Official Luthiers Forum!

You can now download a beta version of "DraftSight" from Dassault (the company that makes SolidWorks). They have basically reverse engineered AutoCAD and are offerring it for free (they compete with AutoCAD).

This is a great way to get hold of some decent software for free - you can make your own plans, etc. with this software. So, if you've ever been interested in CAD, this is a good way to get started.

http://www.3ds.com/products/draftsight/

Thanks,
Trev

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http://www.PeakeGuitars.com

That looks good. Are there any catches?

I got sucked into spending an afternoon with googles 3d package a while back only to find out that I had to buy an upgrade package to get files in usable formats. Internet "free" is not always so. On the other hand there is some really great and truly free open system software out there.

Did you check out any of the other open system drafting software packages?

John

Hey John,

It seems like Google sketchup is more of a "cartoon" quality tool for 3D work. I use Rhino for all my guitar work (and SolidWorks at my 9 to 5 job). This DraftSight software works right in a DWG/DXF format so no conversion is necessary if you are interested in going to CNC or doing some nice plots (Kinko's has full size printers by the way). This package is a 2D tool...it doesn't even really attempt to do any real 3D work.

There shouldn't be any catches with this - the SolidWorks folks are just trying to displace all those folks who have AutoCAD and get them to buy SolidWorks by giving away an equivalent to AutoCAD. Bad for Autodesk, good for us...!

Have fun,
Trev

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http://www.PeakeGuitars.com

That could be. They got me.



Well it would be a step up from what I use now. NO.2 pencils and a piece of paper.

If I'm going to learn a new tool though I may want to skip 2D and just start with 3D- especially if there's a decent open system 3D package out there. Do you know of any? I've had good luck finding open software for everything from Music scoring to FEA. It's often not easy though, you have to sort through a pile of ....

In the end I may end up with this 2D package though.

Thanks,

John


John

Hey John,

This should be about as good as you can hope to get for a free 2D system. This system works right in the DWG format, which is probably the most universal CAD file format. For a low cost 3D CAD system, you could try Moi3D. 3D Packages like Rhino are higher still (under $1k), but give you great control of all the surfaces and curves. The next step up from here is to get into the parametric stuff like SolidWorks.

Trev

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http://www.PeakeGuitars.com

I imagine you're right. It's probably a choice between a good 2D tool that works and a crapy 3D tool the sort of works.

John

One thing worth pointing out about copy shops who have large format printers.... rarely (read, almost never) are they calibrated correctly and they do not print the aspect ratio correctly. So if you are making molds, templates, jigs from your print outs you want to measure them very carefully in every direction.

I have been burned many times by this.

Sometimes the best solution is going to a shop that prints for engineers and architects (and even then you have to double check it)..

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Brock Poling
Columbus, Ohio
http://www.polingguitars.com

SketchUp is completely Mickey Mouse as a real 3D tool, but Moi3D is a good package. If your time is worth minimum wage then buy Moi3D and learn to use a proper tool rather than saving a hundred bucks and wasting many hours learning to use a sub-par package. It's completely worth it if you have any interest in 3D and the skills transfer directly to Rhino if you get in deeper. I'd compare it to learning to drive nails with a rock to avoid the cost of a hammer.

Disregard this is your interest is strictly 2D, as there are all kinds of 2D programs that are alright.

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Bob Garrish
Former Canonized Purveyor of Fine CNC Luthier Services

This sounds great! Does the license expire when it goes to release?

Thanks,

Steve Walden

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Steve Walden
Aspiring Builder,
Bartlesville, OK

I certainly agree that there's nothing like a good tool and a bad one is a waste of time.

But these days you can often find an "open system" tool that works just fine. For example, I used to use a tool called mathematic for certain kinds of signal analysis. That was a $4K package. Now I can do everything that I did in Mathematic with Python- an open system free package. All in all, it's jus as good. And there are lots of examples like this. By open system I don't mean someones demo software trying to get you to buy an upgrade.

But, it can be hard to find the right open system software. I haven't looked enough in the 3D cad area- but I know there is work going on there. It's certainly not a path for everyone. Help is often available but it's often manned by software engineers not customer service and they speak a language which can be hard to penetrate.

John

I've never run across good quality opensource 3D CAD or FEA systems. I've seen some of the open source FEA packages that are "old school" in that you need to compile data files manually, load them thru the solver, etc.. in order to run them.

Luckily, I have a fully loaded laptop from work (SolidWorks + Fully loaded cosmos works) so I can play with this if the mood strikes me....!

DraftSight is pretty awesome for free...and it should never expire. Pretty amazing that you can basically get something for free that would have been considered professional grade software just a short while ago...

There is a huge advantage in being able to make high quality plans...!

Trev

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http://www.PeakeGuitars.com

Trev,
Thanks for that link. I have an old copy of Autocad14 that I really like, but I've been havin trouble gettin it to work with my new Windows 7 machine. Draftsight loaded up easy and seems to work great. I opened a few of my drawings and everything worked as expected. I use Solidworks at work, but for my guitar making - 2D cad is fine.

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"An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is an adventure wrongly considered." G. K. Chesterton.

I'm definitely a fan of free software, I ran Linux 1.0, but there do tend to be some holes. The furthest along OSS/free 3D software I know of is Blender http://www.blender.org/ which might be useable in this regard :
Blender CAD tutorial : http://www.foro3d.com/f222/use-of-blender-as-nurbs-cad-application-76866.html

I can't say for sure since it's been years since I've used it. Someone with time should totally go through that tutorial and let me know how it goes, though! In my old age, I'm a lot more picky about price/reward when it comes to buying VS making or patching up tools...that said, Moi3D is now $300 which is above my 'if it's below $200 and it's the right tool, just buy it' line so it's worth some deliberation. I hope someone finds Blender works well for this as it's a mature product with a large following, and it's free as in beer.

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Bob Garrish
Former Canonized Purveyor of Fine CNC Luthier Services

There's also progeCAD Smart which is an Autocad clone and completely free for private use.
Even their professional version isn't expensive.
As an ex-professional Autocad user I find progeCAD excellent.

http://www.progesoft.com/en/smart-2009

just downloaded draftsight. great little program.

we use autocad at work but only to review coordination drawings. only bought one license.

so this is very familiar and comprehensive.

i can't find the cloud tool for calling out a revision.

i'll keep looking

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brendan 3.0 new and improved, with better interpersonal subroutines