Dennis Inscribed thus:


"Spehro Pefhany" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 6 Mar 2011 12:42:17 +0800, the renowned "Dennis"
wrote:

I'm sure this has been asked many a time....

I'm doing some work for a company that is currently doing their
mechanical dwgs using Microsoft Visio. It's slow, impractical and a
*major* PITA to use.

Ugh.

Most of the drawing are simply showing sheet metal layouts, hole
locations etc. A 2d package would be ok.


Has anyone found a open source or freeware package that is really
usable. I've used & really like SolidWorks but the company is small
and unwilling/unable to spent $100 let alone many thousands!

I've found a couple BRL-Cad and FreeCad - any experience anyone?

Thanks

Others mentioned the free 2D Dassault program, which I guess is
intended to replace 2D Autocad-like seats. It does do .dxf and .dwg,
but there's a potentially serious catch with the periodic online
activation requirements.

http://www.3ds.com/products/draftsig...tsight-2d-cad/


There's also Google Sketchup, which has a free version as well as a
$500 version, but not sure how good that is for making dimensioned
drawings (looks like you have to pay $500 to get usable features like
export of .dxf and dimensioning)

http://sketchup.google.com/intl/en/p.../whygopro.html



Best regards,
Spehro Pefhany
--
"it's the network..." "The Journey is the
reward"
Info for manufacturers:
http://www.trexon.com
Embedded software/hardware/analog Info for designers:
http://www.speff.com


Thanks Spef that looks like a solution. I've down loaded it seems ok,
just have to climb the curve!

There is always "Open Office Draw" thats free !

--
Best Regards:
Baron.