[junior2000blue]

i'm starting at the begining i need some advise for some free software to download so i can practise drawing some shapes sometime soon hope to build diy cnc plasma cutter the net is a big pplace to get lost
but i do hope somebody point me in the right direction
something good from the start so i can use it in the future
cheers

[underthetire]

Auto desk fusion 360, PTC Creo Elements are both my favorites, unless I need something quick, then Sketchup works.

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[extremetools]

solid ege is best

[junior2000blue]

thankyou i down load sketchup a mate of mine suggested the same thing
i am on utube learn how to use it with some practise i will get better
thankyou underthetire

[junior2000blue]

i will have a look at solid edge too
i just want to keep it simple no harm in looking

[dharmic]

Keep away from sketchup. It's designed for rough drawings of a room plan and its idea of accuracy causes no end of problems when trying to make geometry that will actually work in a CAM environment. A bit like learning Duplo because you want to design and build a skyscraper.

Time spent learning sketchup now is time wasted. Spend that time learning something that will continue working for you as your demands on the software increase.

[junior2000blue]

what would you suggest dharmic??
i had a little go at sketchup it but i'm not into building houses or sheds

[dharmic]

Fusion360, for the moment, is free for hobbyists and small business. It lets you design 3D parts and gives you the CAM side of things too. It's pretty usable, etc, etc.

The only downside with it is its reliance on internet connectivity and a question mark over what will happen to its licensing and cost in the future.

I really like Creo but you're looking at close to ten grand a seat by the time you take Parametric 3.0 and add the 3 axis CAM package to it. If Elements is still around, affordable and it does the things you need it to do then it's probably worth a look. But PTC (the makers of Creo) are not interested in the little guys: it looks like Autodesk are the only ones really making any effort in that area with Fusion360.

[junior2000blue]

thanks i did utube fusion 360 the other day but didn't see the free hobbists icon will have another look
i did see there price tag and thought bloody hell

[junior2000blue]

To be honest i prob don't need 3d cad ...more so 2d cad would do the job if there such a thing.... but in saying that 3d is more interesting to look at

[Bubba]

My recommendation for 2D is Draftsight (DraftSight) which is clone of autocad and I have never had a problem importing its dxf files into my cam.

[dharmic]

Ah, sorry I missed the bit about drawing. Creo's not bad at creating drawings off models that you've made but if you only want the drawing to begin with, it's wayyyy over the top. Same probably goes for Fusion360. I'll let other people with current experience in drawing software take over now - I've kinda landed and stayed in 3d world.

[ger21]

My recommendation for 2D is Draftsight (DraftSight) which is clone of autocad and I have never had a problem importing its dxf files into my cam.

+1

[RCaffin]

If 2D is going to handle most of what you want, the AutoSketch is inexpensive, fast and intuitive.
BUT you will have to learn how to program g-code yourself, as it does not have any facilities there.
G-code is actually very easy to learn, and knowing how-to is immensely useful.

Cheers
Roger

[ger21]

No, you should be using a CAM program like SheetCAM with your 2D drawing package.
Nobody should be hand writing g-code, although everyone should know how to.

[Bubba]

I'll second what Ger21 says. you start getting into multiple arcs or blending of lines (straight or curved), Cam does the hard work for you. It is to easy to fat finger a code and ruin a piece.
But on the other hand knowledge of Gcode will allow you to analyze the code and tweak it or debug if necessary.

[CURVEDMTL]

How about D2nc Its worked for me for years and is easy to control. Very accurate for DXF and rework able parts. just my 2cents.

[RCaffin]

CAM vs hand-coding ... one could spend days arguing this. Great fun.
I agree that for many things CAM is quite appropriate, especially when you get into 4-axis machining. And LazyCAM is good for making PCBs too.

But when I am making 10 off of a complex shape on a custom jig on a production basis, I find hand-coding to be far more effective. When starting with a simple 2D drawing package, you don't get CAM anyhow. From experience, I think I can actually do the design work and the programming in less time than it would take me to get a 3D CAD/CAM package just to the finished drawing state. As for blending curves together - the data needed is all there on the 2D drawing. It's not a problem at all.

Attachment 325608

But that is NOT the full story. I use full parametric programming, so that if I want to tweak a dimension just slightly, after one or two prototypes, I can do so with a single line edit. I don't have to go back into the CAD/CAM package and walk through all the steps to get a completely new program. If I want to make just 4 units rather than 10 using the same jig (as shown here), I change the unit count from 10 to 4. Another single-line edit. And my programs are typically a few kBytes long, rather than a MByte. Incidentally, the units shown take about 6 tool changes and include internal thread milling.

Works just fine for me. May not work at all for someone else. That's OK.

Cheers
Roger

[CURVEDMTL]

I'll Agree, it's that when doing one off's that make things interesting, and if you have to tweek a portion that's fine cause you already have the Gcode in front of you, as for nesting,and adding OPP's, No Problem, and tweeking pocket sources, it's (sometimes ) smaller is always better. Cant put back what you took off. YMMV.

[routalot]

I have found both Draft Sight and Librecad to work and both are free.I also posted in another thread that the new release of Freecad (version 0.16) includes a CAM workbench.Not as easy to learn 3D parametric modelling as it is to use simpler 2D drawing packages,but there is no risk of conversion errors when you transfer files to an external CAM system.I have known untrimmed surfaces to appear when bringing exported iges files into CAM and I would always use CAM rather than hand coding.You can always edit an .nc file in wordpad to tweak things.