I think this is the right forum

**Metalmuncher** · Sep 6, 2017, 09:35 AM

Originally Posted by olderdan

You could try Sketchup Make which will produce the same thing, its free and a small learning curve and is now the only cad I use.

Now we're talking!

I'll look into that one. Thanks!

**olderdan** · Sep 6, 2017, 11:58 AM

Just to illustrate I re drew Franks drawing in Sketchup , only took 3 minutes.

I think this is the right forum-screen-shot-09-06-17-06.19-pm.png

**Frank S** · Sep 6, 2017, 01:13 PM

For most of the things than one might want to draw of model skecthup will work great. If I didn't already have Solidworks I to would be looking for a less expensive alternative back in the earlier days of SW I had to use coroldraw and pro engineer to achieve certain things as well as autodesk I have Autocad 3d 2013 but it has expired and no longer functions
I haven't looked but I might even have skecthup on a thumb drive somewhere

**Metalmuncher** · Sep 6, 2017, 03:30 PM

Originally Posted by Frank S

For most of the things than one might want to draw of model skecthup will work great. If I didn't already have Solidworks I to would be looking for a less expensive alternative back in the earlier days of SW I had to use coroldraw and pro engineer to achieve certain things as well as autodesk I have Autocad 3d 2013 but it has expired and no longer functions
I haven't looked but I might even have skecthup on a thumb drive somewhere

I started out CAD with CorelDraw 8. Used it for several years, until Windows XP decided it didn't like it, and kept crashing it when I tried to draw. It was then that I started looking for alternatives. I found a cheap version of TurboCAD which, confounding to me, did not include dimensional tools!? What good is CAD if you can't measure what you are drawing?! I was on the TurboCAD support forum where a fellow clued me in on getting TurboCAD Pro by shopping for it on eBay. The rest is history. I figure TurboCAD Pro 19, that I have now, probably can do 3D like the drawing above, but when I got into it a little on something I was designing, and I HAD to have a 3D view to make sure things would align correctly, it was slow going to figure it out. But I did get the project done, and it works.

If Sketchup is the kind of program I could pick up and be doing simple 3D stuff like the above drawing in short order, I'm definitely interested! I'm gonna download it tonight and give it a go.

My only experience with AutoCAD was way back when all they had was a DOS version for home users. My best friend, a toolmaker (Lord rest his soul!) showed it to me at the time on his PC, but compared to what I knew how to do in CorelDraw at that time, it seemed very different and seemed to require a lot of command line entry just to get something I could have whipped up in minutes. I have never seen the newer Windows versions, but I have to assume it is able to do some pretty cool stuff nowadays. At least one would think so, for the $$$$.

Thanks guys!

**Frank S** · Sep 6, 2017, 05:33 PM

Maybe it is just me but Autocad from the days that you had to use a digitizing board through version 2013 always seamed clunky great for 2 d architecture and construction drawings but for guys like me who wanted to see the machine they were designing while they made them plus be able to check fit up and interference auto -cad was pitiful

**Metalmuncher** · Sep 6, 2017, 07:01 PM

Originally Posted by Frank S

Maybe it is just me but Autocad from the days that you had to use a digitizing board through version 2013 always seamed clunky great for 2 d architecture and construction drawings but for guys like me who wanted to see the machine they were designing while they made them plus be able to check fit up and interference auto -cad was pitiful

Well, thank you. I avoided using the word "clunky" in my description, wanting not to offend any potential AutoCAD users here. �� But I felt the same way.