Anyone using a free cad programme?

[agricola]

Ive been using Dassault Draftsight  for 3 years or so now, and found it very good, but it will no longer be available for free later this year. Has anyone on here been using any of the other freeware cad programmes, Im looking for a recomendation, 2D only, Autocad style interface

[celticbiker]

Free Cad is OK.
It's a bugger about draft sight, I use it every day but I've literally just today given a 30k purchase order for solid works and they own draft sight so we'll be OK.
What are your requirements?

[mickvp]

Librecad when at home (was using AutoCAD student when I was still at uni).

I have AutoCAD on my work laptop now so have been using that more but librecad is a good alternative

[coffee]

I haven't the foggiest idea what your on about here. :o What's CAD ? images on a computer ?

[bald_pig]

Computer Aided Design, basically 2d design software

[agricola]

Free Cad is OK.
It's a bugger about draft sight, I use it every day but I've literally just today given a 30k purchase order for solid works and they own draft sight so we'll be OK.
What are your requirements?

Just need a 2d programme for home stuff. Ive just finished designing and building a large summerhouse for the garden, would have taken ages with pencil and paper, means it all goes up together as planned. Librecad and Freecad look like ones to try out

[darrsi]

I haven't the foggiest idea what your on about here. :o What's CAD ? images on a computer ?

Yeah, i got the wrong end of the stick too  :lol

[robbo]

TT, absolute blighter and a scoundrel to boot. :lol

[coffee]

Got it now,you cad,sir. thought it was something technical. :lol

[agricola]

Oh dear. Dont like Librecad, too cumbersome, poor interface. Freecad is a little more familiar, but still not a patch on Draftsight. Ive still got a copy of Autocad 2000 on disk, so may have to obtain an old Windows XP pc and stick it on that, using it just as a cad station

[BBROWN1664]

Ive still got a copy of Autocad 2000 on disk, so may have to obtain an old Windows XP pc and stick it on that, using it just as a cad station

If your main machine is reasonable spec and running Windows 10 and you have the XP/whatever media, enable Hyper-V on your Windows 10 machine and run it as a virtual machine.

[bald_pig]

If you're still on 7, there's an "xp mode" available. If not, follow this to use the xp mode image with hyper-v.


https://www.download3k.com/articles/How-...er-V-00770

[coffee]

Oh dear. Dont like Librecad, too cumbersome, poor interface. Freecad is a little more familiar, but still not a patch on Draftsight. Ive still got a copy of Autocad 2000 on disk, so may have to obtain an old Windows XP pc and stick it on that, using it just as a cad station

everyone to his own and all that but I've now realised how little I know about modern technology,you really might as well be talking gobbledegook.

[agricola]

If you're still on 7, there's an "xp mode" available. If not, follow this to use the xp mode image with hyper-v.


https://www.download3k.com/articles/How-...er-V-00770

Chuff me, that looks like a right faff. Ill have to set aside a week or so to sort that

[agricola]

Winner. Managed to get the old Windows XP pc running again. Took it to a local pc repair shop, explained the problem and what I wanted to aacheive, turns out the CMOS battery was expired, so a new one was fitted and it booted up as normal. The crap has been deleted from it and I now have a CAD station, cost £20.

[fazersharp]

Perfect, XP is great but don't plug it into the internet as because it has not been properly supported for a while there is a greater risk of a virus. But on the other hand because xp it is not used so much now maybe attackers don't bother with it.Im sure a proper computer expert will come along and give real advice on the matter.XP was almost perfect IMO and it took me a lot of work to get win 7 to behave how I wanted it. not sore if I will ever move to win 10 or what ever micro shit call their latest snooping OS     

[F4celess]

Do any of these "free CAD" packages export to a format that will work with a 3D printer?
Anyone actually using a CAD programme to print 3D items? I'd really like to get into this, opens so many possibilities (small scale).  8)

[celticdog]

Do any of these "free CAD" packages export to a format that will work with a 3D printer?
Anyone actually using a CAD programme to print 3D items? I'd really like to get into this, opens so many possibilities (small scale).  8)

Yes! I use a piece of software called cura - free download, it converts a cad file to a print format.
Most 3d printers will accept an stl file, so another option is to find a cad package that lets you save in stl format 

[F4celess]

Perfect! Many thanks. This had stopped me taking the plunge with a 3D Printer in the past.
Expecting to have to pay big money for a CAD package I'd only make use of about 10% (hobby use, not commercial). Then have a bulky (special) printer sat round collecting dust.

However if there are cheap (to free) software options, I'd be very interested to get involved.

[quote author=F4celess link=topic=25534.msg304304#msg304304 date=1572863427]
Do any of these "free CAD" packages export to a format that will work with a 3D printer?
Anyone actually using a CAD programme to print 3D items? I'd really like to get into this, opens so many possibilities (small scale).  8)

Yes! I use a piece of software called cura - free download, it converts a cad file to a print format.
Most 3d printers will accept an stl file, so another option is to find a cad package that lets you save in stl format 
[/quote]