Anyone know where i can get some free relatively easy to use CAD software, I need some to do some more complex stuff for fabrication drawings and hand drawing takes way too long. cheers!

If you happen to be a student you can get a AutoCAD for nowt easily.

or google sketchup is cad like

Was about 20 years ago… i think my union card may be out of date…

I have the free download on my Pc (student copy) works great. The printouts will have student version on them tho.
http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/index?siteID=123112&id=10916786

drawing by hand can be a dam site quicker than CAD if you're not a regular user. CAD software is, er, quirky!

Do you know any one who uses AutoCAD or similar? They'll probably have 'a copy' or know someone with one 🙂

You can get a legit copy of turbocad from Amazon for less than £30.

Well yes I do, we use auto cad at work and a few more, but i don't really like them because of the "quirky" nature of some..(our main CAM stuff takes years to learn!). most of my requirements dont need much more than basic drawing capability…

most of my requirements dont need much more than basic drawing capability…

I would say Google Sketchup then

Now i could get a legit copy but its for work and i aint paying, they wont pay cos they will insist i use autocad and i cant be bothered..god i'm a pain in the a***…

try fastcad

well, whilst i was posting this iv'e downloaded sketckup so lets see! cheers fellas.

Sketchup is not a AutoCAD replacement nor is it really much like it. It is a 3D modelling tool and very quick and easy to use at that, but for doing orthographic drawing its not great. I should know as thats what they got me doing at the mo.

Saying that if you must. First set up your units probably millimetres then go up to camera and turn off perspective this will give you your 'orthographic' view (note its not true orthograhic, you can still orbit around it)

Personally I'd turn off the lineweigths this is done in styles, as is your background colour.

Highlight right click make group is useful for not getting all tangled up.

Hope tyhat helps, there are alot of tutorials online, as well as a communinity.

PC Pro has TurboCad 12.5 as a freebie this month. Have used version 15 before and it is fine, have not played with this earlier version.

V15 is 2D/3D and has import/export options for virtually all CAD file formats. Assume V12.5 is similar.

try ALLYCAD, been using it for quite a while now so fairly familar with it, just produce basic plans and pipe schematic isometrics which are easy on it. And it's free

If it's for 2D stuff you can download a free edition of SolidEdge – great bit of (pro-level) kit, I was using it before switching to NX.