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.

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

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

On 2011-03-06, 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.

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?

I've recently found qcad from RibbonSoft to be the easiest to
use with precision drawing. (I'm running it on OpenBSD, where it is one
of the included packages ready to install.)

I've had difficulties compiling the source on Sun's Solaris 10
for whatever reason.

You can download a demo version for several OS's (including
Windows) from he

http://www.qcad.org/qcad_downloads.html

but these will shut down after ten minutes of drawing, and can be used
for a total of 100 hours before they refuse to work at all. (No such
limitation in the one in OpenBSD, FWIW.)

This page:

http://www.qcad.org/store/?cPath=66

gives the prices (in Euros) for the various versions. I am somewhat
tempted. Buying it now gives a free upgrade from version 2.2 to the
upcoming versio 3.0. And I do find it the easiest to learn to use
properly of all that I have so far tried.

But -- I would be limited to using it on either the Mac Mini or
an Intel-based box running Solaris 10. (The program can be purchased
for Solair 10 x86, but not for the SPARC version, unfortunately.) But
then, the computer in the shop is running Solaris 10 x86, so that should
work. :-)

I'm currently downloading the part library to try with what I
have.

Aside from that -- there is another program (jDraft) which is
free -- runs on multiple systems in Java -- and I've just today
downloaded the most recent upgrade -- but not yet installed and tried
it.

You can download it from:

http://www.sparetimelabs.com/jdraft/index.html

and will have to request a license key to be able to save drawings. The
key is free -- he just uses it to track how many people get as far as
wanting to use the program after downloading it. You will need java on
your Windows box to run it. But aside from the systems named on the
page -- it also runs on Solaris 10 with no problems -- other than a
minor tweak needed to the file which stats it up. If anyone downloads
it (say one of the linux versions) and needs to run it on Solaris 10,
drop me an e-mail and I'll tell you how. (Fix the e-mail address as
described in my .sig block below.)

Enjoy,
Don.

--
Remove oil spill source from e-mail
Email: | Voice (all times): (703) 938-4564
(too) near Washington D.C. | http://www.d-and-d.com/dnichols/DoN.html
--- Black Holes are where God is dividing by zero ---

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.

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?

Well, there's OpenCascade:
http://www.opencascade.org/

But you'd have to be, or have on hand, a ****-hot C++ programmer; I looked
into it, and it's basically a huge library of Classes that can do stuff,
but you still have to be a programmer to hook them all together in the right
order. ;-)

Good Luck!
Rich

"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!

"DoN. Nichols" wrote in message
...
On 2011-03-06, 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.

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?

I've recently found qcad from RibbonSoft to be the easiest to
use with precision drawing. (I'm running it on OpenBSD, where it is one
of the included packages ready to install.)

I've had difficulties compiling the source on Sun's Solaris 10
for whatever reason.

You can download a demo version for several OS's (including
Windows) from he

http://www.qcad.org/qcad_downloads.html

but these will shut down after ten minutes of drawing, and can be used
for a total of 100 hours before they refuse to work at all. (No such
limitation in the one in OpenBSD, FWIW.)

This page:

http://www.qcad.org/store/?cPath=66

gives the prices (in Euros) for the various versions. I am somewhat
tempted. Buying it now gives a free upgrade from version 2.2 to the
upcoming versio 3.0. And I do find it the easiest to learn to use
properly of all that I have so far tried.

But -- I would be limited to using it on either the Mac Mini or
an Intel-based box running Solaris 10. (The program can be purchased
for Solair 10 x86, but not for the SPARC version, unfortunately.) But
then, the computer in the shop is running Solaris 10 x86, so that should
work. :-)

I'm currently downloading the part library to try with what I
have.

Aside from that -- there is another program (jDraft) which is
free -- runs on multiple systems in Java -- and I've just today
downloaded the most recent upgrade -- but not yet installed and tried
it.

