Looking for 2D drafting software
February 22, 2008 11:04 AM Subscribe
I'm looking for an easy-to-use 2D drafting program for creating drawings of parts to provide to a machine shop. I've used Autocad about 15 years ago, but it seems to have grown extremely complicated since then and is really overkill for my current needs. Does anyone have recommendations for a simple 2D drafting program? Bonus points if it runs on both Mac and PC.
Best answer: We used AutoSketch in junior high almost twenty years ago for simple stuff that didn't need full AutoCAD.
It looks to be more advanced now, but still simpler than the full package.
posted by mrbill at 11:19 AM on February 22, 2008
It looks to be more advanced now, but still simpler than the full package.
posted by mrbill at 11:19 AM on February 22, 2008
Sketchup is pretty cool, don't know if it'll suit your needs though. (It's free or cheap, depending on your needs.)
posted by TomMelee at 12:00 PM on February 22, 2008
posted by TomMelee at 12:00 PM on February 22, 2008
A9Cad and CatStd Lite are both free and work great, and can export to DXF format. What format did you want to output? If you're flexible and can give them PDFs or SVGs, Inkscape is fantastic. There are Java CAD programs that supposedly work on Mac/PC but I'm not into any of that. Inkscape is cross-platform as well.
posted by ostranenie at 12:00 PM on February 22, 2008
posted by ostranenie at 12:00 PM on February 22, 2008
Response by poster: Thanks for all the pointers so far.
I've tried Sketchup - it's too 3D for my taste and I find that its dimensioning tools don't always do what I want. It also seems to be missing some useful snap features - for instance, I can't get to snap to the center of a circle.
Autocad LT may be my best bet, but A9Cad and CatStd Lite both look good.
posted by pombe at 1:14 PM on February 22, 2008
I've tried Sketchup - it's too 3D for my taste and I find that its dimensioning tools don't always do what I want. It also seems to be missing some useful snap features - for instance, I can't get to snap to the center of a circle.
Autocad LT may be my best bet, but A9Cad and CatStd Lite both look good.
posted by pombe at 1:14 PM on February 22, 2008
CorelDraw is a common 2d sorta-technical drawing program. I've used it for paper designs and to drive laser etchers.
posted by chairface at 1:43 PM on February 22, 2008
posted by chairface at 1:43 PM on February 22, 2008
Best answer: In my experience, tools inevitably require DWG format for 2-d stuff and STL for 3-d. Since you're sticking to 2-d, you can choose from any of the many CAD programs that export to the DWG standard, but I would recommend sticking with some variant of autocad because strange bugs can pop up when your finicky machine tools try to read a quirky 3rd-party DWG file. I agree that more recent incarnations of autocad provide far more "functionality" than you want or need; I'd recommend a cheap older copy somewhere between autocad r14 and 2004.
Probably not the answer you want... but I've tried a variety of cross-platform / 3rd party CAD programs and never really been impressed. If you want to run it on a mac, I use autocad on XP through vmware fusion and it works great.
posted by Chris4d at 2:22 PM on February 22, 2008
Probably not the answer you want... but I've tried a variety of cross-platform / 3rd party CAD programs and never really been impressed. If you want to run it on a mac, I use autocad on XP through vmware fusion and it works great.
posted by Chris4d at 2:22 PM on February 22, 2008
this may suit eMachineShop
they have free downloadable cad software although doesn't appear to be mac-compatible.
posted by beige at 9:25 PM on February 22, 2008
they have free downloadable cad software although doesn't appear to be mac-compatible.
posted by beige at 9:25 PM on February 22, 2008
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by LionIndex at 11:09 AM on February 22, 2008