Re: CAD Question

> From: Charles Gallo <Charlie@...>
> >From: "Steve Carlisle" <quatsein@...>
> >Charles, the manual is in the download, even though
> >they list it seperatly. Genuine Autocad users have
> >comented that it is very good. I cannot verify that
> >because I am a beginner CAD user.

I'm a long time AutoCAD user and I'd say it's a nearly perfect clone. I could
sit down and draw with it right away. There are a few missing features, like
Dynamic Zoom, but nothing that's a show stopper. Now, if only there was a
Linux version...

> Thanks for that hint - I'll still wait till Monday. I have ISDN
> right now, which isn't bad at 115 kbps (I'm doing DOV so I don't get hit
> for .01/minute/B Channel - that's why 115, not 128), but still, figure that

> 13 meg would take 21 minutes (figure 10k bytes/sec). Now Monday I get ADSL

> (YEAH) so I should get 648kbps, so lets figure 60k Bytes/sec - a 3-4 minute

> download - much more reasonable

Gee, I sucked it in through my 28.8 modem...

P.S. The big advantage of CAD, for me, is that I can model what I'm going to
build to ensure it all fits together. I work in 2d and do my own projections
as required. There are three tricks to using CAD effectively (I speak as if I
were an expert, but I'm not!). First, learn and use construction commands
like offset, trim, extend, array, fillet, chamfer, etc. Second make use of
the various object snap modes such as END, MIDdle, PERpendicular, QUAdrant,
CENter, etc. Third, make use of drawing modes such as ORTHO and SNAP to
automatically align your basic entities (entities are things like lines,
circles, and arcs). To draw something that's basically rectangular I start by
turning on ORTHO mode (F8 in acad) and I draw two perpendicular lines of
arbitrary length. The I use the offset command to offset both my existing
lines to the width and height I want. Finally I use the fillet command to
make each pair of perpendicular line ends meet at a sharp corner (or a
radiused one if that's needed). If you find that you are inputting a lot of
numerical data, like the endpoint coordinates of lines, you are going about
the drawing process the hard way. One of the main purposes of CAD is to get
numbers out, not put them in. The same can be said if you are trying to scale
things to fit on a certain size sheet of paper. Draw things in CAD at 1=1
scale whether they're atoms or galaxies and let the program's print function
figure out how to fit it on to paper for you.

P.P.S AutoCAD with Mechanical Desktop can create isometric projections
semi-automatically from your 3d models. ProEngineer is even better for this
because it has extensive "back annotation" support which means if you change
something in one view it changes everywhere, even in other related files. One
question: Got Money?

Good Luck

Matt