Tommy CAD . . . Any Good?
Bill Dur
To a CAD novice like me, I LOOKS pretty good, but I have NO experience
to judge it by.
Is anyone using it for serious work? If so, do you like it?
Any Former Users with warnings?
It's pretty cheap to register. Is it worth learning or should I spend
the bucks to get something else like Minicad? I don't want to spend a
couple of months finding out that I need something else.
Bill Dur
Bill Dur <modular...@bigfoot.com>
modular.systems * Simple Universal Building System * "Superior By Design"
Tomas Kang
Bill Dur <modular...@bigfoot.com> wrote...
It depends on what you are really up to. I don't know anything about
Tommy Cad, but I do know about CAD. If it is a CAD program for serious
work, nowaday, it must support reading/writing of DWG files (AutoCAD's
native
drawing file, in case you don't know) in its professional version.
If you are new beginner in this area, I recommend you to download the
trial version of TwinCAD, which looks much the same as AutoCAD and supports
almost all the AutoCAD's 2D functionalities with a lot of enhancements.
You can learn the CAD using its trial version without registering as long
as you don't need to save the drawing you create.
TwinCAD can be found at http://www.twincad.com and a base mode
authorization code can be obtained from the site at a price of $99
only.
Tomas Kang
El Jefe'
impressed. Especially because everything had a Win3.X feel to it. (Check it
out you'll see what I mean.)
I have to say the best low buck .DWG CAD program right now is IntelliCAD. I
haven't tried LT98 yet, but then its not programmable anyway, so I probably
won't. Besides, we just upgraded to LT97 at work, and Autodesk sold it to us
without telling us LT98 was around the corner. So I'm a little miffed with
them anyway.
Tomas Kang wrote:
> If you are new beginner in this area, I recommend you to download the
> trial version of TwinCAD, which looks much the same as AutoCAD and supports
> almost all the AutoCAD's 2D functionalities with a lot of enhancements.
> You can learn the CAD using its trial version without registering as long
> as you don't need to save the drawing you create.
>
> TwinCAD can be found at http://www.twincad.com and a base mode
> authorization code can be obtained from the site at a price of $99
> only.
>
> Tomas Kang
--
=======================
Jeffrey A. Garcia, PE
Walnut Creek, CA
Civil Engineer & PC Hobbyist
To reply to this message, remove "X" from my address.
John Stevenson
>I downloaded TwinCAD myself to check it out. Sad to say I wasn't very
>impressed. Especially because everything had a Win3.X feel to it. (Check it
>out you'll see what I mean.)
>
>I have to say the best low buck .DWG CAD program right now is IntelliCAD. I
>haven't tried LT98 yet, but then its not programmable anyway, so I probably
>won't. Besides, we just upgraded to LT97 at work, and Autodesk sold it to us
>without telling us LT98 was around the corner. So I'm a little miffed with
>them anyway.
>
Another decent one to look at if you want an Autocad clone is Vdraft at
http://www.vdraft.com
There is the usual restricted demo on the site but this one does print, although
it has a demo box in the middle of the print area.
They also do a home / non commercial copy for $99.
These people actually wrote the code for the DWg standard for Autodesk so it is
compatible.
Usual not associated bullshit.
Regards,
John Stevenson at
Nottingham, England.
hmk...@my-dejanews.com
Well, I am sorry not to have mentioned that the current release of TwinCAD is
a 16-bit WinApp. That is because I didn't think it would be that important in
choosing a useful CAD program. Although it is a 16-bit program, it also
supports dockable toolbars and cascaded float-up toolbar that R14 have. It
can transfer selected drawing entity to and from AutoCAD (R12/R13/R14) via
the Cut&Paste method. The only drawback of it with regard to this, I must
admit, is that it does not support long filename, since it being a 16-bit
WinApp.
I must admit that it won't give you any surprise at the first glance, merely
another clone of AutoCAD it seems. However, if you have tried some of the
commands that I could think of in this moment, you probably would appriciate
it like I who use it every day with R14.
In supplement to AutoCAD's 2D drafting commands, I only list the following
some:
. CIRCLE, solving completely what all the PER/TAN/Pass-through, center on
object conditions can combine, and supplied with powerful dragging.
. TEXT, supporting TTF/PFB/SHX, linear/circular writting, character space,
oblique and CCW rotation control, special text features and built-in symbols,
totally explodable, spline text stroke approximated by smooth arcs instead of
line segments...
. Dimensioning, various dimensioning commands, true dimension entity,
powerful dragging, style can be changed dynamically during dragging,
supporting dimensioning under PUCS (Projected UCS), for example, you can
dimension an ELLIPSE as a projected circle.
. INVGEAR, draws spur gear..
. Command line expression input, you can input the expression like
5*sin(35.5) to the command line. A middle of two point can be given as,
(getp()+getp())/2, and then snap at the two points.