You can download it from:

http://www.sparetimelabs.com/jdraft/index.html

and will have to request a license key to be able to save drawings. The
key is free -- he just uses it to track how many people get as far as
wanting to use the program after downloading it. You will need java on
your Windows box to run it. But aside from the systems named on the
page -- it also runs on Solaris 10 with no problems -- other than a
minor tweak needed to the file which stats it up. If anyone downloads
it (say one of the linux versions) and needs to run it on Solaris 10,
drop me an e-mail and I'll tell you how. (Fix the e-mail address as
described in my .sig block below.)

Enjoy,
Don.

--
Remove oil spill source from e-mail
Email: | Voice (all times): (703) 938-4564
(too) near Washington D.C. |
http://www.d-and-d.com/dnichols/DoN.html
--- Black Holes are where God is dividing by zero ---

Thanks for the reply Don, the Draft Sight option Spehro suggested looks like
a good fit. I found the QCad - the completely free (for now) aspect might
ease the implementation of the Draft Sight option..

"Rich Grise" wrote in message
...
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.

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?

Well, there's OpenCascade:
http://www.opencascade.org/

But you'd have to be, or have on hand, a ****-hot C++ programmer; I looked
into it, and it's basically a huge library of Classes that can do stuff,
but you still have to be a programmer to hook them all together in the
right
order. ;-)

Good Luck!
Rich



Cheers Rich, I'd be embellishing if I said I was a ****-house C programmer,
let alone ****-hot!

thanks

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.

On 3/5/2011 9:03 PM, Spehro Pefhany wrote:
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

snip
Best regards,
Spehro Pefhany


perhaps if you said what bothered you about visio? I've used it a lot,
though not for precision layouts and find it fast, very useful, and easy.

--
www.wbnoble.com

On 03/06/2011 08:51 AM, Baron wrote:
Dennis Inscribed thus:


"Spehro 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 !

That's little better than Visio.

--

Tim Wescott
Wescott Design Services
http://www.wescottdesign.com

Do you need to implement control loops in software?
"Applied Control Theory for Embedded Systems" was written for you.
See details at http://www.wescottdesign.com/actfes/actfes.html

On 03/05/2011 10:00 PM, DoN. Nichols wrote:
On 2011-03-06, 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.

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?

I've recently found qcad from RibbonSoft to be the easiest to
use with precision drawing. (I'm running it on OpenBSD, where it is one
of the included packages ready to install.)

I've had difficulties compiling the source on Sun's Solaris 10
for whatever reason.

You can download a demo version for several OS's (including
Windows) from he

http://www.qcad.org/qcad_downloads.html

but these will shut down after ten minutes of drawing, and can be used
for a total of 100 hours before they refuse to work at all. (No such
limitation in the one in OpenBSD, FWIW.)

This page:

http://www.qcad.org/store/?cPath=66

gives the prices (in Euros) for the various versions. I am somewhat
tempted. Buying it now gives a free upgrade from version 2.2 to the
upcoming versio 3.0. And I do find it the easiest to learn to use
properly of all that I have so far tried.

But -- I would be limited to using it on either the Mac Mini or
an Intel-based box running Solaris 10. (The program can be purchased
for Solair 10 x86, but not for the SPARC version, unfortunately.) But
then, the computer in the shop is running Solaris 10 x86, so that should
work. :-)

I'm currently downloading the part library to try with what I
have.

Aside from that -- there is another program (jDraft) which is
free -- runs on multiple systems in Java -- and I've just today
downloaded the most recent upgrade -- but not yet installed and tried
it.

You can download it from:

http://www.sparetimelabs.com/jdraft/index.html

and will have to request a license key to be able to save drawings. The
key is free -- he just uses it to track how many people get as far as
wanting to use the program after downloading it. You will need java on
your Windows box to run it. But aside from the systems named on the
page -- it also runs on Solaris 10 with no problems -- other than a
minor tweak needed to the file which stats it up. If anyone downloads
it (say one of the linux versions) and needs to run it on Solaris 10,
drop me an e-mail and I'll tell you how. (Fix the e-mail address as
described in my .sig block below.)

There's an open-source version of QCad. They leave out something (I
think it's decent beziers), but what they leave in is fully functional
and nice to use.

Check on Sourceforge to see if there's a Windows install version.

