Easy To Use CAD For Beginners

[Eagle 899]

Just picked up TurboCad 18 for £7.99 from Maplins after ordering online (says 16 on website).

Now I've just got to learn it!.

Shep

[bert baker]

Oh dear what have I started,

So all we need now is a teacher.

[eflightray]

Google SketchUp, it's free, has a load of modelers already using it, so there are plenty of standard components already in libraries, such as servos, Rxs, etc, plus loads of Youtube tricks and techniques videos by modelers.

[Stephen Jones]

Hi ,

TurboCad 14/16 is the one i am using , Like most things in life the more you practice the easier it becomes .

Some things you pick up straight away , others just confuse you , until one day the penny drops and every thing just falls into place .

The way i managed to get drawings done was to draw a plan 1st on paper then try and reproduce it in cad that way you have something to follow , you can measure parts on paper while adjusting things in cad .

I had problems getting the formers right ,as you can see by the crosses on the paper pan.

So i re drawn the plan in cad and found i could resize parts to get them to fit correctly .

The best part is you can then print the parts out and stick them directly onto the wood for cutting without fear of reining you're plan .

Of coarse you do not have to try and get 3D images to work but it does help to visulize it .

You can draw a plan like this as model and then just copy the part you want to printout to a page for printing .

Lets hope someone with good Cad skills can help us out .

And maybe start a how to work in CAD thread for us to follow .

Steve.

[Erfolg]

Does Total Cad save/export as DWG extension?

The extension is important to me from the standpoint on getting prints run off at my local printers.

As an aside I used to use Autosketch which was a Autodesk product at £20. Again a simple package a stripped down Autocad, now it cost an arm and a leg.

[bert baker]

A good Idea CAD for the total novice please please please

. with planes in mind not gardens or house electrics.

I want How to draw bulkheads ,formers and wing ribs, how to size them etc.

No, where to start the drawing.

Yes the basic stuff the very first commands the competent user forgets because it's so basic.

Me no nothing Mr, please edumacte me please

[Stephen Jones]

Posted by Erfolg on 25/02/2015 19:01:33:

Does Total Cad save/export as DWG extension?

The extension is important to me from the standpoint on getting prints run off at my local printers.

As an aside I used to use Autosketch which was a Autodesk product at £20. Again a simple package a stripped down Autocad, now it cost an arm and a leg.

Yes it does , along with DXF SKP and many more you can also export to PDF.

Steve

[Stephen Jones]

How is this ,

Videos how to

Just found i will look at them now .

Steve

[bert baker]

Great stuff Stephen, I've drawn a circle and a square.

Cool

[Chuck Plains]

Posted by Colin Leighfield on 25/02/2015 09:34:15:

Tony, I'll race you to see who's thickest, I bet it'll be me. I keep looking at this stuff and can't seem to get to first base. Clearly I need the advice of a modern 5 year old, they are invariably quicker than me at sussing out all of this trickery.

hAH!! You know thick, right? Well add a bunch of thickening agent to it and you get me!!

[Phil Winks]

Posted by Stephen Jones on 25/02/2015 19:12:48:

Posted by Erfolg on 25/02/2015 19:01:33:

Does Total Cad save/export as DWG extension?

The extension is important to me from the standpoint on getting prints run off at my local printers.

As an aside I used to use Autosketch which was a Autodesk product at £20. Again a simple package a stripped down Autocad, now it cost an arm and a leg.

Yes it does , along with DXF SKP and many more you can also export to PDF.

Steve

Being able to export to PDF is probably the best way to ensure your local print shop can print at the size you require as nearly all can deal with PDF and they tend to be smaller if you want to email them to your print shop as I do. Also it helps to include a print scale on the drawing as a reference for them too

[Erfolg]

Paul

It is a house extension which I will be drawing. As if it were a model, a piece of paper is much quicker.

I will be drawing full scale (that is how I was taught), The paper size will be to suit planning and building reg. requirements.

The reason i will be going for DWG. is that Autocad was by far the most popular CAD package in engineering, when I worked, and at that time you could get a plot done anywhere,

I have got a copy on order, should be here by Saturday.

[bert baker]

Have managed some squares with rounded corners.

Did find out you need to hold the mouse button down to get the options to expand, when looking for the radius tool or any of the ones with white line on them

[Tony Bennett]

nope i am still lost.

sheesh.

[Erfolg]

To try and help, those who have had no training with CAD systems, I do believe that we could discuss some simple ideas, those which are I believe are common to most if not all systems.

I will start, if I am wrong, I know that i will be pulled up.

• All CAD work is done at full scale. It is the prints which are at a reduced scale
• most systems use as a reference point called the world co-ordinates for 2d @ 0,0. This allows such things as chemical plants to be designed to a single reference point.
• For much of what we do, the use of the Relative co-ordinate input is the most useful command.
• Lines are often make use of the Offset command to produce a set of parallel lines to a reference line. Perhaps a CL.
• Often the trim or extended command is used to create regular shapes.

I consider these to be my basics commands for drawing easy shapes.

Time now for others contributions

[Erfolg]

Perhaps something else is worth mentioning:

It is common to use layers, for a number of reasons objectives:

• text is kept on a single layer
• buildings and equipment will often be on separate layers, such as electric systems, instrumentation, services, I think you get the basis is many and varied.
• Where a number of items make up a single entity, some parts will often have their own layer.

