Can anyone provide me with input regarding CAD software at a low-moderate price that will allow me to design my own projects (primarily casework and some furniture). I purchased a piece of software (DeltaCad) last year that was rated very high by a woodworking magazine with on line instructions which I found to be very cumbersome. Ideally the software in question would allow me to design pieces in both 2 and 3D and could be run by a Dell P4 with 256 M memory with a plain vanilla printer (HP psc 1350).
Thanks for any assistance,
ADM47
Replies
I use DesignCAD, it has 2D and 3D capabilities, and I run it on an old AMD-K6 box (184Mb RAM, Windows 98SE).
Any program can be cumbersome until you learn to use it...sort of like playing the piano. I like the keyboard shortcuts for DCAD.
I won't recommend a CAD program, but I will recommend that you upgrade the memory on your computer. Any CAD program eats up RAM. AutoCad, which I am familiar with, recommends 1 GB of memory. A CAD program will work with only 256 MB, but it will be very slow and frustrating. Especially if you are doing 3-D drawings. RAM is cheap and easy to install. I'd recommend not less than 512 MB but you should stuff as much in your computer as it will hold. The Dell website can tell you the capacity of your computer motherboard. Crucial.com offers excellent quality with reasonable prices. By the way, AutoCad is an excellent program, if you have six months you can devote to learning how to use it.
Yeah. Sketchup. Cheap (for Cadware). Rock solid. Intuitive. Nice results.
BUT upgrade your ram INDEED.
http://www.sketchup.com
"Sketchup" is presented as a concept design program. If one is using a CAD program to build funiture, it's because he/she is after precise detail.
I use AutoCad LT and work out all the cut details before I ever step foot in the shop. Only a few major dimensions are needed, the rest of the dimensions determine themselves when I back into and lay out the components pieces and away I go.
It does not offer 3D however and sometimes I think that would be nice.
My two (2) cents.
Well, RonT. Since I design and build things for a living I think I have the right to argue my point (but without discrediting your adivce).Autocad LT is nice. So is Alias Wavefront. Huge price different. I am trained on and have used both. For my own personal work, I prefer the lighter package of Sketchup as opposed to a huge program that does all sorts of things that I don't need it to. Runs on both Mac and Windows. There is not a huge learning curve as with Autocad for a newbie and the price is cheap ($500.00).The beauty of Sketchup is that you can use it as an environment to play and generate ideas and designs. Then you can refine those models to be able to produce dimensioned drawings for building. My clients love it because it lets them see their projects in 3D and I love it because it saves me tons of time.In "Architectural Units Mode" tolerances can be set to 1/64 (acceptible for fine woodworking). In "Engineering Units Mode" tolerances can be set to 0.000000.I design furniture with it and build it from the drawings and have attached images in the next post to prove it.Edited 1/14/2006 6:21 pm ET by ChrisHarvan Edited 1/14/2006 6:22 pm ET by ChrisHarvan
Edited 1/14/2006 6:23 pm ET by ChrisHarvan
Promised images attached.
Chrishaven
Thanks for the feedback. Perhaps I should have better informed myself regarding precision capability. Visiting their website, they indicated it was primarily a conceptual drawing program. I may look into it further, I mentioned I wish Autocad LT could present in 3D.
They should be paying me to rep their product!;)
Sketchup is mostly a conceptual tool, but the acccuracy is excellent for woodworking. I've used to to design and build multiple pieces of furniture and my kitchen remodel from the ground up. For client I've taken pictures of their rooms where the commisioned piece is to go and been able to insert my propsed models to give them a real feel for how the piece will look in it propsed environment. But, it is not cad, but then again I'm not doing mil-spec or aerospace work. It also lacks some of the modeling features found in full 3d packages but for the ease and speed of Sketchup I'm willing to live without them.
Thanks for the feedback. I might give this a try, the programs is not cheap however, $495. They have a $20.00 trial disc I might invest in when I get ready. Is the learning curve severe?
Try downloading the demo version, I think it times out after 8 hrs but that is plenty of time to go trough and watch/do the tutorials and see if it'll work for you. I think its only major draw back is it can't do complex curves.
-wes
hey chris, I to am interested in a cad program. I design and build. I'm getting tired of staring at blank pieces of paper with my tool belt on. How hard is this to learn. I am pretty decent with a computer. After 18 years I think its about time. What would you use.
Thank You, Lou
Lou,If price is an issue I would give the ones that FW reviewed a shot. I have not used Designcad 3D Max. I have a hard time believing it would do what I need it to at under $100.00. Not that Sketchup is perfect. It has limitations like no editable control vertices. Which makes it very difficult to do complex and compound curves, but not impossible.
Chris, How much is the one you have?
-Lou
uhhh. about $500 I think. they were recently running a special though.
I bought Designcad 3D Max 14 off Ebay for real cheap and it is great, the 3D part is a little tricky but if u download the trial version I think you will be very happy. FWW did a comparrison of a few cad prgrams and it was rated the best for eas of use and money!
Solidworks is the design industry standard. It is expensive, around $5,000, but if you have kids at College, you can get a student version at $700.
In woodworking it can be used for just about anything, from carvings to complex furniture to kitchen cabinets. I have mine set up for cabinets, where I enter the amount of modular units and their standard size selections in an excel worksheet. The software outputs the units looking realistically close to the real thing, installed and does a cut-list, or parts list for the whole job.
Attached is a vase which took me approximately 20 seconds to draw.
Try e cabinets system from thermwood
http://www.thermwood.com/ It may or not be what you want
but it is free thermwood builds & sells cnc machines
The beta version of Design Intuition is available in WinDoze flavor now. It was written specifically for woodworkers. See http://www.gizmolab.com/software/features.html
I second the Design Intuition vote. I have used it for a year or so now (mac version) and I haven't found a simpler to use casework program. Sure, it won't do rendering, but it will generate a cut liist, and has a pretty handy way of optimizing your sheet stock while it's in the design stage.Plus, any questions you have are handled by the programmer, Jonathon Sands, who is intimately familiar with the program, and also is a competent woodworker. Who better to design a woodworking CAD program?
There is a Dual licensed CAD program called QCad available. It is 2D cad software. The demo version is available for free download and a license is inexpensive ($28 for a single user).
http://www.ribbonsoft.com/qcad.html
I have not used this or any other CAD software so I cannot rate or compare it -- just wanted to let people know about it since the price seems right.
Oh and if you are a Linux user and/or have programmer skills then the open source version is available for free.
Is your woodworking at a stage where you need to present a visual to clients or is the Cad-software just for your personal woodworking???
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