Auto Cad

Hi! I am interested in learning auto cad. Can anyone reccomend a good auto cad program for graphic design? Thanks in advance.

All the major CAD programs are very expensive, with Autocad itself being silly money. How much are you willing to spend?

Hi,

I'm also interested in pricing Auto Cad or a similiar program for our branch. Our corporate branch has it, but we need something here as well. I'm just gathering information at this point, but I know we don't want to spend much. :D

Thanks in advance :)

Might try googeling "free auto cad" and see the many results.

Here's what looks like a useful site:

Free & Cheap CAD

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Originally Posted by Steve R Jones

Might try googeling "free auto cad" and see the many results.

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Thanks for the suggestions, looking into them with the bossman later today.

I do appreciate the help :)

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Originally Posted by SuperSparks

Here's what looks like a useful site:

Free & Cheap CAD

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I like that, too. Will get the bossman to check 'em out with me later today. The most user-friendly would be a great start :) I feel like the blind leading the blind about now...

Thanks again for the help!

Hacker_cracker & GetaGrrrip : I've been using AutoCAD since it's release some 20 yrs. ago. You mention that you'd like to learn graphic design. AutoCAD would most certainly be overkill if you truly mean "graphic design". The more affordable desktop design packages such as CorelDRAW , Adobe Illustrator , Macromedia Freehand MX would probably be what you are after. Just a guess , though. Not many individual users are willing to fork over the $5,000.00 to have the luxury of a full CAD software. AutoCAD is more of an engineering software much like Solidworks and Pro E. In my opinion , AutoCAD packs a powerful punch in both the engineering world AND in graphic design. In case you are sure you want to pursue AutoCAD , they do make a version for the non-engineering crowd. It's called AutoCAD Lite ( approx. $600.00 ) and is basically the same as the full blown version except it's 3-D modelling and rendering features are very limited. Hope this helps you.

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Originally Posted by templeman

Hacker_cracker & GetaGrrrip : I've been using AutoCAD since it's release some 20 yrs. ago. You mention that you'd like to learn graphic design. AutoCAD would most certainly be overkill if you truly mean "graphic design". The more affordable desktop design packages such as CorelDRAW , Adobe Illustrator , Macromedia Freehand MX would probably be what you are after. Just a guess , though. Not many individual users are willing to fork over the $5,000.00 to have the luxury of a full CAD software. AutoCAD is more of an engineering software much like Solidworks and Pro E. In my opinion , AutoCAD packs a powerful punch in both the engineering world AND in graphic design. In case you are sure you want to pursue AutoCAD , they do make a version for the non-engineering crowd. It's called AutoCAD Lite ( approx. $600.00 ) and is basically the same as the full blown version except it's 3-D modelling and rendering features are very limited. Hope this helps you.

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Thanks for the help. I know he (bossman) wouldn't use it enough to justify the cost of the full blown version, and I'm thinking that even the Lite version would be more than what he needs. I'll look into the other software you've suggested. In our case, it would be used (lightly) for some HVAC planning, but the big stuff would be handled at our main office.
Thanks much for the information! :)

GetaGrrrip, you might want to look at MS Visio rather than a CAD package. Although it isn't really a CAD program, it is great for planning, and far, far easier to learn. It's much more reasonably priced too. It's available in a fully-functional trial version:

http://www.microsoft.com/office/visi...o/default.mspx


I love Visio :)

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Originally Posted by SuperSparks

GetaGrrrip, you might want to look at MS Visio rather than a CAD package. Although it isn't really a CAD program, it is great for planning, and far, far easier to learn. It's much more reasonably priced too. It's available in a fully-functional trial version:

http://www.microsoft.com/office/visi...o/default.mspx


I love Visio :)

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Sooooooooo, sounds like it would be user friendly - would it be able to do piping diagrams? Told ya I was the blind leading the blind :p

Thanks for the info :)

It certainly would be able to do piping diagrams, as long as you are after schematics anyway. Here's the kinds of shapes that you can get for HVAC work, it should give you an idea of what you can do:

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Originally Posted by SuperSparks

It certainly would be able to do piping diagrams, as long as you are after schematics anyway. Here's the kinds of shapes that you can get for HVAC work, it should give you an idea of what you can do:

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THANKS! I think that's what we're looking for.

Thanks to all that have replied. Gotta love Virtual Dr. and all the wonderful and fast help :) :)

SuperSparks,

Just wanted to thank you again - bossman is really liking the trial version of Visio. He said that it is just what he was looking for. He's already said that I should purchase the program for him.

:D

Excellent, I'm glad to hear that you like it as much as I do :)

Might I suggest that you buy this book to go with it, it'll really help you to get the best out of Visio, and I've found it invaluable:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/073...Fencoding=UTF8

He went and bought this yesterday:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/073...lance&n=283155

Looks pretty helpful. If not, we'll get the one you suggested :)