Questions on CAD
4 messages in this thread
Which is the best Amiga forum for posting questions about CAD software? I
would have thought AmigaArts to be appropriate, but I do not see what appears
(at least to me) to be an obvious section for CAD there. via Whap!
Al Benglen
74615,500
Al,
I have seen post re CAD in bothe here and in Arts, while Amiga Arts in
supposed to be the designated area, I find better responses to
productivity software questions here in Amiga User. What is it you have
questions about? I use some of the middle of the road stuff ie Draw 2000,
Xcad Designer, IntorCAD, and Ultra Design.
…Steve
====>>> Motorola 68030 Inside <<<====
Steve,
Thanks for your comment on where to catch comments on CAD. My guess would
be that CAD used to produce "art" would be in Arts and anything else would be
in User–who knows.
My questions on CAD software tend to be the usual, simple type, i.e., ease
of use and features. Simple drawing and some very basic architectual type
drafting is all I plan to do–stuff for my own use, nothing fancy.
I have IntroCAD Plus and have gotten fairly comfortable with it. Mind you,
I don't do any real "high power" designing, but I am would like to be able to
do dimensioning which it does mot. The thing I like best about IntroCAD is the
quality of its output, even on my 9 pin Epson printer. On my colleage's ink
jet printer, the output looks like it was done on a laser printer.
I also have UltraDesign. It is very difficult to use (read that as getting
use to its pecularities vis a vis IntroCAD), at least for me. It does have
dimensioning, but again, it is not easy to get use to. For a couple weeks I
have been working with it patiently several hours at a time as I read through
the manual in order to absorb its very complicated instructions and method of
operation. I am sure it must be a good program, but I certainly would not call
it user (at least this user) friendly.
Several summers ago I worked for a few months at a place which was into
AutoCAD big time. I tried my hand with it a little and found that I could
learn it without too much trouble. Yes, it is a very complicated program, but
I thought it to be user friendly and the manual to be easy to use and
understand and very helpful (maybe my memory is fading on this point (g)).
I have received promotional information on both DynaCADD and X-CAD. They
look like good programs, but before I spend several hundred dollars AGAIN I
sure would lkie to try them out. I am not cheap as much as frugal–I hate
having software which just collects dust on the shelf.
Thanks again for your help.
via Whap! Al Benglen
74615,500
Al,
If you are comfortable with IntroCAD, the next good choice would be
Oxxi's Draw 2000. I does all you want but does lack one key feature that
may or may not interest you but is getting terminal for me, it does not
break lines. Other than that you will find it most intutive to use very
ICad like. The printing is nothing like ICAD though, but you can do what
I do is use a shareware product here in the libs called DGPlot. Use Draw
2000 to save to a HPGL file and then use DGPlot to print, it can scale a
drawing across several 9 * 11.5 tractor feed sheets, with alignment marks
to tape it together (it works very well). Version 2.0 of Draw has some
type of pd printer output option but does not allow you to scale the final
output.
>but before I spend several hundred dollars AGAIN I sure would lkie to try
>them out. I am not cheap as much as frugal–I hate having software which
>just collects dust on the shelf.
I have done that myself! Stay away from XCAD! (the designer version at
least) it is dongle protected and I had to go thru 4 versions to get one
that would work with the dongle >:-(. By then my attitude had soured and
it sits on the shelf.
Another option that you can use is get PCTask (IBM emulator) and then
AutoSketch at about $125.00, (on an 030 machine it runs tolerabley fast)
or go to Walden Books and get a book called `Learn Cad Now' which comes
with an excellant cad program EasyCad for about $30.00 and also runs
tolerable with PCTask (better yet with a bridgeboard!) and has good
printer output. The book itself is worth the $30, for the concepts on CAD
even if you don't have access to a PC or emulator .
Hope this helps some. Let me know what you end up doing!
…Steve
====>>> Motorola 68030 Inside <<<====