Drawing Software

My Draftsight, as of 1 Jan, requires me to register, as I try, it tells me to send money. I'm strugglingl with FreeCAD,
 
I too started with pencil and vellum. Took drafting as part of my "Create your own major" in '78. I still have a bundle of those drawings from my early work at Fred's. Graduated to ACAD in the early 80s while working for Fred. Anyone remember when they jumped from v. 2.5 to v. 9? Currently running ACAD 2000 in a Windows XP virtual machine dedicated to that purpose. Plot to a DWF file, then open in AutoDesk DWF viewer and print. Still using the command line, never worried about all those stupid icons. Somewhere I have an old copy of Solidworks I never even installed.
 
MrWhoopee said:
Currently running ACAD 2000 in a Windows XP virtual machine dedicated to that purpose. Plot to a DWF file, then open in AutoDesk DWF viewer and print. Still using the command line, never worried about all those stupid icons. Somewhere I have an old copy of Solidworks I never even installed.
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Your setup seems overly complex. Why are you running in an XP VM? I'm running 2000i on Windows 7 with no problems. Prints just fine also.

I am today mostly using the stupid icons, although some commands that I use don't have icons, like CHANGE and LTSCALE. I guess that these commands have been deprecated and superseded by other commands. To this, I say "screw you". I don't want to have to relearn the program that I have been using for over 35 years. I ended up just creating my own icons for these and put them in my custom menus.

I want to get a 3D printer, so I will be searching for a 3D program. I refuse to use the cloud, so Fusion 360 is out.
 
T Bredehoft said:
My Draftsight, as of 1 Jan, requires me to register, as I try, it tells me to send money. I'm strugglingl with FreeCAD,
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As suggested go through the tutorials, there are different ones depending on where you want to start.

Tutorials - FreeCAD Documentation

www.freecadweb.org www.freecadweb.org

FreeCAD has a strong and growing user base, and I think you'll find their forum pretty helpful too.


The days of closed source software are numbered IMHO, it's just so much better having a design team of hundreds and a QA team of thousands. Chances are if there's a feature you want and it's not already part of the software someone is developing it as you're looking and they want your feedback.

Feature list - FreeCAD Documentation

www.freecadweb.org www.freecadweb.org

I'll be jumping into it with both feet later this month but a while back I was able to make a simple sketch of my machine in less than an hour. I've checked out Fusion360 and it seems pretty cool but just like any other closed source they can always choose to change their revenue model and leave some users behind. Also, as much as I like cloud enabled applications I'm the only one using it so there's no benefit for my process.

I work in Linux education so I might be biased but for the amount of time and effort learning CAD software I want to make sure that I can use the tool I choose for many years to come.


1ohn
 
SLK001 said:
Your setup seems overly complex. Why are you running in an XP VM? I'm running 2000i on Windows 7 with no problems. Prints just fine also.
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It refused to install on Win7 for me, maybe I just didn't find the right trick.
 
A few observations. Win 10 (and for several releases prior) has a compatibility mode that lets you set the "OS" level you want to run a application in. This might work for you. I run ACAD 2002 in Windows 10 with no problem. Also while I use the command line a lot, I also have several button bars setup so I can go faster by not having to take my hand off the mouse. Finally, I don't think Fusion 360 requires "Cloud" access to RUN. I don't use it because I have ACAD but I have seen multiple posts with this information. I think you need to be able to connect to the internet occasionally but not constantly to run it. At least worth checking into this if the this is the only reason you are not considering it.
 
@MrWhoopee If you can't install the software, it's because 32-bit cad software uses the old 16-bit windows installer tool. With a 64 bit windows version installed on your machine, you can't run that installer. I bet SLK001 is running the 32-bit version of win 7, so he was able to run the installer.

I run a XP VM on a 64 bit win 7 for 16-bit native software, old utilities for old hardware. For something as important as a cad suite, it's probably worth downgrading to the 32-bit win 7 and using that.
 
Autodesk is messing around with the licensing.
Fired mine up around Christmas and my license had lapsed so I went through what I thought was the 'hobbyist' choices when selecting.
As I mentioned in post #42 it looks like they have 'crippled' the ability to import or export w/ other packages directly.

Now this is popping up when I brought it up today.
I'm trying to figure out how I ended up as a 'startup'...
1578356234958.png
 
So, when working as a Sr. Network Administrator one of the things I specialized in was campus wide remediations. I would go into a facility (engineering & manufacturing mostly) and upgrade everything from network switches to servers, phones, pc's and software. I ran into quite a few departments where people were cobbling old systems together to keep one piece of software running. Line managers were often responsible for this because they didn't want to request budget for new stuff.

I got rid of that old junk because for senior management this kind of thinking comprised a major liability. I've seen entire departments set back months when one hard drive failed and I've watched grown men cry when their data was lost. I've seen people fly into a rage when their 10-year-old files couldn't be converted to a newer version of the same software title, and watched slack jawed as entire databases were printed out and faxed to another office when network services were available. So, you may be able to get by with old stuff but make sure you have a backup plan for when (not if) something changes or fails.

As hobbyists we probably aren't running multi-million dollar facilities but old software and hardware still constitutes a signifigant risk. You never know when a hard drive crash or software update will cripple you. Not only that but the time invested in learining new, more powerful/efficient systems usually pays dividends far greater than what it costs. My recommendation is keep your operating system and application software updated on a regular basis. Make backups of your files and store them is a safe (fireproof or cloud based) place. And, if you're wondering if it's time to ditch windows just download a "live" version of Ubuntu or another Linux distribution and give it a try running from a thumb drive. You may be glad you did....

1ohn
 
For those trying to learn Fusion 360 you can get a text book plus videos from a company named Ascent. ISBN 97819431184903. I watched a number of U tube videos but they were more confusing than helpful - this book starts with the basics and builds- I love the power of 360 and now the u tube videos are helpful == I too learned drafting in high school - just keep learning == Jack
 
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