Thanks guys, very much.
I will try them, but it turns out I was very wrong about one thing:
I thought I didn't need 3D, but it turns out 3D is very important for double-checking my work and for making sure the machinest gets it right.
I have found eMachineShop to work quite nicely, once you figure out the little tricks in it.
And it models 3D quickly. It's a little funky in some regards; it doesn't show threads, for example, it just gives a dot that tells you it's a threaded hole, etc, but I don't mind that.
The only real complaint I have about eMachineShop's CAD is that it has a truly lousy printer utility; I'm working on figuring out how to make printouts look better. The 3D prints are fine, but the 2D prints are so light you can't hardly read them.
Best, Charlie
--- In Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com, "gandolfreefer" <synchronousmosfet@...> wrote:
>
> Hey guys,
>
> I just need to download a dead-easy, intuitive free CAD to make simple mechanical drawings for machine shops here to make parts for me.
>
> Nothing fancy...but it has to have some sort of drag and snap-to center feature. And I gotta print out easily. I'll be drawing lots of rectangles with various holes in them, and the occasional circle offset from a center bore (i.e. cam).
>
> I don't care about no 3D.
>
> I tried one, but after half an hour of trying to get a larger circle placed 5 mm from the center of my first, smaller circle, I gave up and deleted the $∗#@!! thing.
>
> I'm sure it's a fine program, but I couldn't make heads nor tails of it. It was called CadStdLite, but it was too lite for my brain!!
>
> Other suggestions?
>
> Best, Charlie
>
> PS: I don't mind paying for the stinking thing in 30 days, so long as it isn't tre' expensive, but I'd rather just have a piece of freeware some enlightened soul wrote for his own use. :)
>