is there a cad program that's easy to learn this stuff will make you pull your hair out im trying to draw a side and top profile of a 32 for frame I have a 30 x 40 blueprint with measurements in quarter scale im having no luck at all I tried libre cad now im ready to get drunk and call it a day grrrrrrrrrrr I just want to draw this and run it through cam so I can start cutting
the one program I fell in love with was solidworks/cam. I also use inventor. I tried sketch up, however i do not like the interface for direct input of dimensions. i do not etch a sketch, i type my ccords directly. you could try freeCAD.
I finally wound up with ViaCad after similar struggles. It was the easiest for me to learn. I started with 2D and upgraded to the Pro version.
id love solid works but I don't have 3500.00 poor man budget here. ive never heard of via cad all I need it 2d for now im drawing flat plates to cut on a plasma table witch is giving me fits at the moment I cant get my proma thc to work properly it moves the z axis up and down in test mode but when I try to run a program it stops any movement its not rf either ive tryied it with out the plasma cutter on at first I thought here we go im buying a 2200 dollar hypertherm but I left off the plasma cutter and it still did it I have a software glitch somewhere ive tried allot od settings in mach3 but no luck yet
Try Onshape. I think the easiest route for 2d work is just writing the G code myself. No cad/cam needed.
You might also consider Fusion 360. I find it to be very intuitive and much more capable than sketchup. You have a lot of control over your tool-paths if you want to tweak them. There is a free trial and after the trial you can continue to use it for free if you are not using it commercially.
I've been playing with Fusion 360 this weekend. Not a lot, just to get a slight feel for it. One thing I like about it over Sketchup (which I know fairly well) is the grid. If Sketchup has a grid, I haven't figured it out yet.
you might want to try autocad, it's intuitive and if you understand geometry, you're game. precision wise, goes up to 8 decimals, 16 internally. it's also preset for metric or imperial, so another bonus. last but not least, it exports directly to stl, no more hassle. have a beer and enjoy life while your solid file is woven on the screen.
Onshape or fusion360 are the best looking new free cad out there with the added benefit of progressive development but it means a bit more time in the youtube pits and hoping they come of age before they sell out like sketchup. That being said solid works and inventor are the best and easiest to learn for working with solids but they ain't free ... for long.
Trying to create text that follows a circular path in any program.... Is there a way to do that easily??
Perhaps also look at F-Engrave - free and extremely easy to use with the ability to import fonts etc. Tweakie.
I'm very surprised none of the CAD programs I've looked at have this ability native/built-in. It's a bit shocking really. The 'text' tools really need work in those programs. Thanks for the link, I'll take a look at Inkscape. I've seen it mentioned on many sites for various things, just never looked at it.
I believe Autocad has a function to wrap text around an arc/path. In express tools, select arctext command
fusion 360 can do text on any path - 360 does take time to learn but you can get some really complex shapes Fusion 360 is free for hobby use something I put together in 15 min or so
use the tape measure tool, or I think there is a plug in to create one. Rhino has a grid on at all times, I don't like it.
Just loaded a Grid extension from the Sketchup Team. It allows you to draw your own grid using guidelines. It's under tools so now I just have to figure out how to get it onto a toolbar. Seems to be OK. Have to play with it some more now.
Just make a grid as a compenent, and then save the blank grid as a new template, and you'll always open up to it for a new file, or can copy paste it into any current work.
