geekhack
geekhack Projects => Making Stuff Together! => Topic started by: Melvang on Fri, 21 February 2014, 00:04:32
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Can we start a thread (possibly including links) regarding popular software that is used by the community for making PCB's, plates, cases, etc.?
I would like to start by adding some links for Solidworks.
Solidworks Student Edition for Veterans $20 (https://store.solidworks.com/veteran/default.php) DD214 required
Not sure what actual going rate for the student edition but a quick google search shows $86 to $150.
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Do the veterans need to be students? :confused:
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Do the veterans need to be students? :confused:
No. That is how I got mine. And I am a high school drop out with a GED and working millwright construction. And do nothing with CAD at work. I just put stuff together.
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PCB:
-- KiCAD - Preferred by most GHers as we have good library and is used by the pros (read regack, bpiphany, komar007 and many others)
-- Eagle
CAD (2D):
-- Inkscape
-- AutoCAD
-- CorelDraw
-- Illustrator
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Good idea for a thread, I was looking for this info myself recently...
I tried out Draftsight for dwg's last night, it's free and was ok but I didn't find the interface very intuitive. I'd rather use Illustrator which I do have although Illustrator is far from free.
I didn't think Illustrator was thought of as a CAD program, are there any gotchas with using Illustrator to design cases/plates for lasercutting?
The one time I tried to use Illustrator to try to edit a plate file, it came up with some message about scaling that I didn't understand. I'll have to try it out again.
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Good idea for a thread, I was looking for this info myself recently...
I tried out Draftsight for dwg's last night, it's free and was ok but I didn't find the interface very intuitive. I'd rather use Illustrator which I do have although Illustrator is far from free.
I didn't think Illustrator was thought of as a CAD program, are there any gotchas with using Illustrator to design cases/plates for lasercutting?
The one time I tried to use Illustrator to try to edit a plate file, it came up with some message about scaling that I didn't understand. I'll have to try it out again.
I couldn't tell ya there. The only cad program I have used is student version of solidworks I got for the Vets discount. I have used GoogleSketchup but that is very basic and is very unfriendly for getting pieces cut from it.
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Illustrator or Corel or Inkscape are not really CAD programs, but our application is really simple and any vector program like these works fine.
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Illustrator or Corel or Inkscape are not really CAD programs, but our application is really simple and any vector program like these works fine.
Thanks, wish I knew that Illustrator was ok yesterday, I could have saved myself the hassle of trying to learn Draftsight all last night.
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Autodesk Inventor. It's free and it's the 3D CAD package I learned on. I recommend that or Solidworks. :D