! Sketchup probably your best bet.

[OneKiwi]

Im trying to make a cube format and send it to get milled

The guy wants it in either of the two formats, might just be easier to get someone to do it for me, but Id like to learn to do it myself

[eyeayen]

There is another package, also Open Source so therefore completely free. It's called blender, it's more for 3D graphics and animation but you can input specific dimensions to it to produce a cube or shape and then it can ( or you can get a plug in ) export a .dxf file.

Surely a google search would be better for you though.

[mattr]

If its running on your laptop we can have a look next wednesday (it's 10 years since i've done any CAD work, but i spent the 10 years prior to that doing solid modelling and drawing creation in an assortment of really really dull CAD packages.

[almunro]

The only free 3d modeller ive found is FreeCAD, which looks good but might have a bit of a steep learning curve, but nothing worse than Blender. Worth a look though.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/free-cad/screenshots/317185

http://sourceforge.net/projects/free-cad/screenshots/302719

[Rocking Donkey]

For 2D you should take a look at Inkscape, and for 3D download Creo Elements. Creo is the new name for Pro/Engineer and Elements is the free version

[OneKiwi]

I got autocad as a trial version and I think I have created the cubes with the measurements

How can I check that if I send away the files that they will be cut out correctly?

I have a 16mm side.. I don't want it being a 160 or something strange.

Can I send these to someone to check?

[almunro]

You have to check what your drawing units are setup as. In Autocad these are done in the drawing template that you use for each drawing.

These may help

http://cad-notes.com/2010/01/using-template-and-setting-your-unit/

Units video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rwztjxdLek)

[OneKiwi]

Yep got it in mm thanks

Its kinda cool working with this..

[Apricot Slice]

Yep got it in mm thanks

Its kinda cool working with this..

I usually make a square of a spesific size and put some text in it saying for example "size check, 100mm x 100mm". That way, if anything goes wrong scale wise its obvious and gets resized if need be.

[OneKiwi]

Anyone here offer a milling service? Or know of someone who does?