Looking for a sort of 3-d cad program

Sep 30, 2008 3 Replies

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_ 17 years ago

I'm looking to build a form from which to make GRP shapes. I think the way I'll go is to build a male from sheets of foam, between which will be glued sheets of thin ply cut to the contour at that point. I'll hot-wire cut the foam from edge to edge of the ply sheets, fill/smooth/paint the form, make a female, then make the final items.

So if there was a simple freeware cad program that would let me make a 3-d image and then "cut" it at 2" slices, giving me the plan view of each slice, that'd be perfect. Is there?

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Ed Huntress 17 years ago

Rhino will do that. The trial version lets you save 25 times. If you use your head and avoid saving your learning steps, you can do a lot with 25 saves.

Unless your shape is extremely simple, you want a NURBS-based modeler, like Rhino, to do a job like that.

-- Ed Huntress

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spaco 17 years ago

I'm thinking that a "sorta CAD program" is like being a little bit pregnant. It's like guys who have never used a forge or a grinder just wanting to make one sword.

That hot cutting method sure sounds like a good idea. What are "GRP shapes"?

Pete Stanaitis

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_ 17 years ago

My current CAD program is a pencil, a straightedge and couple of french curves, and an eraser that is getting too much use.

Glass-Reinforced Plastic

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