Free Plans Drawing Software

[Mikefromlondon]

I still have a tee square and a drawing board that my father left me in his will.

But do you know how to use them!!
And what about the set-square!!

yup, I done lots of Archtectural Drawings, detailing many things, my father forced me to take his line of Archtectural profession which i hated with passion!
I always wanted to be a motor mechanic and so I worked as a motor mechanic but most of my life I have been into Electronics and now semi retired.

set square i remember too, 45 degree and a 30 degree, and steadler clutch pencils, and so on. Oh and not forgetting the 0.1, 0.2, 0.3 ink pens! what a fiasco they were when they dried up!

 

[tony1851]

not forgetting the 0.1, 0.2, 0.3 ink pens! what a fiasco they were when they dried up!

Rotring, by chance?!

 

[Mikefromlondon]

Thats the one, Rotring, a German brand, and they were colour coded, yellow red, green blue etc. and 0.1 tip pen used to be very fragile, the very fine inner wire that you had to insert after cleaning if you took it out, usually ended up bending! I have still got some prints from 45 years ago as part of my work portfolio!

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

Ever use a Rotring Scribler guys? Used to love using that, I trained in the Civil Service, when they went from boards to CAD there were loads of Scriblers, boards and alsorts left around, so regret not helping meself, it would have all gone in the skip.

 

[JBR]

Oh and not forgetting the 0.1, 0.2, 0.3 ink pens! what a fiasco they were when they dried up!

I used to use them, too, many years ago. In fact, I think I still have some lying about somewhere, unless my first wife has been 'tidying up'!

Yes, I certainly remember them drying up. They have a thin strand of wire within the 'nib', attached to a small weight, so that when you shake them the strand of wire is supposed to clear the blockage. Supposed to.

I also remember having some fluid (can't remember the name) into which you stand the 'nib' so that it can rise up by capillary action and dissolve the blockage.

I'm sure I've even seen a sort of vibrating machine that did the shaking for you.

Yes, CAD is so much less hassle!

 

[Mikefromlondon]

In 1989, I developed a fairly complex Electronic Product, which had a keyboard, a programmable memory and a 7segment digital display, and did not use any form of microprocessor, but a fixed logic circuit, and also had the ability to invalidate a card if it was lost or stolen, and segregate cards if they were assigned to a different machine, and stored data against that card user, the machine had 3 separate boards, I named them as a PSU Board, and code Board, and a Main Board, and each were interconnected with insulation displacement Molex connector system, proud to say that this machine is still being manufactured and is still in demand and was copied by another company whom I never sued! They sold well over 5000 machines at a cost of approx well over £500 each.

I remember how I had started this project back in 1986, and finally reached the latest design stages in 1989, whilst doing a full time job as well, and I had to use special acetate roll of paper on which i laid the printed circuit board layout, painfully slowly, using printed circuit board artwork tapes that came in various widths, starting with 1mm wide, 1.5mm and went all the way up to 10mm wide, and same for round solder pads that came on spools in different diameters, I had to peel each one off with a scalpel and place on the grid very accurately, using a 0.1 grid paper and did this art work at twice the real size, which was then photographically reduced and printed circuit boards were then manufactured from it.

Back then there were no computers available generally and I acquired my first proper computer in 1991 and bought a printed circuit board layout software from RS Components called EasyPc, and it worked on DOS, and I still use this today and it can still run on many modern computers up to Windows XP.

I can produce professional quality single sided PCs in about an hour from this EasyPC layout package to printing it on a clear film on laser printer and then
using positive photo resist boards to expos and etch boards and then drill on a bench drill to about 0.7mm diameter hole manually.

 

[cjard]

cjard, you don't think 'eles' might be 'elevations'?

Would you believe my mind didn't automatically expand "eles" to "elevations"? Perhaps I write much smarter than I actually am

 

[cjard]

Bloomin hell, I'd sooner do a proper hand drawn drawing than all that cjard. Not that it's for issue to me.

Because that would be MUCH more flexible and less hassle.. No you wouldn't; spare me the rhetoric

Dude asks for free software, he's given free software. There are some hoops to jump through and essentially dude trades his time (plentiful) for his money (scarce, i assume)

You're an AT by trade, AutoCad is the tool of your trade; you pay for it and you use it. Of course you wouldn't go through all that, but you're not asking for free software as a one time thing because you need something to get you past some minor hurdle.

 

[cjard]

Great on the computer that is , anyone worked to how to print the 2D plans off to scale , e.g. 1:100 in line with Planning requirements.

Here's a recap of what I wrote above your post:

SketchUp prints to scale. You have to be in "parallel projection" rather than "perspective" and pick a standard view like "top", "left" etc..

In the print dialog you may have to untick options that alter scale for you (like "Fit to page") and if you just want the current view scaled, you untick "use model extents"

After that, the scaling options should be active

Here's a link to the first google hit for "sketchup print to scale"

http://help.sketchup.com/en/article/114462

Tip: print to PDF. Set the paper size on the PDF printer to be large enough to accept your plan on a single sheet. Ensure you include a scale bar (draw a series of sized rectangles in the model world). If your computer doesnt have a PDF printer installed, then I'd install Foxit PDF Reader which a) comes with one and b) has some nifty PDF editing/decoration features

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

Hangover cjard?

 

[cjard]

I suffer other people's hangovers

 

[davidnow]

Thanks again, I'm really happy to have downloaded it, it does exactly what I am after and is easier to use than others I stumbled across.

SketchUp prints to scale. You have to be in "parallel projection" rather than "perspective" and pick a standard view like "top", "left" etc..

In the print dialog you may have to untick options that alter scale for you (like "Fit to page") and if you just want the current view scaled, you untick "use model extents"

After that, the scaling options should be active

Yes, I had followed those instructions , but found them not to work.

Googling the issue confirms that this is a bug found by many others too.



I guess I can print off to my A4 printer then work out required magnification and photocopy at local library to reA3 at required magnification

Tip: print to PDF. Set the paper size on the PDF printer to be large enough to accept your plan on a single sheet. Ensure you include a scale bar (draw a series of sized rectangles in the model world). If your computer doesnt have a PDF printer installed, then I'd install Foxit PDF Reader which a) comes with one and b) has some nifty PDF editing/decoration features

This may be the way forward

How do I print to PDF , can't find that option in the menus.

 

[cjard]

not to work.

What does "not work" mean?

You have to be in parallel proj (tick next to it on camera menu), have a standard view set (even a tiny deviation/rotation of the world scuppers you - don't do anything to the model after choosing Camera>Standard Views>Top), and have to untick "fit to page" in the print dialog

Are you sure all these 3 steps have been done? Any one of them not done means the scale box is greyed out..

 

[davidnow]

yes, I am in top view

 

[davidnow]

"not work" means i follow the instructions and I get a 2d plan print out which looks great but is not to scale.

I am not alone , many others report same issue on various fora.

printing to A3 PDF may be the answer, as I can upload files to system without needing to an A3 printer.