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Post by 3405jimmy on Jul 24, 2014 7:09:38 GMT
Thanks Pete for the offer, however I shall be able to resolve the printing issue locally. I am not expecting that this should be a Q&A on DraftSight, however there is a annoying issue which I haven't had the opportunity to resolve by the tutorials that I have watched so far. When drawing lines that touch other lines there is a three types of snap to that I don't want. These are end point, mid point and perpendicular. How do I turn these off? Brian I'm surprised that these are things that you want to turn off, they are the mainstay of most drawings. It may be something as simple as holding down a key while placing the line, try holding down Shift or Ctrl, that might work. I don't use a grid, and if something wanted to snap to something like and end point, I'd just drop the end far away so it can't snap. You can then move it to where you want with a dimension or a constraint. For pdf outputs I use a little program called doPDF which is very clever. Basically it's installed as if it were another printer, so anything you can print, you can also create as a pdf regardless of whether the program you're using generates them or not. When you go to print anything, you go to the dropdown box where it shows the printer and you'll be able to select it from there. You browse to where you want the file to be created and then click print. It's very useful and it's the way I save my Alibre Drawings if I need to email them. Personally I never print out anything any more, I've gradually weaned myself off paper drawings. Everything is on the home network, shared through Dropbox so it's all backed up and accessible from the workshop computer. That way I don't ever need paper copies of anything and every drawing or model I've ever created are available at the click of the mouse. I just find it more convenient. Tools > Options > User preferances > Drafting options > Pointer control > entity snaps > swich on or off what you want
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Post by 3405jimmy on Jul 24, 2014 8:01:51 GMT
Roger, Having watched the tutorial I would say it’s great if you’re trying to explain to someone like myself say. Who was using Solidworks and did not understand sketching but you did in Alibre and were trying to show me how sketching works in a 3D package.
As a Draftsite user as well, I understand what your trying to explain but trying to explain it by referencing things that don’t exist in in Draftsite would go down as unhelpful help in my book. I realise your trying to be helpful but if it were me I would be probably getting the HB and some paper out again by now.
Stick to the vids and the Draftsite ones at that would be my five penneth
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Post by runner42 on Jul 24, 2014 8:21:55 GMT
It appears that me becoming in a few weeks an instant expert in CAD programmes generally and DraftSight specifically (LOL) that I have let my ignorance show. I still have a lot to learn.
However, I have managed to complete the boiler drawing to a level of accuracy that will be a point of discussion with the boiler inspector and hopefully approved for construction. For that I must thank all of you that have help me along the way.
Brian
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Post by Roger on Jul 24, 2014 8:22:43 GMT
Roger, Having watched the tutorial I would say it’s great if you’re trying to explain to someone like myself say. Who was using Solidworks and did not understand sketching but you did in Alibre and were trying to show me how sketching works in a 3D package. As a Draftsite user as well, I understand what your trying to explain but trying to explain it by referencing things that don’t exist in in Draftsite would go down as unhelpful help in my book. I realise your trying to be helpful but if it were me I would be probably getting the HB and some paper out again by now. Stick to the vids and the Draftsite ones at that would be my five penneth Fair comment, I don't know what Draftsite has in it's toolbox so I'm guessing. I do think it's useful to know that all CAD programs are not created equal though. From the discussion so far, I was coming to the conclusion that Draftsite might be a bit rudimentary and that life would be a lot easier if a different package was used. I used SmartSketch for years (initially called Imagineer) and that has most of the functionality in that video, so I know that cheap programs do exist with these features. I still haven't been able to decide whether Draftsite has a 'cut' or 'extend' function to trim or extends line to or from each other. To be honest, if it can't do those basic functions, I'd bin it.
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Post by andyhigham on Jul 24, 2014 9:28:20 GMT
I use Proge cad, It is very similar in look and functionality to Autocad. The full version costs around £250, There is also a free version for personal use which has full functionality but every drawing printed off has "not for business use" at the top and bottom. I use CAD mainly for electrical drawings at work and drawing parts for motor bikes and steam engines at home. My most used commands (icons) are line, circle, copy, move, extend, trim and rotate
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peteh
Statesman
Still making mistakes!
Posts: 760
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Post by peteh on Jul 24, 2014 11:20:40 GMT
Glad you've managed to get what you need done Brian. The thing with CAD, like model engineering, is that there is usually more than one way to get what you need done, some more efficient than others.
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Post by 3405jimmy on Jul 24, 2014 11:44:11 GMT
Roger
Trim and extend are under the modify tab. Trim icon is a pair of scissors, extend icon looks like a T with and arrow on it. You can right click outside the drawing area and from the menu, select toolbars and then check modify this will then add the toolbar to your working area.
