paul
I have a copy of A-Cad 2000 I could send you. I don't know
if that is going to help you though.  What is wrong with Rhino
or Solid Works? they are far more intuitive than A-Cad. I have
all three on my computer. I really like Solid works, but I draw
much faster in A-Cad, Only because I haven't had alot of time to
play with Solid Works.
Tony
Tony please wrap your lines at 80 characters.
Jerry has a Mac. Do you have A-Cad 2000 for a Mac?
As I recall ACAD 2000 is not 3D.
--  Paul Lamar ...No rotor no motor.

Actually it is Paul, but its kinda like trying to eat
by shoving food in your ear..  doesn't really do to well...

Jarrett

A-Cad 2000 does 3D just fine.

It is set at 80!!. I have been e-mailing you for over 2 years now  and it's
never been a problem, it must be on your end. I think the A-cad I have
gives you the option of uploading as a Mac or a PC. (I think). I'll  have
to look, I could be wrong. I may be thinking about Rhino.

Tony

Yes and for over two years I have been fixing your messages.
I fixed this one. What email program are you using?
Please hit Enter after typing 80 characters. We will try that.

And please put your name at the end of the message. I also had to  do that
with this message. BTW Those of you with common names like John, Jim
and Steve please use both your first name and last name. We have
dozens of people each, with those first names. Luckily most are
lurkers :)

I used to use A-Cad starting with ver 5 or 6. When ACAD came out
with the dog slow and klunky Windows version I refused to "upgrade".
I kept a DOS computer around so I could still use version 9.
Along came Rhino 3D and it was a revelation. I had no idea
3D could be so easy and fast to learn. I tried Solid Works before
Rhino and the user interface was hostile to the user. It still is
IMHO :) Years ago people came out with several "modal" word
processing programs. You had to switch modes to use certain commands.
They were immediately vilified has being too hard to learn and use.
Most people that had been using WordStar recognized that immediately.
As I recall Word Perfect (now history) was one of them. I still use
WordStar in the form of Linux clone "joe" from time to time. The spelling
checker and formating beats the heck out of the horrible "spelling checker" in ThunderBird. I digress.

IMHO Solid Works is a "modal" 3D program :)

Paul Lamar ...No rotor no motor.

Auto Cad is not ported to the Mac, neither is Solid Works.   However,
when I visited the Turbo Cad web page, there was, low and behold,
Turbo Cad Pro for Mac.  Only a couple of months ago I had done a
search for Mac CAD programs and did not find it.   I downloaded the
free trial.  Quite like Graphite for 2D. I will check out the 3D side
tomorrow.  3D is not so important to me as I want measured drawings
to take to  my non cnc machines.      Jerry


I think you are under a misunderstanding Jerry. 3D programs
ARE measured. They are drawn  to scale so there is no need to
print the dimensions but the dimensions are still in there.
It is optional to print the dimensions when a 3D rendering is made.
Most people don't bother. In your case I can give you dimensions
if requested. All weldments are 3D. Rhino will also print old style 2D
3 view drawings with dimension at the press of a button.

Solid Works is the defacto low end standard for programs that interface
to machine tools. Actual what it does is interface with the
programs such as Surf Cam and others that actually generates the G code programs
that the machine tool control computers understand. Formerly a human G code
programmer would look at a 2D paper drawing with dimensions and write the G code
program. That is way too labor intensive and not done anymore. Too costly.
I know as I went to school to learn how to program machine tools in G code.

It is possible to draw a  part in a CAD program like Solid Works,
feed it into SurfCam, have SurfCam generate the G code, feed that into
the NC Machine tool controller computer and have the machine tool make the part
without ever seeing any dimensions at all.

Fortunately certain 3D CAD programs like Rhino export IGES and DXF files
that will load into Solid Works. That is exactly what I did when I designed
and had built the turbo compound gear box. I am sure there are some machine
tool programs similar to SurfCAM that will interface with Rhino directly. No
need to go through Solid Works.

The next industry step obviously is have a 3D drawing program like Rhino or
Solid Works generate the G codes directly. Another possibility is have the
machine tool control computer accept IGES or DXF files directly.

That reminds me I should be going to Westec March 26th in LA to see the latest
stuff.

http://www.sme.org/cgi-bin/get-event.pl?--001658-000007-020163--SME-

My suggestion is get an Intel based computer for a few hundred
dollars and keep it around for CAD. That way people can send you
IGES files and you can print the dimensions.

Paul Lamar ...No rotor no motor.

Does anybody know of a tool path generation program such as SurfCAM that
interfaces directly with Rhino, or can accept IGES or DXF?

Right now I am having the slide throttle parts hand programmed. It is a slow
process, even though the parts are essentially 2D.

Paul, please when you go to the sme show, keep an eye out for something like
SurfCAM that takes IGES or DXF files. Thanks.

Doc Custer
Retired Software Engineer and sometime Audiologist

OK. I will. Remind me around the end of March :)