CAD Software

Check the IMSI website. They market TurboCAD and usually have a free evaluation download. They also have a package specifically geared toward floorplan design - not sure if they have shareware of that one, though. Have fun!

Check the thread 'Drawing' It have every program you ever wanted and more!

The best 3D soft I have ever used is free, intuitive, powerful and oh-so addictive. It will do flat drawings as well...

Blender

But for flat, diagrammatical work, Sdraw from the OpenOffice suite is also excellent.

And all for free...

Oh,yes, and have a look here:

looks good but the site keeps crashing my pc!

Now there's a thing... I have always found Blender to be very serious, so Dutch.

I have no trouble accessing the site...

And Open Office is fast becoming a world standard - the OpenDocument format is the future.

To run Blender with ease, you'll need at least a P4 processor, 256 Mo of RAM. Shouldn't be a problem these days.

Looking for :C:\WINDOWS

Made with Blender, whose ray-tracing allows for the control of refractive index...

Google "Solid Edge", "Solid Works" or "Alibre". All three companies produce fabulous 3-D CAD software that is top notch (between $3-$8K depending on the options), and as luck would have it, offer free versions of their 2-D software for download on the sites.

If you're looking for real, intuitive CAD software it's the only way to go...not a 3-D mapping and texturing program like Blender. Here's a sample of what you can do in about an hour on one of these programs with a little practice.

Jakey Jake writes, or rather signs;

> ...ton of Lego's she bought me!"

The houses we build are almost always cuboidal, like Legos; not surprising if they have always been drawn with T-squares...

CAD can let us escape from the tyranny of the straight line and the Right angle, but not if we use libraries of ready-made, standardised components.

Meta-shapes and NURBS curves have no equivalents in traditional Draughting.

"CAD can let us escape from the tyranny of the straight line and the Right angle, but not if we use libraries of ready-made, standardised components."

There is a really excellent reason to use "libraries of ready-made, standardised components"......cost effective design. Sure you can design in your fancy "Meta-shapes and NURBS curves", but when it comes time to actually PRODUCE something other than pipedreams, $$$$$$$$$$ is the most important factor. Ready-made standardised components reflect real-world availability of components and materials, which often are produced under the "tyranny of the straight line and the Right Angle", because those shapes are the most cost effective to produce in most cases. These are also the shapes that are easiest to analyze and calculate stress, pressures, loads, etc. Even Finite Element Analysis is nothing more than a tool to use the computer to convert large complex shapes into many simpler ones for easier analysis.

The REAL creativity is to see what CAN be done while still working with standard components and materials, to keep costs within a realistic and containable budget.

How many buildings, monuments, or even household products are created with "cost is no object", although that is fun to say, right? I am not saying that creative design cannot use free-form shapes, but the art of engineering is knowing how to blend abstraction with reality for a synergistic effect that truly gives us a WOW! factor. Creativity can, in fact, encompass "straight lines and right angles" and not be enslaved by them.

Jake,

I am a SolidWorks user, formerly AutoCAD guy (changed jobs, changed CAD). I am not aware of any 2-D free version of SolidWorks available anywhere. Yes, SolidWorks does incorporate a 2-D drafting system for producing engineering drawings from Solid models, but it is first and foremost a Solid Modeling system, while AutoCAD was, and remains, a 2-D system that was extended to incorporated 3-D modeling. That is why AutoCAD Lite remains available as a low-cost 2-D system which still incorporates many of the advanced features of the full 3-D AutoCAD.

If you say Solid Edge and Alibre offer free 2-D versions, I cannot dispute that (though how can "Solid" Edge be 2-D?). As far as I know the only free version of Solidworks is a trial version (Personal Edition) that expires after a 90-day time period and has limitations on model files created with it that prevent printing (at least without a big "Personal Edition" so-called "watermark" or other unwanted print artifacts to identify the product as coming from the trial version. I do not believe the trial version even allows transferring files to standard Solidworks.

Not what you're looking for, but will bring back childhood memories

Check out Progesoft ProgeCAD. They gave away Progecad LT 2006 but you'll have to search for it because it's no longer on their website.

Advantage is it reads and writes Autocad DWG format, which saves a lot of messing about if/when you come to send your files to someone else.

Be aware that most "big name" software (operating systems included) are badly written, attrociously complex and hideously priced. They survive because of the huge user base and the ability for professionals to swap files. Unfortunately, students starting out must learn to use the big-name brand, because that's what employers are looking for. So rather than learn a little-known 3rd party product, stick to something that at least resembles the "real" thing.

Oh for the peace of a drawing board. No need to fret about your 2H pencil crashing because you didn't upgrade to v16.7 build 4

;-)

"Oh for the peace of a drawing board. No need to fret about your 2H pencil crashing because you didn't upgrade to v16.7 build 4 "

Absolutely! I learned on a drawing board (possibly the last class to do so) and still use it for my personal work. Definitely not as quick or easy to edit as CAD, but there is something to be said for the rhythm and focus it cultivates in the mind. Besides, if you don't know how to do the fundamental constructions, what happens when you run into something the CAD doesn't have a command for?

Absolutely absolutely! Today's grads are excused the frustration of having to re-draw an entire design just becuse they got pieces of it wrong. Although CAD is an excellent tool, it absolves the user from structured thinking up front.

At a recent lecture the overhead projector popped. I simply walked to the whiteboard and started drawing diagrams. Some of the younger audience were shocked - they had no idea you could draw on a whiteboard!

"At a recent lecture the overhead projector popped. I simply walked to the whiteboard and started drawing diagrams. Some of the younger audience were shocked - they had no idea you could draw on a whiteboard!"

Now that is funny (although it shouldn't be...)

I'm surprised nobodies mentioned Google SketchUp - It's not really true CAD, but it's free and very easy to learn. It's ideal for "sketching up" drawings of houses etc. I think Google give it away for free to encourage people to add buildings to Google Earth.

Des-Eng