--

Tim Wescott
Wescott Design Services
http://www.wescottdesign.com

Do you need to implement control loops in software?
"Applied Control Theory for Embedded Systems" was written for you.
See details at http://www.wescottdesign.com/actfes/actfes.html

On Sun, 06 Mar 2011 11:56:52 -0800, Tim Wescott
wrote:
snip
usable. I've used& really like SolidWorks but the company is small
and unwilling/unable to spent $100 let alone many thousands!
snip
If you are going to be in business you have to buy the
tools. It sounds like you need an Autocad clone that will
accept Autocad lisp and VBA add-ins. You don't need the
full 3d version with rendering. See
http://intellicadms.com/site/
https://store.intellicadms.com/produ...e92560b1393c7a
(90$ US for one seat with several utilities)

You can download a free trial and upgrade later after you
buy if you need too.

also see for free/cheap add-ins
http://www.cadcorner.ca/lisp.php
http://www.cadtutor.net/forum/showth...on-For-AutoCAD
http://www.freecad.com/AutoCAD_Utili...dex.asp?page=5
google on autocad "sheet metal" lisp OR VBA for 528k hits.


-- Unka George (George McDuffee)
...............................
The past is a foreign country;
they do things differently there.
L. P. Hartley (1895-1972), British author.
The Go-Between, Prologue (1953).

Tim Wescott wrote:

On 03/05/2011 10:00 PM, DoN. Nichols wrote:
On 2011-03-06, 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.

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?

I've recently found qcad from RibbonSoft to be the easiest to
use with precision drawing. (I'm running it on OpenBSD, where it is one
of the included packages ready to install.)

I've had difficulties compiling the source on Sun's Solaris 10
for whatever reason.

You can download a demo version for several OS's (including
Windows) from he

http://www.qcad.org/qcad_downloads.html

but these will shut down after ten minutes of drawing, and can be used
for a total of 100 hours before they refuse to work at all. (No such
limitation in the one in OpenBSD, FWIW.)

This page:

http://www.qcad.org/store/?cPath=66

gives the prices (in Euros) for the various versions. I am somewhat
tempted. Buying it now gives a free upgrade from version 2.2 to the
upcoming versio 3.0. And I do find it the easiest to learn to use
properly of all that I have so far tried.

But -- I would be limited to using it on either the Mac Mini or
an Intel-based box running Solaris 10. (The program can be purchased
for Solair 10 x86, but not for the SPARC version, unfortunately.) But
then, the computer in the shop is running Solaris 10 x86, so that should
work. :-)

I'm currently downloading the part library to try with what I
have.

Aside from that -- there is another program (jDraft) which is
free -- runs on multiple systems in Java -- and I've just today
downloaded the most recent upgrade -- but not yet installed and tried
it.

You can download it from:

http://www.sparetimelabs.com/jdraft/index.html

and will have to request a license key to be able to save drawings. The
key is free -- he just uses it to track how many people get as far as
wanting to use the program after downloading it. You will need java on
your Windows box to run it. But aside from the systems named on the
page -- it also runs on Solaris 10 with no problems -- other than a
minor tweak needed to the file which stats it up. If anyone downloads
it (say one of the linux versions) and needs to run it on Solaris 10,
drop me an e-mail and I'll tell you how. (Fix the e-mail address as
described in my .sig block below.)

There's an open-source version of QCad. They leave out something (I
think it's decent beziers), but what they leave in is fully functional
and nice to use.

Check on Sourceforge to see if there's a Windows install version.

Not on the sourceforge that I looked at. It just redirects you to qcad.com,
where the only options are to buy it.

Thanks anyway,
Rich

I used to draw some complex drawings with Visio. Most Data Sheets
of Semiconductor parts are drawn with it - It is very handy. Wife draws
the landscaping in it - even though we bought Pro grade landscaping
programs.

It depends on the user and experience level. A guy on 30 year old cad
using DOS can whip anyone - due to skill in the brain overcoming all.

I got a request for a part design delivered in Visio. The company was
doing most of their work in Cadance as did I but Visio was handy and
quick.

Maybe they / you don't know how many things are in it - auto-scaling
all sorts of stuff.

Martin

On 3/5/2011 10:42 PM, 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.

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