Easy To Use CAD For Beginners

[Tony Bennett]

smashing.

but i am soo thick i just can't get any further than a basic plan, and not a very good one at that.

oh i could build from it easy enough, but i doubt anyone else could.

so my dreams of being a designer will go down the pan.

[Phil Winks]

Posted by Stephen Jones on 29/03/2015 00:22:34:

Hi Phil ,

The box i am holding only mentions Windows XP \ Vista \ Windows 7 .

So i guess Windows 8 64 bit is out off the question , unless it can be run in compatibility mode .

Steve

Thanks Stephen looking like I'll have to spend a tad more and get Turbo cad then. Not a fan of compatability modes there often lacking in stability

[Erfolg]

Tony

You are a designer. You only have to consider what you do with paper and pencil.

In your case, you do not need 3d, you are able, as engineers for at least 200 years have drawn in 2d and imagined the 3d as necessary.

When I worked in industry 3d was sold along the line of providing a handy tool, with communicating the physical aspects of a product to the lay-man. More usefully, as a tool for the use of Finite element analysis, be it heat transfer, stress analysis, fluid flow. Very useful for a lot of advanced assessments.

Tony, the software is the problem, in that it is getting in the way of how you work. Increasingly packages are becoming user friendly, that is intuitive. It is te package that is the problem not you.

It is helpful if you have had some instruction and knowing some of the ideas on which these systems are based.

To some extent, there is a danger that the precision of the drawing gets in the way, that the drawing made, is only as accurate as the data used to define the drawing. Most of our data sources are not accurate at all, small scale drawings, and some overall dimensions of the full scale aircraft. In the past there will have some variation in the dimensions of one aircraft to another, particularly where more than one company made or supplied airframes.

So far Tony, i cannot see what your problems are, other than an issue with the mirror command, which is a bit clunky with Total. Needing a number of operations to do do accurately.

[Stephen Jones]

Tony ,

 

Their is nothing wrong with your drawings , or your models for that fact alone you are doing ok.

And if you are thinking about sharing you're designs, be it on the internet or getting them published .

Then just remember people have sent in scraps of paper with drawings on, and model magazines have had their experts redraw them in order to get them published.

And if you want to share them on the interwebb , just draw as you have in the past and scan any of the parts that are small enough to fit in a scanner and any of the larger parts carefully measure and reproduce in cad as you seem to be doing ok to me .

And like anything in life the more you do it the more you learn and the quicker you get at it .

Just remember i too just draw with pencil and paper my CAD pictures may look good but i built it from a drawn plan ,

I only later converted it to CAD so that i could easily make smaller or larger models .

Don't be put off by fancy pictures ,

Steve

 

 

 

Edited By Stephen Jones on 29/03/2015 14:01:40

[Phil Winks]

Well just one email later and I have what is likely to be the most definitive answer on the compatability of total cad I'm likely to get, from the horses mouth so to speak

I quote from an email from Tim Kirkland one of focus multimedia's technical assistants

"

Hello Philip

Thanks for contacting us.

Though I don’t use it extensively I do have Total Cad V2 installed onto Windows 8.1x64 and it runs fine.

I hope that helps.

Regards

Tim

Tim Kirkland Technical Services Assistant Email: [email protected].uk Head Office: +44 (0)1889 570156 Direct Line: +44 (0)1889 571232 Fax: +44 (0)1889 583571	QUALITY, CHOICE AND VALUE	Focus Multimedia Ltd The Studios, Lea Hall Enterprise Park, Wheelhouse Road, Rugeley, Staffordshire, WS15 1LH, UK. www.focusmm.co.uk

[Phil Winks]

Whoops hope that doesn't mess the thread formating up to much for you all

[Stephen Jones]

Hi Again ,

I have been playing with the 3D modeling although their is no balsa wood to pick from the selection of woods available it is possible to make you're own and change the grain direction along with colors pattern and a host of other perimeters too.

In picture above i have used one of the stock woods available wood2/pine2.

And in the one above i made four variations of Balsa with the grain in different directions to help show which way the grain should be going and to aid visuals of the subject matter .

It does not look like Balsa yet but it is getting closer .

You can also change the lighting and position lights around the subject matter as you would in a studio ,

Background color can not only be changed you can add a picture , Workbench , field what ever takes you're fancy.

Steve

[Stephen Jones]

Hi ,

how are you guys getting on ,

I have done a bit more work in 3D ,

And i have been playing with step animation of the build to this point .

Steve

[Tony Bennett]

very nice

i have not touched cad for ages now.

[Stephen Jones]

Thanks Tony ,

Here is work so far on the video build .

Steve

[Stephen Jones]

Hi ,

Have a look at the picture ,

Do the wings look longer on the bottom picture than the top ?

I have two computers with the same CAD program on but struggle to get on the better one as the Kidz are always using it .

So i took a screen grab from the other computer to have a look on this one, and they both look the same .

Is this normal or is their a way to correct it ?

Steve

 

Edited By Stephen Jones on 26/10/2015 23:13:40

[Robert Armstrong 2]

Horizontal and vertical axes scaled the same?

[Colin Leighfield]

The lower picture seems to be squashed longitudinally, it looks shorter and fatter, not just the wings being longer. In fact, they both look wrong to me, as though both are either side of the accurate dimensions, stretched and squashed in opposite directions.

[Andy Meade]

The aspect ratio of the screen you are working on is incorrect I'd say. Change the resolution in your operating system, and all should be good.

[IanR]

I would agree with Andy that its just a screen aspect ratio thing. I bet a print of the above will be OK, with both wings identical.   The programme's instructions will probably give a recommended setting for your computers aspect ratio.

Edited By IanR on 27/10/2015 09:16:30