[gangster]

i have a need for basic cad work at home, mainly 2d but 3d would be nice. cost is an issue, what do people use now?

[gangster]

bump

[ism]

What kind of CAD?

MCAD or Architecture?

What kind of money vs what kind of performance?

I'm a mechanical engineer and tried a few years ago to find a decent cheap/free 2D or 3D CAD system and quickly realised it wasn't going to happen. Perhaps I'm spoilt by using stuff like ProE, Medusa & Inventor though.

If I was going to spend the money for a decent 2D or 3D MCAD package I'd go with something from http://www.ashlar.com

For other wellused 2D packages (more architecture biased in my opinion) with basic 3D there's:

Vectorworks - http://www.nemetschek.net
ArchiCAD - http://www.graphisoft.com

and possibly:
TurboCAD - http://www.turbocad.com

All still cost a fair bit though. On the cheap there's:

2D, Qcad - http://www.ribbonsoft.com

On the free side of things:

BRL-CAD - http://sourceforge.net/projects/brlcad


Otherwise, check out these links for more links:
http://www.pure-mac.com/3d.html
http://www.pure-mac.com/cad.html

And search Sourceforge for CAD - www.sf.net

[gangster]

thanks!

[gangster]

i downloaded and installed BRL-CAD without any apparent problem. however, i cant find it anywhere on the box! a re-installation didnt help. havent encountered vanishing installations before! not kidding about this...

[k squared]

VectorWorks and ArchiCad might be a tad overkill for your needs (and expensive) so you could check out HighDesign <www.ilexsoft.com>. It's 2D based and OSX native.

[ism]

Originally Posted by gangster

i downloaded and installed BRL-CAD without any apparent problem. however, i cant find it anywhere on the box! a re-installation didnt help. havent encountered vanishing installations before! not kidding about this...

BRLCAD is an X11 app. You need Apple's X11 environment installed (Applications/Utilities/X11.app).

BRLCAD will install into /usr/brlcad/bin

To get it too launch start up X11, then in the X11 terminal type: /usr/brlcad/bin/mged



I've not used it beyond getting it too launch. Although I'm a mechanical engineer I try to avoid doing work on my mac

[gangster]

Originally Posted by ism

BRLCAD is an X11 app. You need Apple's X11 environment installed (Applications/Utilities/X11.app).

BRLCAD will install into /usr/brlcad/bin

To get it too launch start up X11, then in the X11 terminal type: /usr/brlcad/bin/mged



I've not used it beyond getting it too launch. Although I'm a mechanical engineer I try to avoid doing work on my mac

i dont find this directory at all. maybe its hidden since i dont have x11?

[osxrules]

Blender isn't a CAD program but it is great for doing 3D stuff. I think you get a DXF importer and you can get some really nice renders out of it - check the ones at the bottom of this page:

http://www.blender.org/cms/June_2005.649.0.html

It's open source, free and is cross-platform.

It has orthographic views so you can lay out floor plans. It also imports SVG and Illustrator files so if you have a vector based floor plan, you can import it.

The main reason people don't use it for CAD is it doesn't do constructive solid modelling but it is an awesome subdivision modeller - a bit like Modo. The newer version has edge measuring and angle measuring. It even has fluid dynamics now.

[ism]

That directory is hidden. I.e. not visible through the finder. It's still there though. If you didn't install X11 it's on the install disks for osx

[gangster]

Originally Posted by ism

That directory is hidden. I.e. not visible through the finder. It's still there though. If you didn't install X11 it's on the install disks for osx

i think i am over my head with x11, how do i delete these brl-cad files then without installing x11 support?

thanks for any help.