CAD Program

H

HikoIto

Joined
Oct 28, 2013
Messages
27
Hi. I want to learn how to use CAD program for knife making. I like to design my knives freehand by drawing on a piece of paper but I like to be familiar with using CAD so I can manage my templates better for water jet, etc... I don't know anything about CAD right now and would very much appreciate any input you can give me. I'm a mac user and looking for a simple software that is suited for knife making. Mahalo.
 
TurboCAD is probably the cheapest decent one you'll find with all the features you're looking for:
http://www.turbocad.com/

Blender Is also good for CAD and is free but requires configuration. You're probably better off with a "boxed" software if you aren't too savey.
 
I have an AAS in Computer Aided Drafting, and work as a Drafter/Project manager for a surveying company now (although most of the work I did in college was Mechanical and Architectural).

I would suggest getting a book and student version of AutoCAD. You can get a book that has a 6 month copy of the student version for about 150$-200$ I think. If you can master AutoCAD, you'll be able to use most CAD programs, and also it opens up a lot of job opportunities. Just work through the book and it will give you a good basis of how to use AutoCAD for mechanical drawing and you'll learn the most important commands. It's a lot like learning to play a guitar I guess - once you learn the basic chords you can play just about anything.

In college we used CAD 2007 (I started in 2005 I think and graduated in 2008) and I don't remember exactly which text we used, but it was an SDC textbook, and I think that they are probably the simplest and most complete text that a beginner could use to learn AutoCAD. I think you might need to get the student version of CAD separate with these textbooks, it's available for download from AutoDESK.

As for the exact book, I would say the AutoCAD 2011 tutorial or the updated version of that book. I think the book we used in Basic CAD was closer to AutoCAD 2011 Fundamentals . Now, you could always get those books and instead of using AutoCAD work through them using a cheaper CAD program. The results are the same, but the way you get there is different, and the books direct you how to find commands in AUtoCAD.

If you really wanted a good basis in CAD, I would get one of those Basic CAD texts, and also get a Engineering Drawing book - it explains the more technical aspects of making mechanical drawings so that you don't over dimension, so you learn appropriate lineweights, and a lot of the technical stuff that you aren't going to figure out on your own. It also explains Multiview drawings more completely, Auxilliary views, etc.





If you're just cutting water jet blanks then you're only going to need 1 file I suppose, and most machinery like that will run on a coordinate file that you just export from CAD. If you're making mechanical drawings for a living or want a more powerful program that will be compatible with 3D CNC Machines and such, I would think that AutoDESK inventor or another Parametric Modeling software like Solid Works is the way to go. You construct an object, and can generate Multiview drawings at the click of a mouse. In those programs you design in 3D, and can examine aspects of an object that you wouldn't be able to in a traditional CAD program.
 
Check out libraCAD its a free 2d cad software. Ive been using it for layouts lately and it works pretty well. It is 2d only but thats all you need for designing and waterjet or plasma tables. There are lots of video tutorials online to take you through the basics.
 
I use Alibre CAD to design machined parts. It's a robust program that is not too difficult to learn but, it is over $1k. Google Sketch-up is a free CAD program that many have success with. I tried designing knives in CAD but felt it was too slow of a process. To me, knife design is more of a free process like drawing by hand. I design my knives in Adobe Illustrator. It allows me to quickly get a shape onto the "paper" and easily refine it. The files can be exported in a DXF or DWG format for waterjet, laser, or EDM cutting.

Bob
 
Patrice wrote a tutorial on using a free cad program called "inkscape". Coupled with a program called the "knife design program", IIRC. (Sorry, my wimpy computer skills prevent me from posting a link---perhaps someone else can provide the links), it is very easy to design a knife. Using these two programs, you can design about anything you want. VERY easy to use.
 
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