What 2D drafting program to use?

I’m trying to find a good, low learning curve and free/cheap 2D drafting program. I’ve been using Inkscape and Coreldraw. They are fine for work on the lasers and plasmCAM. For machining they are not great because they don’t do dimension lines easily or well. They also don’t scale easily. I may draw a small part 1:1 scale and then print it out 4 times that size and I want the dimension to stay the same. Having the dimensions change if you change the size of a part would be nice too. I’ve looked a libreCAD (free) and QCAD ($40) and they seem OK. I looked at Draftsight and Delta CAD awhile a go and could not easily get started and gave up.

So, what is everyone else using? I rather go with a program popular at DMS in case of questions or problems.

I’m a bit confused by your scaling problem. If you scale the geometry 4x then naturally any automatic dimensions will scale 400%. Are you simply trying to adjust view or print settings? I find it difficult to imagine that both Corel an inkscape can’t handle this task.

I use Draftsight, but having a background with AutoCAD it was a very brief learning curve since the UI is almost identical and I’m comfortable with its geometry engine.

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As a follow-up to Erik’s comment. One way to “lock the dimensions/drawing” is to save it as PDF file (usually through the print function). You can then just tell it to do a larger print size, whatever is in the PDF drawing shouldn’t change, just it is printed larger or smaller.

Or you could set the original canvas size to the size you’ll be printing at, then make you’re drawing, then print.

As far as what is becoming the “standard” a lot of classes are using Fusion360. While it is a 3D platform it can do 2D very easily, everything is in one plane.

I would recommend against using a 2D CAD tool.

Nothing in our world is actually 2D so why design in just 2D?

By designing in 3D you can create much more interesting and thought out geometry while adding very little design overhead to your projects.

I would recommend Solidworks or Fusion 360. DMS members have access to a full professional licence of solid work on the JUMP server and can request a student edition for personal use. Fusion 360 is free Hobbyist and startups making less than 100k in revenue.

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For 2d work I use librecad. When trying to use the dxf files remember that the software treats them as millimeters

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Nether Corel or inkscape really does Auto dimensioning meaning drawing a square and the dimensions automatically appear. Inkscape really doesn’t do dimension and Corel Allow with put dimensions on manually but doesn’t have an option for output scaling other than “fit to page” (as far as I know). I’m looking for scaled output so on my print, I can have 4"=1" and measure things off the drawing.

I had not thought of that but it would work.

I downloaded Draftsight to look at it again. I may bite the bullet and learn Fusion 360. I went through a free of their tutorials a few month ago. It looks like a steep learning curve.

Thanks for everyone suggestions.

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It won’t be that bad for you if you stick with 2D in 360 Fusion or Solidworks A big advantage, as your needs expand, you just learn what you need incrementally. 360 has lots of online tutorials which is a plus.

I found Fusion 360 frustrating myself - the tutorials seemed to do a lot of hand-waving and skipped important steps. Were it not for professional experience with AutoCAD from ~20 years ago I’d just learn one of the more modern tools - not sure I’d recommend starting from scratch with Draftsight.

I agree about the frustration with Fusion 360. The videos seem to go from really basic to much harder. I felt like I’d missed a video in between. They also seemed to go very fast and I’d have to stop and rewind a lot.I really miss books. Is Solidworks any easier?

What more modern tool would you start with instead of Draftsight? Anyway you look at it I’ve got a steep learning curve ahead. I’d rather not do it twice. Sometimes it seems I’d be better off dusting off my drafting board. I’m good with a pencil.

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No!!!

Fusion is about the easyist of the true 3d model programs I have seen. But yes, that is still a pretty steep hill to climb. I believe several people have been offering classes that may help.

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The core idea you have to get used to for any Parametric CAD package is to fully define the sketch.

Any un/under defined lines will come back to bite you.

Another idea worth noting is break as many features out into their own sketch as possible. I have seen a lot of people especially coming from 2D CAD try and create all of the features and details all at once in the sketch. In short don’t. Do as little as makes sense in each sketch, then layer features onto each other to get the final object you want.

Last tip would be design is circular. Don’t expect the model to come together the way you expect it to. that is what the timeline (fusion 360) and the feature tree (solidworks) are for to go back and fix your work. Think of creating a CAD model like writing a program or an essay. First you do a rough draft then fix a few things, then you turn the problem over in your head a few times and fix some more things. I can’t count the number of times I have almost finished a CAD model only it realise a better way of doing things and starting over again on the model. CAD like design is an iterative circular process don’t expect to get it right the first or second or third time.

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I’m going to say, give yourself more patience & learn F360. I started using Inventor at the space, once you start using it you will get the hang of it. You can learn on inventor as well, they have pretty decent tutorials on it. I think going between Inventor and F360 isn’t too bad.

All of the Plasmacam stuff I cut is from either program. Take for instance the the tungsten grinder stand on the wall. I did that in a 360 model. It allowed me to find an issue with it before I even cut it.

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One last tip, use constraint not dimensions wherever possible. the fewer dimensions you model relies on the more robust it will be when you have to change and tweak it.

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Kee recently reported that he was able to go directly from Fusion 360 to the MultiCam. Great News for CAM enthusiasts!

Another reason to learn Fusion 360.

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