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Forum Index : Microcontroller and PC projects : CAD softwares....
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| Trevorc Newbie  Joined: 26/02/2017 Location: United KingdomPosts: 22 |
Hi Grogster, Some of us use Design Spark PCB (Free from RS), they also have Design Spark Mechanic FREE. Although this is intended as a 3d Cad the basics are the same as 2d. You can draw easily what you want in 2d plan view and save it as a DFX. Might be good for your cases too. If you already have DS PCB then it is easy to register Mechanic. Hope this helps. Trevorc |
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Ralph2k6 Senior Member  Joined: 24/09/2017 Location: AustraliaPosts: 129 |
I haven't proven the accuracy of the output format as I export to pdf for archiving. But Draw.io the web based option technical drawing tool/website can export to SVG also. Ralph |
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MicroBlocks Guru  Joined: 12/05/2012 Location: ThailandPosts: 2209 |
Genuinely curious why 'persist in order to use open source software' is so important? I find many open source projects lacking and being abandoned because the main developers either found a girlfriend who demanded time or they got a job leaving them without spare time. It is not that you really support the developers by supporting open source, but mainly support users of which many see open source as a better way then copying software. Never understood that programming is the only profession where peoples time and knowledge 'should be shared' for free. No other profession has this 'demand'. Microblocks. Build with logic. |
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belsean21 Newbie Joined: 06/07/2013 Location: AustraliaPosts: 12 |
OpenSCAD may be worth a look. Predominantly used for 3D modelling but will work in 2D. It has SVG & DXF export options. Sean. |
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| yobortsa Newbie Joined: 12/12/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 37 |
Hi Microblocks, I agree that commercial software is usually more polished, easier to use and doesn't fail from abandonment as often (well, the big players anyway). However, I object to the snowballing size of commercial software and the PC requirements. The last downlaods I tried were AutoCAD 2014 at a whopping 1.5Gb in size; AutoDesk Inventor 2012 was over 6.5Gb in size. The latest version of LibreCAD is less than 30Mb to download and FreeCAD (3D parametric modelling) is around 350Mb. I also like to be able to run a copy on our office PC, the shed PCs, the boys' PCs and my laptop. With commercial software, I'd need late model fast PCs with bucket-loads of RAM, huge HDDs and unlock codes for each one. Open source software I can run on older PCs and as many copies as I like. But I do make compromises to do this: the featureset is often limited, the software can be buggy and the userbase and support can be limited. Import/export can also cause issues with incompatibilities. 2D CAD has been one of the most difficult areas for me - finding something that was comparable to AutoCAD that I was used to. QCAD was never any good IMHO but when LibreCAD forked it, it showed promise. Still somewhat frustrating and not how I would write some parts but was usable. Yes, still has idiosyncrasies and buggy (eg. sometimes lines don't extend to meet other lines properly) but it works for my simple requirements. I'm still faster using AutoCAD but I'm getting there. Further, I'm also trying to limit software I rely on to that which is available on Windows and Linux. Ultimately I'd like to ditch Windows as my main operating system. Microsoft are at a point now where I believe they've made their Windows 10 operating system so complicated even they themselves can't manage it: my understanding is the continuous updates were supposed to solve previous issues and there would be no new 'versions' of Windows; rather they adopt the IOS model where they impose new 'features' whether you like it or not. Well, they can't even get the basics to work: I frequently have to End Task all Explorer processes and Run | Explorer to restore the 'folders' panel in Explorer; and the photo preview 'app' often hangs or closes on me. I run the latest updates on numerous PCs and it happens everywhere. Windows 10 is a flakey test version if you ask me, certainly not robust for business use. And I find the [often multiple] reboots to install updates unacceptable, taking a ludicrously long time to complete. So I'd really like to go Linux but software has been limited and printer/scanner support is still an issue for me. So this is what I generally use these days: Firefox and Thunderbird (which I am very happy with), GIMP for photo editing, Inkscape for drawing, Dia for diagramming (Dia pretty bad IMHO though - perhaps should be called 'dire'), LibreCAD for 2D CAD, FreeCAD/OpenSCAD for 3D modelling, I'm learning KiCAD for PCB, Geany for text editor, QGIS for mapping (Very good IMHO; I would say better than MapInfo in many respects) and PDF Toolkit from Linux command line. Still stuck using Microsoft Office and PDF-XChange Viewer; would like to move to LibreOffice sometime. Regards, David |