I don’t think the selection process is as good as AutoCAD or anywhere near Solidworks which seems to be able to read your mind about what you want to extend or cut.
Brian,
Now you have cracked it keep at it, if you anything like me for the first two or three years. Every time I rerurned to CAD I had to re learn what i had forgotten.
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Post by Roger on Jul 24, 2014 16:53:44 GMT
Roger Trim and extend are under the modify tab. Trim icon is a pair of scissors, extend icon looks like a T with and arrow on it. You can right click outside the drawing area and from the menu, select toolbars and then check modify this will then add the toolbar to your working area. Hi Brian, These are the tools you need to overcome the problems you described earlier. Just draw what you want either short of or beyond the line they are trying to snap to and use the tools mentioned above.
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Post by runner42 on Jul 25, 2014 0:20:48 GMT
Thanks everyone, as a washup on me and DraftSight I managed to use the snap commands when required and able to turn them on or off during the drawing process. I mastered the offset command, the most important command, the trim, move, copy and paste commands. I tried the mirror command but although I did everything right, when I hit return the image disappeared.
I had some frustration insomuch that DraftSight didn't always perform as expected, sometimes it operated flawlessly but othertimes it misbehaved when using the mouse. Accurate positioning of a line or other geometry when ortho and or esnaps wasn't selected lacked precision. I put this lack or precision and sometimes erractic behaviour down to the quality of the mouse, I am sure that CAD professionals use other input devices or at least a better quality mouse than mine.
A final point when I exported the drawing to PDF for printing by an external source, the white construction lines were missing. I used colours for centre, hidden and dashed lines which were shown. My assumption was that the white lines were missing because it was white on white, although the drawing was done in DraftSight in white on a black background. To correct this I should change the background to white so the construction lines are black.
Brian
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fang
Seasoned Member
Posts: 100
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Post by fang on Jul 25, 2014 18:48:09 GMT
I use draft sight all the time for quick sketches, and to me it is just the same as an older version of Autocad. It has all the commands you need for a 2D drawing. What you get onscreen will depend on what toolbars you have displayed, in one of the menus should be a toolbars option so you can choose what toolbars you want to have on screen.
If I remember correctly if you right click the snap command it should bring up a menu so you can choose what snaps you want to use. You can get a snapped line in the wrong place if the drawing gets a bit crowded and you have all the snaps selected. For example a circle quadrant and a line/circle intersection can appear almost the same, but aren't so best to either zoom right in or turn off the snap your not using
When you mirrored an image and it disappeared did you select to delete the image you were mirroring?
You can also type commands into the command bar at the bottom, but I do not have a list of all the commands
When you select to do something there are usually several options within that command that selected from the text in the command bar
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fang
Seasoned Member
Posts: 100
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Post by fang on Jul 25, 2014 18:52:22 GMT
Not sure if it helps but to draw an angled line the command is @ (length of line) < (angle)
So to draw a 100mm line at 45 deg in the command line you type in
@100<45
And press enter
Remember that you can set 0 for the angle datum and also the direction clockwise or counterclockwise for angles
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Post by 3405jimmy on Jul 25, 2014 18:55:48 GMT
Thanks everyone, as a washup on me and DraftSight I managed to use the snap commands when required and able to turn them on or off during the drawing process. I mastered the offset command, the most important command, the trim, move, copy and paste commands. I tried the mirror command but although I did everything right, when I hit return the image disappeared. I had some frustration insomuch that DraftSight didn't always perform as expected, sometimes it operated flawlessly but othertimes it misbehaved when using the mouse. Accurate positioning of a line or other geometry when ortho and or esnaps wasn't selected lacked precision. I put this lack or precision and sometimes erractic behaviour down to the quality of the mouse, I am sure that CAD professionals use other input devices or at least a better quality mouse than mine. A final point when I exported the drawing to PDF for printing by an external source, the white construction lines were missing. I used colours for centre, hidden and dashed lines which were shown. My assumption was that the white lines were missing because it was white on white, although the drawing was done in DraftSight in white on a black background. To correct this I should change the background to white so the construction lines are black. Brian Brian, You did not mention layer but if you did the construction lines on a separate layer and for some reason the print icon is switched off then the line will not print. However I don’t think there is a “construction” line in draftsite they are all lines and my guess is you’re correct it’s a white on white issue. Jim
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fang
Seasoned Member
Posts: 100
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Post by fang on Jul 25, 2014 18:58:34 GMT
There are separate construction lines.
