Free CAD Software

[aeronca65t]

It just occurred to me that some of you might be interested in CAD (Computer Aided Drafting), but you may not have access to CAD software.

On my website (at the bottom of this message) I have a link to a free CAD software download. It's about the fifth link down on the page.

There are actually two free downloads listed: the TurboCAD is the better of the two.

I don't personally use TurboCAD at work. We have AutoCAD 2004, Pro-E, Solidworks and MasterCAM V8......but I tried this download a while back and it's decent (especially for free!). A lot of the concepts are similar to AutoCAD Light, so it's a useful "starter software".

...this TuboCAD is legit.

[ 03-27-2004: Message edited by: Basil ]</p>

 

[Guest]

I downloaded turbocad and I can say it's not for the bandwidth challenged

 

[ThomP]

Do you know of a good low cost G code generator? $1K or less would make it cost effective for me.

 

[John Loftus]

Thom,

Here are a bunch of links with some low cost solutions. I use VisualMill 5.0 (by Mecsoft) now and really like it. They have a basic version that goes for $800 at Computer Sculpture(they have discount pricing for some other CAM packages too and I know the Andrew Werby who runs the company ... nice guy)

https://www.computersculpture.com/#Anchor-United-51799
https://www.desktopcnc.com/
https://www.imsrv.com/
https://www.bobcadcam.com/index.php
https://www.deskam.com/
https://www.spline.nl/
https://www.flashcutcnc.com/
https://www.stlwork.com/
https://www.mecsoft.com/Mec/

Cheers,
John

[ 03-27-2004: Message edited by: John Loftus ]</p>

 

[aeronca65t]

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by ThomP:
Do you know of a good low cost G code generator? <hr></blockquote>

I use "Powerstation" as well as MasterCAM. It's decent and pretty cheap as I recall. I think they also sell a stand-alone engraving package for about $100 (USD). Post-process CNC code demo on this page:

https://www.microcimm.com/2002/index.htm

 

[ThomP]

Great references guys, Thanks. EXACTLY what I was looking for.

 

[waltesefalcon]

I used to use autocad when I was still an engineering major. I always preferred just using my drafting table and doing it all by hand. Although autocad is fast.

Cheers,

Walter