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| StoveMan Regular Member  Joined: 29/03/2013 Location: United StatesPosts: 51 |
Try www.deltacad.com Simple dxf dwg output and plays well with laser, router, vinyl cutters, and plasma. I use it every day for simple geometry. It is less than $80 us. Very 'manual co.pared to more advanced tools but outputs acurate and clean dxf. |
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| Bill7300 Senior Member Joined: 05/08/2014 Location: AustraliaPosts: 159 |
Deltacad is currently only $39.9 USD, I see but has a free demo download for a month's use. Might give it a try ( another refugee from AutoCad here.) Bill |
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| StoveMan Regular Member Joined: 29/03/2013 Location: United StatesPosts: 51 |
as a file format dxf is as basic as they come... just vertices and line descriptor codes. All cnc cam software that I am aware of process straight to gcode very accurately(which is why it's great for drawing exchange  ). SVG as a format is great for small reasonably accurate representation of geometry. Vector formats in general (eps,ai,svg,cdr) can scale but suffer from increased error the farther from design size you get. Which is why nobody builds a bridge from an svg. If you design at a close scale to what you need built (i.e. no scaling is required) an svg should work quite well. That being said dxf export functions in alot of software are not very refined. inskape is not good neither is CorelDraw. Deltacad as I mentioned is exceptional. Aspire by vectric is great but $$. |
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| StoveMan Regular Member Joined: 29/03/2013 Location: United StatesPosts: 51 |
Just saw the post about dxf files and curves being short lines. That is an issue with the software exporting the geometry or the linker function at the CAM end. Dxf includes Arc or Polyline entity types so true arcs can be communicated. The issue is generally shoehorning illustration software into the cnc paradigm. All (mainstream) cnc equipment use point to point coordinate moves to do the actual work. I suppose one could design a cnc using hobby serves on a long arm and you could imput angular and magnitude moves; but I doubt it would be to precise (accurate maybe... but not precise) which is why vectors are not used generally. |
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| MicroBlocks Guru Joined: 12/05/2012 Location: ThailandPosts: 2209 |
High end CNC machines support arcs. CAM software outputs GCODE which does have support for it. It is the GCODE interpreter that translates those GCODEs into movements. Simpler CNCs just have a subset. If in DXF a circle/curve is exported with small line segments you often have no control about how fine this is. With lasercutting/CNC you can see the segments easily. If you put this DXF file into a CAM it will not be able to make it more 'round'. It would need to have an input where the curves are still curves. Then CAM can output the GCODE with little lines (but then it is controllable with some settings) or it leaves that work to the machine and just outputs curves directly to GCODE. My own lasercutter software uses a CorelDraw Plugin. When i import DXF then often i have to change the short lines back to circles/curves by hand before cutting it. A 3mm hole with short lines can be 2.8mm because often there are only 8 segments. Larger holes often have 24-120 segments depending on the diameter. For construction this is fine, for cosmetics however it is not. Unless you go for the segmented look of course. :) Microblocks. Build with logic. |
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| StoveMan Regular Member Joined: 29/03/2013 Location: United StatesPosts: 51 |
Gcode has included arc feed commands since the 1970s. G02 and G03 are both standard descriptors that all cnc controllers use. even Mach3 which is used by most DIY'ers. I have investigated the CorelDraw problem extensively, as it has frustrated me too. I have one of those cheap lasercutters which use a CorelDraw plugin and I would never compare it output expected from a real cnc. I have a cnc plasma, router, mill, and 2 diode lasers which I either built from scratch or converted to cnc. Deltacad produces clean output geometry which is handled appropriately my the post processors for all these machines. Corel seems to make extensive use of spines and bezier's as part of its internal format. Dxf does not use these so Draw must convert them to arcs and polyline. |
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