In draftsight a construction line is described as an "infinite line" and a normal line a "straight segment"
But as stated best to put construction lines on a different layer
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Tony K
Elder Statesman
Posts: 1,573
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Post by Tony K on May 26, 2016 8:57:13 GMT
Have resurrected this thread because it is relevant to my issues.
My situation....
Some years ago (too many) I did Technical Drawing (TD), as it was called then, at school and to A level and got it. Thus, I am fully conversant with first and third angle and isometric and oblique projection etc.
I never made it to CAD and feel restricted.
I want to be able to draw basic stuff and produce isometric/oblique derived from them or whatever techniques are now used.
I have used basic things like Microsoft Draw and the similar packages which were trampled over to get there, with reasonable success. Therefore, I have a few questions as to where to start - not wanting to put effort into learning a package which turns out to be restrictive later.
Firstly, when talking of 3D packages, do they mean isometric or oblique projection or something else?
Secondly, what packages would get me to isometric drawings etc. with reasonable prospects of success?
Is it like a lathe - buy one and get started because it will not be right and you will have to upgrade anyway?
I suppose the real question is - if you were in my position what would be your next move?
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Post by Roger on May 26, 2016 10:01:38 GMT
Hi Tony, Cubify is easy to learn, it's what I was originally sold as Alibre Design. The concept is much the same on all the 3D packages. You mostly draw 2D sketches on flat surfaces and then stretch them to make a solid body, or use that shape to punch a hole. How you go about creating the 3D shape doesn't affect the drawing you get at the end of it. So the concept is not one of creating 2D drawings and views. The idea is to create a 3D shape using mostly 2D drawing techniques and then asking the software to create whatever views you want from that model. It takes a bit of getting used to, we're so used to having much more control over the 2D drawings we get at the end of the process. The benefits are enormous though. You don't need to create the different views yourself, and if you change something in the 3D model, it gets carried over to all the views when you save the changes and refresh the drawing. You can have as many or few views as you like, including Isometric ones which can be at a different scale to the main drawing. You can also create section views wherever you like. It's a much more powerful concept than 2D drafting which is nothing more than an electronic drawing board. The 3D models you create can then be pulled together in an assembly which can check to see if there are any places where the parts interfere with each other. You can also tie parts together using constraints so that for example, you can create all the parts for a sliding fire door and make it work as an assembly, animating it by moving the parts with the mouse.
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Post by Jo on May 26, 2016 13:31:03 GMT
I second Cubify. It is well worth going through all of the on line training material to help you learn how to use it.
I find it really useful if I am making something and dimensions are missing to quickly knock up a 2D sketch in Cubify to work out what the missing dimensions are.
Jo
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jasonb
Elder Statesman
Posts: 1,209
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Post by jasonb on May 26, 2016 14:50:30 GMT
Another vote for Cubify (Like oger I have teh earlier Alibre)
It will output traditional 2D drawings and you can also have Isometric and perspective of the item. Parts can be assembled and the same drawings made of assemblies or just individual parts, sections are just a couple of clicks away. You can also move the 3D image about and look at it from any angle or distance you want.
There is a free trial which is worth having a play with and as Jo says have a look at the online tutorials.
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Post by Roger on May 26, 2016 15:15:08 GMT
The recommendation to take a free trial is a good one, because at first glance it all looks like it's going to be difficult, judging by the amazing images that we see of 3D objects. The reality is very different. One circle and one extrusion to stretch that produces a bar that you can manipulate on the screen. Don't be fooled into thinking that you have to be clever to use this. The software is clever, so you don't have to be.
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Post by miketaylor on May 26, 2016 16:21:07 GMT
Another vote for cubify.
I can't remember if the free trial is 2 or 4 weeks.
Try to allow yourself plenty of time to get on with it before you have to buy. If you feel you can't get on with it will be because you haven't worked with it enough.
If all you want is a free version of AutoCAD, then Crafters is good and free.
Mike
Minor edit Been away for a day or so. Don't know what the heck went wrong there but Crafters was supposed to be Draftsite (or Draftsight). I was using a tablet with some sort of auto spell. Could be worse - Old versions of Word would correct borehole to brothel.
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jasonb
Elder Statesman
Posts: 1,209
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Post by jasonb on May 26, 2016 18:16:55 GMT
Just a quick not, its Cubify DESIGN that you need to be looking at, they have a couple of others but they are limited. Having said that it looks like it has gone back to 3Dsystems and is now called "Design" anyone know for sure? www.3dsystems.com/shop/design
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