# Drawing Program?



## seaco (31 Mar 2005)

Hi all

I have some largish cupboards to make in contiboard or plywood (not sure yet) I have drawn it out on paper and used a little program called cutlist to find out how many boards I need, but I'm wondering if there's a program that's not rocket science that I could use to draw the cupboards to scale to make sure the paper drawing will work?

I have had CAD proggy's before but found them a bit complicated is there a simpler one available?

Thanks in advance...


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## devonwoody (31 Mar 2005)

My experience with CAD programs is that you either need to be a genius or someone who is satisfied working on the back of an envelope


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## cd (31 Mar 2005)

You might find this handy 
https://www.ukworkshop.co.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?t=3621
I got a demo copy of sketchup after reading it and its pretty simple to use.

cd


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## Steve Maskery (31 Mar 2005)

Hi Seaco,
I've been involved with CAD for 20 years, and until recently was pretty satisfied with AutoCad 97LT.

After helpful discussion with folks on here, I road-tested Sketchup, SolidEdge and CatiaV (courtesy of my bro, who is a dsigner in the automobile industry).

Sketchup is far and away the easiest to use. It is also excellent at some things, with gaping great holes in its functionality in other areas. Some basix things are infuriatingly difficult to do! But for cupboards, I would say it was an excellent choice. The sort of output you can expect is this:






I've also tried modelling a chair backsplat:





but this is more difficult, and as you can see, I've not yet done the top end.

I've tried the backsplat in SolidEdge too. It should be much better at it, as it has proper spline control (SU has none - the spline was drawn in Acad and imported) BUT I have found it impossible to get the system to snap the cross-sections to the spline. I've spent hours, days even, and finally given up. Any SE users able to tell me how simple it is if only I knew? I would like to get it done, as it should be possible to edit it (say the length of the bottom tenon) and then recompute. In SU you have to start again from scratch.

CatiaV is simply impossible to understand, you really do need a training course, and then I'm sure it will do anything at all.

Good luck with wherever you go.

Cheers
Steve


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## wizer (31 Mar 2005)

Im looking at sketchup, can you change the measurements to metric?


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## devonwoody (31 Mar 2005)

if you join that common market


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## wizer (31 Mar 2005)

yep after a closer look i found it


Thanks


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