Thread: Free 3D CAD

This site has a few different cad programs.

http://www.freecad.com/

I've just got broadband at home, so thought I'd have a crack at downloading this Sketchup program. I have to agree with the general feeling here: its a simple, almost intuitive program, and from a couple of attempts I'm starting to get the hang of it....but way off some of the examples you guys have posted! My kids are also getting into it, as they have been designing houses using the Sims game (with a $$$ cheat for unlimited budget!! ), and the drawing package is surprisingly similar.

I bought a student version of TurboCad 3D modeller a couple of years ago, for the express purpose of drawing up public sculpture commissions. Gave up in disgust, wasted my money really, as its way too hard for me to use! I couldn't even follow the tutorials. I'm so retarded with the computer that I keep falling back on Windows Paint, after stuffing up with CorelDraw, Photoshop...anything like that, they just seem so clumsy and complicated.

Anyway, thanks for the heads-up with this one, I'm enjoying it.

Cheers,

G'day,

Just downloaded S/up v6 onto my P/Book, tomorrow I'll install it onto my G5. I was puzzled when I looked at the preferences to choose which measurement I prefer:

• metric metres
• metric centimetres
• metric millimetres

Are there imperial m, cm and mm?

And then I tried he tape to measure some stuff in NewLou's router table and I get this measurement "1495.00mm" whathe I know they don't understand most things, but get it right pal.

Otherwise a beaut and pretty simple programme and one I'll be using a fair bit.

Although I know this thread was mainly about 3D Cad I am posting this here as others have been talking about Cad programs in general.

I have been using Sketchup and believe it is user friendly but I also have a few 2D programs e.g Autocad Lt 98, Deltacad and Turbocad. Now most of these programs have a pretty steep learning curve and as I have been doing some Council drawings (and they don't want the drawing in 3D) for a home improvement company and I didn't have the time to put into learning how to use them.

So I have been using Microsoft Publisher for several years for doing graphics and a few other projects and because it has improved so much over the years I thought I would see if I could do Council drawing in Publisher 2003.

Below is a result of what I can produce and I believe the learning curve is no where what it is in Cad programs.

It does have a few limitations that I have found a work around. One being scaling. Publisher actually works in true 1 to 100 scale. To work around this I just multiply or divide the measurement by the difference in scale and change the item measurement to that.

The attached drawing has two scales on it 1:100 and 1:400.

I don't know if this information is of any use to anyone but for what it is worth do what you like with it.

Originally Posted by Scissors

There's a list of the differences between Sketchup Google, and Sketchup 5 on their website. None of the features that have been removed would matter for woodworking purposes (things like organic terrain modelling, some advanced export options etc). I like Sketchup but I am far from an experienced user, over at Sawmill Creek there are a bunch of Sketchup enthusiasts so anyone interested might want to pop over there for some more information.

EDIT: Oh, and Sketchup deals with dimensions perfectly well.

Perfectly well? Are you kidding?
Maybe for those on PCs, but I am on a MAc and find it such a hard program to use compared even to Illustrator, bearing in mind I use that everyday so am used to it. I feel Sketchups drawback is not being able to enter the 3 dimensions and have it displaying in mms. Yes I know it does let one overide the defaults but always reverts to inches. aargh. Just decided to dump this program and use something else, way too time consumingy to get even something simple done in it I find. I congratulate those with the patience to use it, I give up!