I have some very simple things I want to draw, as a layout and template to cut things.
Manged to find a very easy cad program, but when I printed it, it was not to scale.
Is there a simple cad program where I can just layout a number of simple shapes- circles, rectangles, ect- that lays out the shapes easily and then prints that to scale?
You may be having a DPI (dots per inch) issue. It is being printed at a different DPI than the drawing. Common DPI's for printing are 150 and 300 (it can essentially be anything though). See if you can check the dpi of the file and the printer (might be in the settings of the print dialog box).
Can you save the file as a PDF? You might be able to get a bit more control when printing going that way.
In reply to aircooled :
The program I'm using has no options under printing- it goes to the printer's core setup....
And the PDF gave me the same results- but I don't have adobe anyway.
Tried a few others, could not quickly figure out how to use them- most seem to be architecture- so the dimensions are HUGE.
All I wanted to do was place 3 circles of a specific size in a specific location on the paper, so that I could use them as drilling templates. Using some math, I ended up getting good enough results with Word. Which is kinda odd. Seems like drawing and printing circles of a specific design would be easy for a CAD program.
But no.
alfadriver (Forum Supporter) said:Tried a few others, could not quickly figure out how to use them- most seem to be architecture- so the dimensions are HUGE.
All I wanted to do was place 3 circles of a specific size in a specific location on the paper, so that I could use them as drilling templates. Using some math, I ended up getting good enough results with Word. Which is kinda odd. Seems like drawing and printing circles of a specific design would be easy for a CAD program.
But no.
If you know the coordinates you can actually do this easily in powerpoint.
What cad software were you using? I thought pretty much *any* autocad clone would print to scale.
Draftsight is the free Autocad clone made by solidworks. But its hugely overkill for what you are doing. I used to use a free autocad clone from time to time but I can't recall what it was. QCAD maybe?
Inkscape is a free vector drawing program, pretty powerful. Not the CAD software you're looking for, but with the CAD software you're using you should be able to get the job done.
I have used it to open PDFs and then print to the scale I need.
ProDarwin said:alfadriver (Forum Supporter) said:Tried a few others, could not quickly figure out how to use them- most seem to be architecture- so the dimensions are HUGE.
All I wanted to do was place 3 circles of a specific size in a specific location on the paper, so that I could use them as drilling templates. Using some math, I ended up getting good enough results with Word. Which is kinda odd. Seems like drawing and printing circles of a specific design would be easy for a CAD program.
But no.
If you know the coordinates you can actually do this easily in powerpoint.
What cad software were you using? I thought pretty much *any* autocad clone would print to scale.
Draftsight is the free Autocad clone made by solidworks. But its hugely overkill for what you are doing. I used to use a free autocad clone from time to time but I can't recall what it was. QCAD maybe?
Draftsight is now $99/year.
NanoCad is a suitable free ACAD clone. It does require registering and a large file size download
Mr_Asa said:Inkscape is a free vector drawing program, pretty powerful. Not the CAD software you're looking for, but with the CAD software you're using you should be able to get the job done.
I have used it to open PDFs and then print to the scale I need.
My thoughts exactly. This isn't CAD. This is illustration. Inkscape will do the job.
In reply to ProDarwin :
Smart cad was the easiest one to actually draw what I wanted- all of the others, it was so far from clear how to just draw a circle in a specific spot, I gave up.
Keith Tanner said:Mr_Asa said:Inkscape is a free vector drawing program, pretty powerful. Not the CAD software you're looking for, but with the CAD software you're using you should be able to get the job done.
I have used it to open PDFs and then print to the scale I need.
My thoughts exactly. This isn't CAD. This is illustration. Inkscape will do the job.
That does have some potential, but it would be nice if the reference location of a circle could be selected as the center, as opposed to the upper corner of the square that would be around a circle. Makes the math a whole lot more senical. But I can at least align all of the circles in one line, and then space them. After that, then group all of the shapes together and copy.
Because of the latter features, it's slighly better than Word. If it did everything on the center of the circle, it would be just enough of what I really need.
I'll keep it.
It's kind of funny that I'm a Mechanical Engineer who has never, ever, used CAD. I mean drawing something other than in a class room over 30 years ago. Never touched a CAD system ever at work.
Are you printing directly from the CAD program or exporting to PDF or image file then printing?
Rather than a dpi issue I'm thinking there might be a setting that's automatically set to "fit to paper size" that needs to be changed to 1:1 print or export.
alfadriver (Forum Supporter) said:Because of the latter features, it's slighly better than Word. If it did everything on the center of the circle, it would be just enough of what I really need.
