Drawing program CAD

I bought Autocad - way back at version 10 - for DOS. I hated it. Slow, clunky, took HOURS to print.

When I found Design CAD all that changed. It's not Rhino, I know. I'd like to have a chance to play with that one.

But it's awesome at 2D drafting. Easiest to use package I've ever found.

Models in 3D - well above average for a drafting package. (as you saw)

The animation isn't bad - as good as the animator anyway... Example Bender Rodrigues movie that I drew for Dorothy.

Winston, take a look here...

DOWNLOAD PRICE for V 18 - $49??? Review...

Plus - tutorial CD - $49

On Tue, 30 Sep 2008 13:38:29 -0400, the infamous "Ed Huntress" scrawled the following:

Yeah, the trade in costs are even steeper than initial setup fees. You were one of the lucky ones. The majority of owners are far less happy. That's why I've always rented the low-upkeep models.

- If the gods had meant us to vote, they'd have given us candidates. --------------

Yep, it's called AlibreCAM and based on Visual Mill, probably version 5. There are also add-on versions of Alibre CAM that provide more features than the one bundled with Alibre Expert.

Mike

(Design CAD info)

That looks like a great program Richard. The price is certainly right.

--Winston

On Tue, 30 Sep 2008 17:02:33 -0700, the infamous Winston scrawled the following:

I entered a drawing to win a copy of Rhino 3D a few years ago and was overjoyed when they called. Unfortunately, it wasn't a winner's call, it was notice that I had not won and an attempt to sell me the product. It looks like a great program, but I don't do enough to warrant the price. OK, now I'll read on.

We're two of a kind here. I'm usually self-taught.

That's amazing, Winston.

I'm sure of two things. First, I'd probably agree that it worked well. Second, ain't no way in the world I'd ever utter the words "Only about a grand", period. If I had my druthers, I'd own a copy of either Chief Architect or SoftPLAN for my construction business. But they're both nigh onta $3k each. _Ain't_ gonna happen.

Cool! Is that a rotary-to-linear pump adaptor you built, with a small motor to run it?

OK, OK, I'm sold! Saaaaaay, can you loan a buddy about $1174?

Ah, another satisfied customer. Oh, what do upgrades cost, or is it one of the fantastic free-upgrade programs? I love those.

You WRETCH, you! ;)

- If the gods had meant us to vote, they'd have given us candidates. --------------

They would have done far better long-term to have given you a copy. They would have made plenty of money on support and options over the years.

Larry Jaques blessed all and sundry with:

Autodidacticism is underestimated. < I learned that all by myself!

Don't get me wrong. They guy is definitely smarter than I am, so it's reasonable that he should have been able to understand the concepts faster than I did. I still marvel at how he 'picked up' CAD in minutes instead of weeks.

It's a time or money thing. Next time you visit someone with cable TV, I invite you to check out the n + 1 shows on house remodeling. See how they use CAD to show the homeowner how changes will affect the house? Very Cool!

(Note to self: Stop Evangelizing)

Actually, it's much simpler. That's just a small bottle jack.

I unscrewed the pad from the top and welded on a piston extension to drive the table mechanism. I made a connecting rod to couple a gear motor to the master cylinder. See, after I was happy with the design, I grabbed each of the pieces and made G-Code files. The mill made all the parts and I welded them up.

Ya know, I wish I could.

Upgrades are not free. But they are very reasonably priced, given the added functionality. In 6.5 years, I've upgraded once and was delighted with the increased functionality.

Ain't I though? :)

--Winston

On Wed, 01 Oct 2008 10:59:31 -0700, the infamous Jim Stewart scrawled the following:

Yes, very possibly so. But I seldom upgrade if I don't have to.

- If the gods had meant us to vote, they'd have given us candidates. --------------

On Wed, 01 Oct 2008 11:48:30 -0700, the infamous Winston scrawled the following:

Yes, I'm happy never to have remembered being lexicographically- challenged myself. When I won a deluxe lexicography course at a seminar and they announced my name, I was one of the very few people in the audience (or management) to know WTF they were talking about. (Long family dinners word-jousting with a brilliant older sister and parents helped immensely with that.)

I agree. (You don't wanna know with which parts. ;)

That's precisely why I want a copy of CA or SP. I'd even settle for a copy of ArchiCAD 12. (Note to self: Stop Evangelizing)

Amen.

Uh, I _knew_ that much. ;)

_That_ is what I referred to as a rotary-to-linear pump adaptor, sir.

"Wow!" he said, bowing to the man with a CNC mill.

"Reasonably priced" from the man who thinks $1k is lunch money.

- If the gods had meant us to vote, they'd have given us candidates. --------------

I have just one question: What kind of seminar was it that offered a deluxe lexicography course as a prize? d8-)

-- Ed Huntress

On Wed, 1 Oct 2008 20:03:30 -0400, the infamous "Ed Huntress" scrawled the following:

Oops, rusty synapses. Rather than a seminar, I believe it was a business faire in Sandy Eggo. IIRC from a dozen years back, the company offering it was called Lexicon.

