Free cad

mattb, post: 429208, member: 8629 wrote: Hi all

I'm a Carlson survey/Intellicad user. One of my brothers is in the wood machinery sales business. On a very semi regular basis he deals with .dwg files for determining layout of machinery on a factory floor. Based on the semi regular use, buying autocad or even intellicad isn't viable. What would people recommend from the pool of free cad to use. The closer to autocad the better so I can help him through the process.

Thanks in advance.

Draftsight, hands down.

AutoCAD has a free app, AutoCAD360, that can open drawings and do quite a bit of other things.

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Another vote for Draftsight. Similar enough to Autocad that an Autocad user can lead another.

Bentley is great for viewing and printing dwg files and has tools for measuring and other values.

Thanks guys
I did look at Draftsight the other day with him. Does look very impressive. Looks like its made by the same company that produces surpac. Maybe its one of those you get what you pay for moments but the command window box was always blank so you couldn't see what you were typing. Anyone else noticed this?

I have used the command box which I have set up just like on Autocad. I haven't tried all the commands, but the ones I have tried are exactly the same as in Autocad. I just looked and can see what I type in the command window.

The free version is 2d with (I believe) simulated 3d items. Just like Autocad Light.

actcad, full featured $200.

You can get basic intellicad from auto days.com for $197

Ok thanks. Definitely no working command line on the version we were using. Time for a re -download by the looks.

I'll check out autodays.com too thanks. Hadn't seen that one before.

Tell him to try AutoCAD Trueview. It's free, and he can plot from it, and do some basic stuff.

AutoCAD Trueview is what we use as well. Works great.

I use nanocad on my mesa field ook. Good for reviewing and simple drawing. Is free.