On Tue, 30 Sep 2008 06:36:42 -0700, Larry Jaques
wrote:

On Mon, 29 Sep 2008 22:27:48 -0700, the infamous Winston
scrawled the following:

Flash wrote:
In the past week or so, somebody mentioned a drawing program he was using,
and I cannot find it again, and, believe me, I have sifted through a
mountain of dreck, as well as a lot of serious and genuine posts.

Anybody care to metion their favorite cheap drawing program?

I've wasted more time than I care to admit on 'cheap' drawing programs.
Rhino is inexpensive, particularly for what it allows you to do.

http://www.rhino3d.com

I'm not Flash, but I represent all the tightwads out here in
recessionist America when I say "Winnie, Winnie, Winnie, *$1,174 IS
NEITHER CHEAP NOR INEXPENSIVE!" Hayseuss Crisco, my wallet is still
whining after that one.

I think Flash meant TurboCAD, SmartCad, Envisioneer, and SketchUP
(free versions) etc.

* Rhino $995, Training CDs $100, Visual Tips $79 = $1,174

-
If the gods had meant us to vote, they'd have given us candidates.
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Another good alternative, is the IntelliCAD clone of AutoCAD with
some of the free lisp or vb add-ins.

I like the CMS version and find that it will run most all of the
Autocad add-ins [everything I've tried]
http://www.intellicadms.com/
stripped version is about 150$
if you include raster imaging and 3-d rendering about 210$
http://www.intellicadms.com/store/ca...ategoryID=Mg==

There are several lisp add-ins that will allow you to pick points
using osnap such as the end points and centers of arcs and will
print these coordinates on the print. If you have drawn the part
to scale this makes manual g-code programming a snap. I even
have one that I will send you that doubles the Y values for
diameter lathe programming. Simply move/rotate the cartoon so
0,0 is at a good point of origin and start picking points. Use
seperate/additional layers if the part is complex.

(If you are doing turbine blades you can ignore this suggestion.)


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).