Garden Railway Forum

Marquis DeCarabas · Post by **Marquis DeCarabas** » Sun Aug 02, 2015 8:39 am

What's the easiest and most intuitive freeware 2D CAD program, hivemind?

I'm playing around with Draftsight but it seems like an uphill struggle.

Anyone got any recommendations, please?

tom_tom_go · Post by **tom_tom_go** » Sun Aug 02, 2015 10:08 am

Have you tried Google SketchUp?

Marquis DeCarabas · Post by **Marquis DeCarabas** » Sun Aug 02, 2015 11:41 am

.dxf export is a shade nadgeree.

Busted Bricks · Post by **Busted Bricks** » Sun Aug 02, 2015 12:10 pm

You can get Turbocad18 on Ebay for £20. I've not found any free CAD programs that I really liked.

sstjc · Post by **sstjc** » Sun Aug 02, 2015 8:48 pm

I've tried a number but keep coming back to Qcad. It times out in the free version but you don't lose anything because it autosaves. Costs 20 something quid for the pro version. I use it for all my cad work such as the 5inchrail 16mm kits and the 3" scale steam wagons all of which are cut for me by proffessional laser cutters who have no problems in importing the files into the software they use.
Barry[/u]

Boustrophedon · Post by **Boustrophedon** » Sun Aug 02, 2015 10:32 pm

Inkscape is free but not particularly intuitive in some of its features.

Post by **Andrew** » Mon Aug 03, 2015 5:23 pm

I'll be interested to know what you decide - I've been learning Draftsight for the last few months but agree that it could be a lot more intuitive.

In the meantime feel free to drop me a pm/email if you think I can help at all with any DS stuff, I've got a fair way with it, including some drawings that are almost ready for the cutter...

Andrew.

Marquis DeCarabas · Post by **Marquis DeCarabas** » Mon Aug 03, 2015 6:50 pm

Thanks, Barry: I'll give Qcad a try and Andrew, I might PM you depending on how Qcad trials do.

Boustrophedon - named after the writing style? Bloody difficult to read!

tegfan railway · Post by **tegfan railway** » Mon Aug 03, 2015 10:39 pm

I have used Draftsight in the past and found it very good, also take a look at Libre CAD.

TTHLRMatt · Post by **TTHLRMatt** » Fri Aug 14, 2015 7:51 pm

I would give Libre CAD a good go. It was infuriating at first but has a lot of perks when drawing items up. I have done all sorts with it from 7 1/4 inch gauge couplings to loco frames.

Marquis DeCarabas · Post by **Marquis DeCarabas** » Sat Aug 15, 2015 10:27 am

LibreCAD appears to be a little more suited to my mindset than DraftSight, ta for the pointer, I shall play with both.

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