I have no idea if this is new to anyone in this forum.
But here it is:

If you want to draw your own CNC-details, and you have no skills or dollars for a complete AutoCad program, there is a better solution.

It's called SolidWorks. It should be easy to use (my son says) and it's 100 % compatible to Autocad, which means that your CNC-guys AutoCad program can read and use your drawings made in Solidworks.

You can get SolidWorks in a fully functional and free test version for 30 days.
Further use has a price - but it's relatively cheap and ABSOLUTELY cheaper than AutoCad!
I have no link. Please look SolidWorks up in Google.

This is meant as an advice - without any guarantees for my part as I have no interests whatsoever in SolidWorks.

Cheers!

Woodie.

OOPS! Wonder if I got this in the right thread? Mods: Delete and move it if you want to.

I've been using SolidWorks for about 13 years now, it's what I do for a living. It is user friendly, but I don't think you could just sit down and use it, especially if you have no other cad experience. It is a full 3D solid modeling program. I don't know about the 30 day free test, but it's not cheaper than Autocad I'm pretty sure. I believe 1 seat of Solidworks costs over $4000 plus a 1200 or 1300 dollar annual subscription fee for support and future updates. There may be a student version which is cheaper, I'm not sure about that tho.
Dassault Systemes, the company that puts out SolidWorks, does offer a 2D cad program called DraftSight which is a free download and is Autocad compatible. It is quite a nice program, especially for free.
Another alternative if you want to do solid modeling is a program called Alibre Design, which is cheaper, but not a giveaway. You can get a personal edition for about $200 if I'm not mistaken. The full professional edition is about $1000 or so I think.
All that being said, Solidworks is hard to beat if you don't mind the expense.

Doug

Hi Dough.

I may be mistaken, but I think my son told me that it should be possible to purchase a version of SolidWorks for a price that equals about 350 USD.
Anyway he has used the 30-days test version to make perfect 2-D drawings of my engine rails with no hassle at all, but he also talked about the possibility of making 3-D drawings - with some extra effort.
Maybe the mentioned price is for a simple 2-D version only? I will ask him about this and promise to report back here with a link, when/if possible.

Thanks for your response.

Cheers!

Woodie.
___________

Added same day.

I just asked my son, and for "good reasons" he has no answer, other that the program, that he "achieved" runs out in a week or so...
But he told me that a program called "Solid Edge Free 2D Drafting Software" should be able to do the job.
However none of us knows for sure.

Sorry for any inconvenience.


Cheers!

Woodie.