FWIW, you can use the center as a reference in Google Docs:
I agree, this isn't CAD, unless the circles have a relation to one another, then CAD makes that a whole lot easier than doing trig manually to solve for coordinates. I don't know if inkscape can do tangency or any of the typical 2D cad relationships.
Have you tried using LibreCAD?
It is free, and there are a number of tutorials on YouTube.
j_tso said:Are you printing directly from the CAD program or exporting to PDF or image file then printing?
Rather than a dpi issue I'm thinking there might be a setting that's automatically set to "fit to paper size" that needs to be changed to 1:1 print or export.
Direct from the program, and the problem was that there's no choice to print to scale, Kind of a crappy set up. And when I did print to pdf, it did the same thing.
mainlandboy said:Have you tried using LibreCAD?
It is free, and there are a number of tutorials on YouTube.
Tried it, takes to long to draw 3 circles with a specific diameter and in a specific location.
Was able to draw some, but could not figure out fast enough to switch between drawing and editing, etc- so I deleted it.
ProDarwin said:alfadriver (Forum Supporter) said:Because of the latter features, it's slighly better than Word. If it did everything on the center of the circle, it would be just enough of what I really need.
FWIW, you can use the center as a reference in Google Docs:
I agree, this isn't CAD, unless the circles have a relation to one another, then CAD makes that a whole lot easier than doing trig manually to solve for coordinates. I don't know if inkscape can do tangency or any of the typical 2D cad relationships.
I'll try it next time in google.
I know this is just illustrations, but IMHO, it should be easy to do in a decent CAD program- I'm drawing a tempate to drill holes for some breakers- so they need to be the right size and in the right location- which is what CAD programs should be able to do really well.
In reply to alfadriver (Forum Supporter) :
Draftsight is the closest program to actual AutoCad. It is on a subscription these days. Solidedge 2D is free. It is not great for people who actually use CAD due to being a memory hog with large, complex drawings, but it might be the right answer for someone who just wants to layout some holes. It has a pretty strong help menu.
In reply to tester (Forum Supporter) :
Given that I can draw all of this in Word or Goode Docs, there's no way I'm paying for this. But I'll look into Solidedge.
It's funny that I keep thinking about making a DM car- to do that, I'd have to take 6 months of classes on doing CAD right, LOL.
Make a dimensioned napkin sketch and put a picture here. I'll knock a pdf out in MasterCam for you in a moment.
You can download the educational version for free, but it's seriously overkill for what you're doing :)
In reply to WonkoTheSane (Forum Supporter) :
Thanks- got it done already- using Word.
tester (Forum Supporter) said:In reply to alfadriver (Forum Supporter) :
Draftsight is the closest program to actual AutoCad. It is on a subscription these days. Solidedge 2D is free. It is not great for people who actually use CAD due to being a memory hog with large, complex drawings, but it might be the right answer for someone who just wants to layout some holes. It has a pretty strong help menu.
Solidedge won't let me have it. So much for that.
Nice for Siemens to advertise a free CAD software, let you try to get it, and then just say no for no obvious reason...
I do my 2D CAD in Illustrator. I know, it's not free - but I still don't know why you'd need anything other than an illustration program. Restricting your search to "CAD" is going to miss some viable options.
That is weird about Inkscape not allowing you to use centers, but I guess you could always ask for a full refund ;) At least the math to find the center of a circle isn't hard, you just add the radius.
In reply to Keith Tanner :
Maybe I expect too much out of CAD software? I now know I can just illistrate in Word, or Powerpoint, or Google Docs, too. But I figured a tool that is supposed to use a computer to aid your design would easily pump out a simple drawing. Even the free ones.
The easiest of easy button is to get a sheet of paper and a ruler. I can do that off grid... lol. And the same math needed for illustating programs...
The state of the art has changed a lot since I last did any CAD work. IMHO, the software designers need to go back and take a human factors class. They would be more likely to earn a donation from me.
I think the problem is that you're expecting there to be zero learning curve on the free version what is a fairly complex piece of software. It's like trying to do basic text editing in a page layout program. Should be a core competency, but you need to learn the program first.
In reply to Keith Tanner :
Yes, I am expecting that. And I don't see a problem with it, since it would be a good way to walk into a CAD program.
when you open word, just start typing, basic spreadsheet function is at hand with excel.
To me a CAD program should make it easy to replace an pencil and ruler without any significant effort.
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