Luger Carbine

[John Sabato]

Rich , The last full version of Autocad that I have (released in the year 2000) sold for $3400.00...

I haven't even installed it in years. It takes lots of space. I used Autocad professionally for over 14 years... but that was LAST century...

There are some very capable drawing programs available today that are shareware... spend some time with them and you will never pick up your #2 pencil again unless it is to make a grocery list.

[Olle]

I make CAD drawings on a fairly regular basis, and I use a program called DeltaCAD ( http://www.deltacad.com/ ). It is very intuitive and easy to use, almost like MS Paint on steroids. I have used AutoCAD as well, but you almost have to work full time with it to learn and remember how it works. It has so many features that you can't even find the ones you need sometimes. DeltaCAD sure has it's limitations, but it's very easy to pick up and use at any time. It can export and import .dwg and .dxf, so it's compatible with the "big boys" as well.

[sheepherder]

Originally Posted by John Sabato

Rich , The last full version of Autocad that I have (released in the year 2000) sold for $3400.00...

... ...

... spend some time with them and you will never pick up your #2 pencil again unless it is to make a grocery list.

I make 99% of my 'drawings' on the fly; on envelopes, as I said...Sometimes a sheet of used copier paper...

I had a drawing board and T-square in my closet, up until my last divorce...When a lot of my things mysteriously disappeared...Curiously, my triangles, protractors, & French curves are still here...

[Olle]

Originally Posted by sheepherder

I make 99% of my 'drawings' on the fly; on envelopes, as I said...Sometimes a sheet of used copier paper...

I had a drawing board and T-square in my closet, up until my last divorce...When a lot of my things mysteriously disappeared...Curiously, my triangles, protractors, & French curves are still here...

One good thing about CAD drawings is that you won't lose the drawing, it can be saved in pristine condition and printed out every time you need a copy in the shop. I used to have notebooks in the shop, where I jotted down sketches and dimensions for future use. It works, but afterwhile they tend to get tattered and soaked in oil and cutting fluid, and some may simply get lost.

I found that it was actually easier to use CAD, as it can do a lot of the math you use when drawing and fabricating parts (finding center lines, radii, diameters of roundovers, divisions etc.). It will also show if you made a mistake when you measured intermediate dimensions, as the overall dimensions won't match, lines won't meet etc.

Nowadays I sketch the part and go directly to the PC to make a CAD drawing. It may sound like overkill for one-off jobs, but sobebody else might need it and it sure saves a lot of time if you one day have to make another part just like it.