Pattern Software

I used an old skool 'overhead projector' many moons ago.... taped white posterboard on wall then adjusted projector to get the correct size,drew freehand which was good enough as I was doing item in wood.
I still like making the 'first' in wood. Easier to 'dial in' dimensions,light weight, cheap.....
I've yet to find any program either...friend cut his own code(smart dude), tkaes a few pictures...puter creates 3D image, then sends 'data' to his homebuilt 4DOF CNC that then makes the item, in wood, ANY size....

DraftSight is still free through the end of the year. It’s an Autocad clone; very easy to learn yet powerful.


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mrcarnage2 said:

Hello,

Just curious is anyone out there using a decent free drawing software for making printable patterns for parts. I'm trying to design/draw up some parts for a bucket thumb. but MS paint isn't cutting it. it wont blow up the drawing so that it will print out a large part on multiple sheets of paper. I've never used cad and don't want to waste the money on a program that's not very good.

Any Suggestions would be helpful.

Thanks

E

Click to expand...

https://www.autodesk.com/products/fusion-360/overview

Free trial. Free versions available

greeno said:

DraftSight is still free through the end of the year. It’s an Autocad clone; very easy to learn yet powerful.

Click to expand...

I second Draftsight for 2D drawings. I believe Draftsight even allows you to make hotkeys for different commands.

If you ever want to move into 3D stuff there are some affordable options out there like Alibre or Rhino.

A big plus to all these programs is they allow you to save your items to your computer without having to store them in the cloud.

Here is one.

https://librecad.org/

Another good free to use 2D drafting package is Nanocad:

https://nanocad.com/

the free version will do most anything the casual user needs, and if you are at all familiar with Autocad, Draftsight, or any of the other clones Nanocad will feel very familiar. There is some learning curve with any of these, they are all very powerful packages with lots of commands and options, but once you learn your way around a bit they make your life pretty easy for this sort of stuff. Just don't be intimidated by them and you'll quickly come up to speed on any of them.

I do most of my stuff with 3D modeling software (Alibre) but liked to use Draftsight for any quick 2D stuff. As they are dropping the free version, I ended up with Nanocad after trying some of the other freebees.