- If the gods had meant us to vote, they'd have given us candidates. --------------

Larry Jaques was heard from the next city to say:

Did I ever claim to be the sharpest knife in the drawer?

:)

(...)

Um. (Cough) Yesss. Sorry.

(...)

Do you have a license for Advanced Lexicogrification or is it just a hobby?

Ah. Indeed. Right you are!

It's *real* casual. RT Linux driving a Xylotex card.

I love EMC!

It was about 300 as I recall. Worth every penny!

See, I played with Red Hat Linux for a few years, too. I got *real tired* of sending them $170 every few months for support.

I love Rhino. (D'oH!)

--Winston

On Wed, 01 Oct 2008 20:00:12 -0700, the infamous Winston scrawled the following:

To your credit, no. ;)

I have a poetic license which I waft around on occasion. Otherwise, it's purely hobbitical.

"Oh, is _that_ what I'd made?" cooed Winnie.

E=MC(squared). It's the law. (Ask Uncle Al) Oh, sorry. You're talking about acronymical software. My bad.

That's not too bad, but still... So, what upgrades/fixes did you get for that fee?

Grok that, in spades. Is that where you got the "the first taste is free" leader?

We'll all send cards on your anniversary.

Carry on!

- If the gods had meant us to vote, they'd have given us candidates. --------------

Larry Jaques patiently intoned:

(...)

Hey for twelve bucks a year, that ain't bad! Or was that a fishing license? I forget.

(...)

A lift by any other name, still smells like hydraulic oil.

--Winnie '08

(...)

I heard recently that Al meant that literally.

All this time I thought he was just euphemizing.

Imagine my shock. I mean, _Damn_!

(...)

I went from Rhino 2 to 4, so here are the big additions:

The ones I use most are the autocomplete command line, improved Boolean operations, easily editable text blocks, enhanced display support. Most everything else is 'gravy'. I've noodled around with scripting but haven't done anything serious with it.

Yup. "The large print giveth, and the small print taketh away." Tom Waits _Small Change_ 1976

--Winnie

You might be interested in a job I did with Rhino when I was at Wasino. We were pitching Ford Motor on our lathes with the elliptical-machining gadget for turning pistons in production. Car pistons today have complex shapes. The Ford piston we were working on was a near-ellipse at the top, which blended into a true ellipse near the middle, and then into another near-ellipse at the skirt.

Ford gave us the formulas for the three shapes and I loaded them into Excel so it would produce finite values at 36 points around the piston for each formula. Then I loaded those values into Rhino as a script (Rhino will read directly from Excel). Rhino blended the points with NURBS curves into a smooth shape around the piston. And, the more interesting part to me, it took the values of each of the three formulas at every 10-degree increment and blended *them* from top to bottom of the piston. The end result was an all-NURBS 3D shape.

The purpose of this was not to machine the pistons from those values, or from the Rhino file (Ford gave us CAM files to machine the pistons), but rather to make illustrations so we could show what we were doing.

Of course, the non-cylindrical values were a couple of thousandths here and there, so you couldn't see it, either in the Rhino file or in a machined piston. The reason I loaded it into Excel first was so that I could apply multipliers to the values and play with them until I got something exaggerated enough to see easily in the rendered Rhino file. It was tricky -- too much and it distorted the shape beyond all recognition. But by being able to just plug in new multipliers and then to see the rendered file in less than a minute, I was able to adjust it by trial and error in around

15 minutes.

Ford was impressed by this and I think they adopted it for their own purposes. Rhino handled it for us slick as could be.

-- Ed Huntress

On Thu, 02 Oct 2008 14:58:58 -0700, the infamous Winston scrawled the following:

Um, Netflix is $12.99/mo for two DVDs at a time. Does that count?

"I am, therefore, I leak."

--Data, Stardate 23102.6

The lawyers (speaking weasels) done it. Imagine no shock.

OK. Doe they track the software like eagles? Can someone who doesn't want their copy sell it and the new owner reregister it without gigantic fees, etc?

Damn, the lawyers got to him, too, didn't they?

- If the gods had meant us to vote, they'd have given us candidates. --------------

On Thu, 2 Oct 2008 18:31:16 -0400, the infamous "Ed Huntress" scrawled the following:

Great story. Thanks for sharing it. (Watch Rhino ask to use it for their testimonial page, eh?)

Gee, Ed. The way you crank those numbers around, it's surprising that you never made it into _politics_.

- If the gods had meant us to vote, they'd have given us candidates. --------------

You'd BETTER run.

How long do you think I'd last in politics? In my first debate I'd tell my opponent he was full of shit. That's why I never tried out for the school debating team. I knew they'd throw me out before I got through the first round.

Know thyself. d8-)

-- Ed Huntress

(...)

That is extremely cool!

I am now much less smug about having MathCAD generate a parabola and importing that into a Generic CADD sketch.

Thought I was hot shit, for a while.

Oh well. :)

--Winston