AutoCAD

J.McDonald Knives

J.McDonald Knives

Basic Member
Joined
Jan 28, 2007
Messages
2,021
anyone know some cool tricks with autocad? i have autocad 2007 and am a novice at it. im looking for some cool tricks or tecniques to make my knives alot easier.

also if anyone needs help with autocad or advice feel free to ask here. either me or someone else can answer your question. if i can find someone with a 250MB zip drive then i can post soime of my old work here. i really want to post a pic of the F-111 Ardvark i did. im very proud of that drawing.
 
bezier is your friend :D , here's one I whipped out today based on the awesome blades by ken onion, meant totally for my own use if I ever actually make it
kenfolder.jpg

also dont hesitate to make a rough physical model of something then scan and vectorize it, I used that method to get the finger spacing exactly right on the above knife, I took some clay and squeezed it like I was holding the knife and let it dry, then cut it in half and scanned it
 
The bezier is a curve that is kinda like splines, except that the points that you click on will be a point on the curve, and i dont have too small of hands, I wear a size 12 ring
 
If your looking to speed up you ACAD work find a programable tablet. That way you have all you commands point and click. You will find a pre-programed template layout that you overlay on the tablet and program. Also a hot-key pad is a good with common pre-programed commands help. Better is a 8 botton puck with the tablet.

As for commands, rotate is a must for laying out folders. Learn all the different ways to draw a circle. Also learn how to command line the drawing features. This way you will understand all the different ways to "skin the cat". Sometimes the software's defalts are not the best say to do things. Offset is useful too. Then you have your basics like clip and extend. But most imprtant of all UNDO.

Learn how to draw in layers (very important/fundimental), this way you can control the display and editing of the different pieces.

Personally, I don't use ACAD to layout my fixed blades. Just takes too long, and I've never liked the curves it creates (scanning and digitizing is a good fix), but it's wicked useful for folders.
 
I've used a lot of different programs but tend to do most of my design work in 2D in Mechanical Desktop which is AutoCAD based. I used to use a tablet but found that programming the .ini files with your own 1 letter commands is much more efficient.

For complex mechanisms that need to have real 3D clearances and moving mechanisms, nothing beats solid modeling. Solidworks is great for mechanisms. So is Inventor. For simpler stuff, with mostly 2D lines and arcs that will easily translate to CNC coordinates, it's hard to beat AutoCAD. I've written my own Autolisp routines to help wite g-code as well. After using it for years and years, I'm used to working with XYZ coordinates, and tend to think that way because I program my machines that way. The parametric modelers get away from the coordinate systems, and for me, are more difficult to get "the look" I'm going for when sweating out a new design.
 
i know all about layers. like i said i used it all the time in high school. i took a class called engineering graphics for a full year and i took arc, graphics but changed classes cause i didnt get along with the teacher and never have. i remember alot of the shorthand commands like l = line, a = arc, etc. what i started out on was autocad lite 97 and even use a bit of autocad 2000. one thing im wanting to fid out is if there are any new features in autocad 2007 as compared to 97 or 2000.
 
mail me the drawings along with dimensions and ill draw them up for you no problem. feel free to include copies of crazy lil mamas videos and pics. HEHEHEHE
 
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