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Has anyone come across any good and cheap design software? I tried Sketchlist 3D trial version and it was good but a bit pricey. From memory, there was a hobby version at around $100 and you could not even save the drawings. Just print them out and loose them. The pro version was US$500. All I want is a simple program to do some basic designs. I looked at Google Sketchup but it seems more about building houses. Any feedback would be appreciated.
Have a look at some of the free plans on the woodgears.ca site - he uses google sketchup
Thickness sander plans
Bill
Sketchup is perfectly well suited to furniture design, as several forumites have shown. I wouldn't bother with anything else, especially as Sketchup is free...
There are a few training resources out there (including an eBook) covering its specific application to furniture design, and with such a large user base help is never far away.
Hi NevilleT,
I use GIMP 2 and Paint net do a Google search they are free.
They pretty good I have been using them for years.
Cheer Graham.
You need to change the template.Quote:
Originally Posted by NevilleT
On the Welcome to Sketchup screen (if it doesn't open automatically, click Help, then Welcome to Sketchup), click Choose Template, then scroll down the list until you get to "Product Design and Woodworking - Millimeters" and then click Start using Sketchup, in the bottom corner.
I had major problems with Sketchup till I did this, but its worth it. Sketchup is all you need.
The other good thing about Sketchup is Google Warehouse which is basically a repository for anyone who wants to upload their designs or models which you can download for free.
Sometimes you can find something like a hall table ( or chair, or dresser etc etc ) that is close to what you are wanting and with a little re-drawing you have your new design pretty quickly.
stewie
Bought the book above and well into the exercises. Will take a few weeks to get through it, but I could not have gotten half the functionality I needed without the book. Good investment for $12 something. Think I will run with Sketchup for a while. Thanks for all the feedback.
Good choiceQuote:
Originally Posted by NevilleT
Sketchup for Woodworkers - Home
I recently started "playing" with SketchUp again. One of the issues I've had with in the past is producing reasonable printouts of the model and/or components using the free version. After doing so research to find better ways of using SketchUp it occurred to me that with a little bit of effort I could export SketchUp models into a format that could be imported into a word processor.
I'm still experimenting with the process but I've put together a brief description of how I did it on my website. I plan to write it up in more detail once I've worked it through a few more times. I discovered today that I can get a better rendering of the dimensions by using the "Remove Manual Kerns" (ie: letter spacing) in InkScape.
I hope you find it helpful.
it takes a bit to get used to it. But if you persevere it is worth it given its free. The library is a good source too.
The big tip I found was to use layers. I make each component on a separate layer. That way you can turn off layers and just view the individual components. it makes it a lot easier to print out plans and cut lists with dimensions without it getting all confusing. You end up with a heap of plans, but I find it easier to have 1 page print outs for each piece. Plus I just print it out at work, so I get nice A3 colour printouts.
For panel products, once you have done the design..
This is a good program (it's shareware). Put in your panel cut lists, sheet sizes and saw blade width and it will give you an optimised cut list. enables you to print off cutting lists and diagrams for each sheet.
ITF Software |