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easy drawing program

Alan Elzer

Plastic
Joined
Feb 10, 2011
Location
IN. USA
I don't post much here cause I'm a beginner & old school with manual lathe & mill. But getting old making hand drawings on paper then make a part. Looking for easy drawing program to start with. Just straight lines be fine.
What drawing programs I've googled come up for sketching a person or animal...an so.
So am I searching wrong programs?
Guys keep up the good threads cause I do enjoy. Thnx Alan

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DraftSight - looks and works like AutoCAD LT 97. Doesn't get much simpler or easier, and it's a very popular program with a lot of help online and videos on YouTube.
 
http://www.freebyte.com/cad/cad.htm

qcad is maybe the easiest. librecad is its sister, maybe looks a little nicer. I think they will both put out in dxf, which means most other cad programs can share files. solvespace looks like it might be fun, parametric stuff is a trip.
 
http://www.freebyte.com/cad/cad.htm

qcad is maybe the easiest. librecad is its sister, maybe looks a little nicer. I think they will both put out in dxf, which means most other cad programs can share files. solvespace looks like it might be fun, parametric stuff is a trip.

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librecad has youtube video tutorials. its not fancy but thats actually a good thing. its relatively easy and just works
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i often use it for math. draw then add dimensions. it does the math automatically
 
For really basic stuff Paint is probably your best choice. Every Windows comp for the last 25 or so years has it so you'll almost always be able to find it. Tinkercad is cute. For a very minimal investment in time you can be manipulating fairly complex shapes to improve your perspective and view. The main part I like is you can get near instant quotes from Shapeways for any rough sketch you make. Gives you a bit of a hint as to whether your headed in the right direction or not.

Otherwise just open a Fusion account. Imo it's a waste of time to learn some half featured less functional software that you'll never see in any professional environment. Fusion is free to start and if you end up going pro $ 20/month is dirt cheap for what your getting.
 
DraftSight - looks and works like AutoCAD LT 97. Doesn't get much simpler or easier, and it's a very popular program with a lot of help online and videos on YouTube.

And the best thing about it IMO (besides being free) is that most of the AutoCAD keyboard shortcuts (like L for Line) also work, saving a lot of time clicking on menus. You can also scroll through previously used commands and hit enter to reuse. It's a great basic 2D program.

PS: If you try it learn the coordinate system and things like rectangles are easy to draw

Once in line mode and with a starting point selected typing (without the quotes) "@4<0" will draw a line 4 units long in the direction of zero (right).

Other very much used commands will be Offset, Trim, and Circle.
 
For really basic stuff Paint is probably your best choice. Every Windows comp for the last 25 or so years has it so you'll almost always be able to find it. Tinkercad is cute. For a very minimal investment in time you can be manipulating fairly complex shapes to improve your perspective and view. The main part I like is you can get near instant quotes from Shapeways for any rough sketch you make. Gives you a bit of a hint as to whether your headed in the right direction or not.

Otherwise just open a Fusion account. Imo it's a waste of time to learn some half featured less functional software that you'll never see in any professional environment. Fusion is free to start and if you end up going pro $ 20/month is dirt cheap for what your getting.

Completely disagree.

Not only is Windows Paint raster rather than vector based but the latest "improved" versions have ruined some of the most useful features.

For a person just getting into CAD something like DraftSight is very useful and if they encounter AutoCAD at a job they will already have most of the basics.

3D CAD is another matter and can be intimidating for beginners.
 
I've only used AutoCAD once, briefly, in a demonstration day at the local CC that my daughter attended. But I've been using LibreCAD for many years now, and fully satisfied with it. My understanding - which could be way wrong - is that it uses an interface similar to AutoCAD - ??
 
And the best thing about it IMO (besides being free) is that most of the AutoCAD keyboard shortcuts (like L for Line) also work, saving a lot of time clicking on menus. You can also scroll through previously used commands and hit enter to reuse. It's a great basic 2D program.

PS: If you try it learn the coordinate system and things like rectangles are easy to draw

Once in line mode and with a starting point selected typing (without the quotes) "@4<0" will draw a line 4 units long in the direction of zero (right).

Other very much used commands will be Offset, Trim, and Circle.

And for recovering AutoCAD users like me, you can even type the AutoCAD command in the command bar, and DraftSight will recognize it. (Purge comes to mind - the DraftSight command is Clean.)
 
And for recovering AutoCAD users like me, you can even type the AutoCAD command in the command bar, and DraftSight will recognize it. (Purge comes to mind - the DraftSight command is Clean.)

Yes, that's what I meant by keyboard shortcuts. I took an AutoCAD course at the local adult education many years ago and the instructor taught that one additional advantage of using commands instead of menus is that it becomes version independent. Otherwise you have to play "find the command" every time they change the interface look with new versions. This was always a big problem for me when I did contract work and consulting. Various companies often use different versions and smaller companies often keep using older software.
 
Solid Edge ST8, maybe ST9 by now. Free. Simple interface.

Draftsight is great if you actually like the classic autocad interface. IME that is really only those people who have used autocad for decades and have all the commands and shortcuts permanently burned into their mind.

For everyone else Solid Edge 2D is a much more pleasant experience.
 
If you want a really, and I mean really simple program it's hard to be Visio which is more of a "diagraming" software than CAD software. It will only do 2D and I will use it bofore I use Draftsight which would be my vote if you need more capability. However, if you get Visio DO NOT get a newer version, go on eBay and get maybe Visio 2007 professional (so you will have dimensioning). The new ones suck. I use it all the time for relatively simple CAD parts and it will make dxf files so you can have them laser, plasma, router-cut, etc.

The Dude
 








 
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