Designing scratch builds - Sketch-Up and other s/ware

[solentlife]

Give me graph paper ....... pencil ...... rulers etc. - I'm quite a dab hand at drawing up a potential design. I can posterize / scale a PDF print ...

But I am totally lacking in CAD skills. I have had AutoCAD2000 on one PC ... blew me away ! DraftSight from Dassault was downloaded so I could view various freebie plans online ... never could sort that out ... and I read various posts of people using Google Sketch-up to produce plans ... which I tried in it's early days and failed miserably.

What am I looking for ? I've now re-downloaded Sketch-up and will try again ... leads me to ask if anyone out bthere thought about sharing sketch-up files to help idiots like me get started ?.

Lets say i wanted to build a Tiger Moth ... maybe someoone out there has a similar sketch-up file ... that can be passed on to provide a starting point for another to work on for own style ?

Also pointers to make use easier ?

Interested to hear others views on this ...

Nigel

[npowell28]

I've been using Sketchup to design a DH mosquito. Not got very far with it to be honest though. I did see a piece of kit called Devfus which seems to do most of the work for you. Might be worth having a look at that.

[JetPlaneFlyer]

I'm a time served draughtsman, trained on the drawing board but can also turn my hand to a few CAD systems.

CAD can be daunting when you first try it but it's worth persevering with. AutoCAD is pretty much industry standard and is easy enough to use once you grasp the basics. Draftsight is virtually a clone of AutoCAD LT and for the price (i.e. free!) it's fantastic.

If you want to draw 'proper' professional standard fully detailed plans then IMHO you need to be looking at something like Autocad or Draftsight. If you just want to draw up 'pretty 3D pictures' and basic outlines then Sketch-up is fine. Possibly I'm doing the capabilities of Sketch-Up an injustice as I've never really used it much.

One of the first things to decide on is if you want to draw 2d or 3D. For me 2D is the quickest way to get to the final plan drawing but for really complex designs 3D has a lot of advantages but is an order of magnitude harder to learn one you consider how you have to generate 2D plans from 3D models.

The free version of Draftsight is 2D only as is the basic 'LT' version of Autocad.

Steve

[HO-229]

Nigel,
For what it's worth... It is a daunting task... Much like learning and then mastering a foreign language!
I can only tell you that persistence is critical to the task.
While I have used a few of the CAD tools and have mastered them I by no measure have unlocked all the capability.

In my humble opinion one can design and build with pen and paper much faster than CAD
Also... Upon using the CAD tool you will be blessed/cursed into the lengthily process.
So many things must be understood to successfully use the tool.

If your tool is parametric it will offer you great flexibility.
I would recommend a 3D tool, upon completion of the mold lines you can quickly take off parts
Cheers and hang in there,
Dave

[pmullen503]

I made an effort with Sketchup but my problem with it is it tries to "help" you too much. It seems to be optimized for quickly drawing boxes and is lacking tools for drawing curves and lofting. Better to spend your time on a "real" CAD program that handles curves easily.

That said, I use Coreldraw 9, an old 2D drawing program. It runs fast, has excellent printing tools (print selected items only, built in tiling, saves in PDF that I can email to the blueprint shop if I want it printed full size on a plotter) and easily handles curves. It's fine for the type of building I do.

If you need something to draw fuselages for balsa builds, check out Devfus. It will print out formers with stringer notches, etc.

[solentlife]

Had one guy in my company ... when I decided to move office / lab ... we visited the new building ... measured up etc.

Next I knew - he presented me with a full 3D plan of the installation office and lab gear ! I hate people like that !!

One of the ideas as I put in OP ... was whether a collection of basic sketch-up files was worth compiling so others can have a foundation to work from ?

Last ... does Autocad 2000 run on Win 7 ? I have full Autocad 2000 but don't want to install if it's going to crap out on 7 ... maybe I clean out an XP machine and stick it on there ...

Nigel

[mclarkson]

I don't know how much a repository of models would help you. They are generally lacking in internal structure.

SketchUp seems to be really geared to doing rooms and big, square things. I'll try to look into it a bit tonite and see if I can give you some tips. I actually do work on my planes in a 'non-CAD' 3D program called modo which isn't very well suited to the task but with which I'm comfortable. I like to 'sketch' in 3D, and I always feel really constrained in a true CAD progam.

[solentlife]

I wish I could do real 3D CAD ... something I have wanted to do for ages - but never had the real time to get to with it ...

I have had Draftsight, AutoCad var. versions up to 2000, and various other free stuff.

But never really cottoned on. I have to admit that when it comes to Role Playing games etc. - I'm not good ... I'm very good at straight PC stuff ... word etc. but CAD ?
Coreldraw had me pulling hair out ...

Nigel

[starcad]

Originally Posted by solentlife

Last ... does Autocad 2000 run on Win 7 ? I have full Autocad 2000 but don't want to install if it's going to crap out on 7 ... maybe I clean out an XP machine and stick it on there ...

Nigel

Unfortunately Nigel, No. You have to upgrade as ACad 2000 will not run in a 64 bit environment. I tried everything and finally had to spend the bucks.

Thank you very much MicroSoft.

[Wildflyer]

I have been told and (I hope Microsoft is right), if you have Windows 7 Pro, you can download a program from MS that will allow it to run 32 bit programs.

I have Autocad 2000 and it runs fine on my Windows XP 32 bit OS.
BUT Autocad 2000 has a 16 bit loading program, and that is what stopped it when I tried to load it on our 64 bit laptop with Win 7 64. I don't know what the program would have done if it had gotten in there.

I hope the Windows 7 Pro, I bought will allow me to run AC 2k on my new computer, or I will have to reformat my old machine and re-install Win XP.

[solentlife]

Originally Posted by starcad

Unfortunately Nigel, No. You have to upgrade as ACad 2000 will not run in a 64 bit environment. I tried everything and finally had to spend the bucks.

Thank you very much MicroSoft.

My Win7 is starter edition ... not Pro. I'm damned if I'm paying for another buggy box of Bill's crap ! Starter was free on the Acer One I bought ...
Now of course is Win8 ...........

I do have XP on my Dual Core Tosh at home - which needs cleaning out actually and starting over a fresh.

Nigel

[CrimzonRider]

Originally Posted by starcad

Unfortunately Nigel, No. You have to upgrade as ACad 2000 will not run in a 64 bit environment. I tried everything and finally had to spend the bucks.

Thank you very much MicroSoft.

+1 on it doesn't work in 64bit. Just looked up price ver. 2013 for a cool $3600 on sale too!

(in a quiet voice) search around some of the torrent sites, you might be able to find a "copy" to download if ya gotta have it.....as long as you don't turn a "profit"

just found a link on yt.com for 2012 I'm gonna try it and see if it works?
assuming just download 2gig file and apply crack to get a key.

how to install autocad 2012 FREE

cr

[hayofstacks]

My dad does things in free cad. He showed me how to build a chess pawn replacement in about 5 minutes. Its free (obviously) and I have seen him build plane like designs with it. It is a bit hard to understand, but there are pleanty of tutorials on youtube.