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Recommendations for Drafting Program

I have been teaching a basic fabrication class (making chassis boxes from sheet aluminum, pc boards from scratch, and the like) for a while now to freshman electronics students.

For the working drawings part of the class for the boxes, I've been using elementary Autosketch for about ten years. The point is not to teach CAD drafting to the students (they get a full semester of it later in the curriculum) but to introduce CAD as a reasonable alternative to paper and straightedge. The bottom line is that I need a bonehead simple drafting package that doesn't take but a few hours to grasp the basics to draw lines and circles.

The problem is that Autosketch has become an orphan; Autocad has stopped supporting it and is not going to fix the bugs that are there.

Can anybody recommend a BONEHEAD SIMPLE drafting package that won't cost the student an arm and a leg to buy? Perhaps one that has a pared-down student version for a few dimes? Somebody at school recommended Turbocad -- any comments on that package? The one reason I'm holding on to Traxmaker and Circuitmaker for PCB layout is that there IS a downloadable student version for free.

Jim

Reply to
RST Engineering (jw)
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How about QCad? .

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-- Steve
Reply to
Steve

RST Engineering (jw) wrote: (snip)

I have several versions of Turbocad and don't particularly like any of them.

My very favorite bonehead simple general purpose drafting program is Draft Choice for Windows, available as shareware, and for a few bucks you can but a copy for $39, and get a manual. It is no longer supported, but works quite well (it is an enhancement of the original DOS version), and has all the features I need for hundreds of small jobs. It is also the most intuitive drafting program I have ever used. Every positive decision you can make is made with the left mouse button (add another item to the selected list, draw another line segment, yes, more, do) and every negative decision you can make is made with the right mouse button (I'm done selecting, back up a menu level, cancel, etc.).

You can build your own symbol libraries (this is a good exercise for students, all by itself) and my only gripe about the symbols is that they cannot have predefined test fields, but are saved exactly as they will appear. But you can make new symbols from existing ones, bust symbols up and delete parts, and create a new symbol based on an earlier version of the same symbol.

The files are also very compact and easy to email between users. It is a simple introduction to CAD that will spoil you.

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Reply to
John Popelish
[snip...snip...]

Try searching on "CAD" over at sourceforge.net. Quite a few offerings. For my own, I've been using Intellicad, an inexpensive (relatively so) work-alike of AutoCAD.

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Rich Webb   Norfolk, VA
Reply to
Rich Webb

Intellicad, ~$250 for a full package. 2D with lisp and an Autocad like menu.

Cheers

Reply to
Martin Riddle

I'll second the motion on Qcad.

Warn the studends that its user interface is not like most windows progams.

If you are trying to figure it ou, it makes the most sense if you say to yourself what you want to do. Example: Move that thing from here to there. (1) Select the "Move" item in the modify menu. (2) Select what you want to move. (3) Select what you consider to be where it is. (4) Indicate where you want it to go.

QCad does handle very large (truely huge if you wait long enough) DXF files. It sticks closely to the DXF quasi-standard.

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kensmith@rahul.net   forging knowledge
Reply to
Ken Smith

A previous thread on this:

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Reply to
JeffM

RST Engineering (jw) wrote: The one reason

Better keep your copy safe, looks like CircuitMaker (both Student and 2000) and

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is no more.

"CircuitMaker is no longer sold or supported by phone or email by Altium. For information regarding Altium's current products for complete electronic product development, visit

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"

Let's hope somebody can (legitimately) host a copy of the free Student version, I've found it very useful.

Reply to
cpemma

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