program for simple drawing

[speelwerkParticipant @speelwerk]

I know it has been asked many times but I need a very simple to understand program to make a geometric drawing for an article I am writing. It consist of 3 concentric circle sections and a few intersecting lines and angles. I do not want to spend 2 days trying to understand how it works it just needs to do what I want. Thanks, Niko.

Edited By speelwerk on 18/05/2016 10:21:24

[speelwerkParticipant @speelwerk]

[Gary WoodingParticipant @garywooding25363]

If this is a one-off drawing, and you really have no intention of using a program to create any other drawings, then post a hand-drawn picture of what you want and I (or anybody else) will be able to draw it with a program.

On the other hand, if you think you would like to use a drawing program in the future, then devote several days in learning one – it will be time well spent.

[EmgeeParticipant @emgee]

Hi Niko

I know it may be old hat to some but a cheap geometry set will provide the instruments to do exactly what you want, just scan or photograph the drawing to include in your article.

Or you may want to try something like the free to download Draftsight program, but it may take a bit longer to do your drawing.

Emgee

[Lord_ElpusParticipant @lord_elpus]

For ease of learning and almost instant use I recommend Sketchup. I believe it still has an in-built tutorial that will get you started in just a few minuets and its free.

[JourneymanParticipant @journeyman]

Hi Niko

Depending on what you are using to write the article, there are simple drawing facilities in both Microsoft Office and Libre Office. Other than that you can make a drawing with Paint but not easily to scale.

John

Edited By Journeyman on 18/05/2016 10:47:04

[Lord_ElpusParticipant @lord_elpus]

Oops should proof read. For minuets please read minutes.

[John HaineParticipant @johnhaine32865]

Libre Office Draw is good, and free.

[AjohnwParticipant @ajohnw51620]

SketchUp isn't bad really. It has a huge community so there are even utilities to draw gears available for it. It can be approached 2D or 3D wise but is a 3D package. My biggest problem with it was that a couple of aspects wont work correctly running under Wine on Linux. It might if the Linuxplay version of Wine is loaded as that has a facility to easily load up rather a lot of windows dll's etc. I've not got round to trying it on that yet.

One way to use it is to outline what is being drawn with witness lines and then use those to draw the actual part. Much the same way as things are often drawn on a drawing board except they can be in 3D. That was the main Linux problem – witness lines wouldn't behave correctly.

Some one mentioned geometry sets. It's a fact that at some point in complexity that sort of thing ideally with a proper drafting head will be much quicker to do than to get fully conversant with many cad packages.

John

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[speelwerkParticipant @speelwerk]

Thanks for all help, I will gladly make use of Gary Woodings (or anyone else) offer to make the drawing for me, I already made one by hand, scanned it and then placed text in it with windows paint, but it is not to my liking, its in my album.

 The letters, especially where the lines cross are to small, if the picture is reduced in size for printing they become very difficult to read. Many thanks, Niko.

Edited By speelwerk on 18/05/2016 11:32:45

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Niko,

I don't know if this is an article for ME or MEW, but if it is a clear hand-drawn figure is perfectly acceptable, and the one in your album would be ideal.

Neil

Edited By Neil Wyatt on 18/05/2016 11:51:58

[speelwerkParticipant @speelwerk]

It is an article for the MBSGB **LINK** warmly recommended to become member of. Niko

[Gary WoodingParticipant @garywooding25363]

Hi Niko

I've sent you a PM.

[speelwerkParticipant @speelwerk]

Thanks Gary, send you my mail address.

[speelwerkParticipant @speelwerk]

Thanks Gary, it looks much better, I will try to free up time to get to grips with a simple program. Niko.

[VersabossParticipant @versaboss]

May I (once again I think) recommend SolveSpace

**LINK**

Not a 'real' CAD program with all bells and whistles, but very suitable for such small drawings.

Yes, it is necessary to read a bit in the manual and doing the examples, but it is very easy in most cases. Help is available from the author directly if necessary.

I would gladly demonstrate it if speelwerk's drawing had dimensions…

Regards, HansR.

Edited By Versaboss on 18/05/2016 23:40:40

[AjohnwParticipant @ajohnw51620]

I looked at solvespace some time ago. It is pretty easy to use – basically mouse driven. It might be described as sketch and then tie the actual sizes down. Personally I would much prefer to be able to draw on size easily with a mouse. I've yet to find one that will do that to an adequate level.

John

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[John ReeseParticipant @johnreese12848]

ST8 (or maybe ST9 by now) from Solid Edge is an excellent 2D drafting package and it is free. Easy user interface.

[Ady1Participant @ady1]

Windows paint is probably the simplest one for a quick sketch

[AjohnwParticipant @ajohnw51620]

It is worth mentioning Hans's comment again. Solvespace. While it is a 3D packages and can cope with assemblies it's happy with 2D as well. In a nutshell the object is sketched out roughly and then constraints are applied to set actual sizes and angles.

The difference between it and say paint or some app that uses snap grids etc is that it doesn't matter how bad the initial sketch is.

The angle plate tutorial and the 2d drawing one don't take long to work through at all, more than enough for producing an accurate version of Niko's drawing.

John

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[pdussartParticipant @pdussart]

Dear Speelwerk and all,

If you do not want to waste time, as there is a learning curve with all tools, why not start with "professional" tools, and grow stap by step with it ???

Regarding ttally FREE tools:

2D: Drafsight from Dassault see http://www.3ds.com/ and search for Drafsight. Multilingual.

3D: PTC Creo Elements/Direct Modeling Express 6.0 Go to http://www.ptc.com and search for Direct ModelingExpress.
You can create simple or very complex stuff. Only real limitation: assemblies are limited to 60 components.

3D: Keycreator See http://www.kubotek.com The Student version is free if you do not sell your models. You can also draw complex boxes with the sheet folding options.(if you specify the material used, you can specify the K factor, etc)

Regards, Philippe

[Author]

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