[Tony Bennett]

could you speak in english please.

I think i will just give up and go back to making it up as i go along.

Tony

[Erfolg]

Tony

What is it you do not understand.

If i were to take the concept of world co-ordinates. All this means is that all lines etc occupy a location. You automatically link lines and so on, as you know that is what you want to do. The computer decides that the point where you start the first line, or what ever is its World Centre. On most systems, all commands other than when made relative to another eternity, are from this point.

So when a line is required it is often made relative to another feature, such as an existing line, this can be an offset, or from a snap to the end of a line. If you do not make use of the relative command, you may find that a new drawn line goes to somewhere other than where you intend. The reason being, that the first point selected when you started, is as far as the software is concerned, the point where all other lines are relative to.

It is far easier to show and talk about these concepts.

[Tony Bennett]

yes i am still lost.

i just can't get my head round it at all.

have tried many times and it goes over my head.

[Erfolg]

Perhaps another way of looking at the problem of CAD, is that at one level it is stupid, at another it knows a lot of basic functions and like a child, it takes everything literally, against some basic rules.

If yo want to draw a line, it needs to be told that it is a line that is required. Then it needs a start point and an end point.

Subsequent lines, unless told otherwise always refer back to the very first point, to draw the new line. If you use the snap command, this establishes automatically a new relative point.  This line will start at the snap point, although the end of the line will be relative to the 0,0 point, unless told that the end of the new line is relative to the start/snap point.

In essence unless told otherwise everything is from that very first 0,0 point, unless told otherwise.

All other lines have some relationship with this point, they could start from 0,0, and this is what the CAD system assumes, or there is some relative positioning, that you tell it. Some commands such as snap, establish there own relative point. Although if this point is used to start a line, any co-ordinates inputted will be considered to be relative to the 0,0 point, unless you input the relative command. Others require you to establish that this line is relative.

From memory, the relative command was initiated with "@" symbol in Autocad and Autosketch, then came your co-ordinates, although I am now beginning to think it may have been ( co-ordinates). You will need to look it up with for Total Cad.

Edited By Erfolg on 26/02/2015 12:27:58

[IanR]

I have used TurboCad since version 1, currently have version 6, version 9 version 18 and version 22 (the latest) on my computer but only use version 9 on a regular basis - it draws virtually everything I need but is slightly lacking when it comes to importing and exporting.

With respect to Erfolg, I wouldn't worry too much about World Coordinates at the learner stage. I have never bothered with World Coordinates and don't think it has set me back or slowed my drawing.

Tony, Layers are brilliant - get your head round Layers asap. Basically, if you're just getting to grips with your drawing package and only drawing a few lines and circles whilst learning, then layers are useless. Layers come into their own when you're drawing a complicated structure because you can turn a layer on or off i.e. make it visible or invisible. That way, completed sections of your drawing which might be in front of or behind the area you're working on, and which are getting in your way and confusing you, can be made invisible so that all you see is the section you're working on. This is not the only feature of layers but is arguably the most useful.

Ian

[Tony Bennett]

eeep

sounding more and more complicated.

not sure if i will be able to master it.

[IanR]

Tony

Message sent

Ian

[Erfolg]

Hmm.

I must be making it sound harder than it is as it is a simple ideea.

As far as the computer is concerned the paper we would draw on is infinite.

It just happens that our paper is finite, it may be A3.

When you draw a line. you make a decsion where to put the point of the pencil. For the computer that point is 0,0, its so called world co-ordinate (its world is still infinite in concept), but it now has an origin.

You draw a line say horizontal, lets say 50 mm. to the computer the end point is 50, 0. It uses in 2d x,y co-ordinates.

If I want to draw a line say 20mm down from the end of the 50 mm line I have to tell it that it is relative, then, 0, -20. If I do not tell it it is relative to the last point, it draws a line using the 0,0 point as its reference point.

I am just trying to get across an idea, I am not concerned how you do it. That is something to worry about later when you understand the ideas. The how to do comes later. The reason for understanding ideas, is that when things go wrong, it helps in understanding why.

Tony I am less than convinced that CAD will help you anyway, as you do extremely well without it.

Commercial, or in my case drawing for a daughter, the drawing will need to be modified, as someone always changes their minds. This is one area where CAD saves time. Another is where a CAD file exists, that almost is what you want, with small changes it becomes exactly what you want. It is now well understood that there is no saving for a unmodified design when using CAD, it typically takes longer.

Another area which is useful is to bring in a bit mapped image (a set of dots making up the image), a typically image say scanned from a book, as a pixilated image. This is then made to fit the dimensions you want, it could be wingspan. Then you use the CAD package( which are vector graphics, put simply, a line has a start and finish point), to draw over the image and perhaps to put in formers etc. In essence the CAD package does what you now do electronically, as I have seen your  bitmapped print outs over which you do your thing.

Edited By Erfolg on 26/02/2015 13:14:36

[Tony Bennett]

thing is that i am trying to turn my flights of fancy into proper plans to start from as my current method of making it up as i go along generates lots of waste.

if i can get the idea down on "paper" i can mod it without having to cut and see like wot i do at the moment.

plus i will have a record of the model if i want to build another or even give some one a copy of the plan.