. Supporting a C-like language. You can extend the CAD capability with this
language. You can find quite a few example in the package. In fact, there are
some standard commands, such as DDSTYLE and DDHATCH, are implemented with
this language and the source are also supplied with the package.
There are many other partical features I could/should not list in details.
You have to explode it by yourself. I must point it out that TwinCAD tends to
minimize the number of commands. For example, you can use the CHANGE command
to change almost everything, depending on what you have selected. You can
CHANGE the block, symbols, dimension, texts, etc.
I know there are a lot of facinating CAD programs out there, including
IntelliCAD (32-Bit WinApp for sure). But, since the original post was, as I
recall, to suggest a CAD program for a beginner to learn, before investing
any real money, I thought TwinCAD should be a good start. As a professional
CAD user, I still think so.
Ps.: Oh yes, It just occur to my mind, no offending, these features I
mentioned or what you may have explored from TwinCAD may really be nothing to
a new beginner, maybe you should try AutoCAD LT or IntelliCAD first. They
also have provided free trial versions. Maybe somedays in the future, when
you have a 2D drafting problem with the CAD you are using, well, you may take
a look at TwinCAD and see if the problem was already solved, since you have
download the trial version of TwinCAD.
Tomas Kang
In article <36293CA3...@hotcoco.infi.net>,
Xbad...@hotcoco.infi.net wrote:
> I downloaded TwinCAD myself to check it out. Sad to say I wasn't very
> impressed. Especially because everything had a Win3.X feel to it. (Check it
> out you'll see what I mean.)
>
> I have to say the best low buck .DWG CAD program right now is IntelliCAD. I
> haven't tried LT98 yet, but then its not programmable anyway, so I probably
> won't. Besides, we just upgraded to LT97 at work, and Autodesk sold it to us
> without telling us LT98 was around the corner. So I'm a little miffed with
> them anyway.
>
> Tomas Kang wrote:
>
> > If you are new beginner in this area, I recommend you to download the
> > trial version of TwinCAD, which looks much the same as AutoCAD and supports
> > almost all the AutoCAD's 2D functionalities with a lot of enhancements.
> > You can learn the CAD using its trial version without registering as long
> > as you don't need to save the drawing you create.
> >
> > TwinCAD can be found at http://www.twincad.com and a base mode
> > authorization code can be obtained from the site at a price of $99
> > only.
> >
> > Tomas Kang
>
> --
> =======================
> Jeffrey A. Garcia, PE
> Walnut Creek, CA
>
> Civil Engineer & PC Hobbyist
>
> To reply to this message, remove "X" from my address.
>
>
-----------== Posted via Deja News, The Discussion Network ==----------
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Bill Dur
Thanks very much for your recommendation of Vdraft.
I hadn't even heard of it before, though I watch the 25% of this
newsgroup that my lousy ISP carries.
I downloaded the demo and am VERY impressed with it so far.
It is BY FAR the easiest and most intuitive CAD I have tried out.
Having spent four hours unsuccessfully trying to draw a 4x8 sheet of
plywood with other CAD demos . . . (How hard can that be? REALLY
hard when you can't even get the origin, offset, paper size, scale
ratio, grid and other necessary BS working properly after hours of
suicidal effort) . . . I was delighted to not only to set up a snap
grid in zip time, but even to draw the plywood and put framing members
on it and holes in them in under an hour as a clueless newbie.
Actually, I had FUN! Maybe there IS hope for me.
It's not 3D and I don't think it will keep a parts inventory, but it
appears much better than anything else I have seen for the price.
Thanks for the good advice,
Bill Dur
On Sun, 18 Oct 1998 11:20:30 GMT, engi...@BTInternet.com (John
Stevenson) wrote:
>On Sat, 17 Oct 1998 17:56:03 -0700, El Jefe' <Xbad...@hotcoco.infi.net> wrote:
>
>>I downloaded TwinCAD myself to check it out. Sad to say I wasn't very
>>impressed. Especially because everything had a Win3.X feel to it. (Check it
>>out you'll see what I mean.)
>>
>>I have to say the best low buck .DWG CAD program right now is IntelliCAD. I
>>haven't tried LT98 yet, but then its not programmable anyway, so I probably
>>won't. Besides, we just upgraded to LT97 at work, and Autodesk sold it to us
>>without telling us LT98 was around the corner. So I'm a little miffed with
>>them anyway.
>>
>Another decent one to look at if you want an Autocad clone is Vdraft at
>http://www.vdraft.com
>There is the usual restricted demo on the site but this one does print, although
>it has a demo box in the middle of the print area.
>They also do a home / non commercial copy for $99.
>These people actually wrote the code for the DWg standard for Autodesk so it is
>compatible.
>Usual not associated bullshit.
>
>
>Regards,
>
>John Stevenson at
>
>engi...@btinternet.com
>
>Nottingham, England.
>
>
Bill Dur <modular...@bigfoot.com>
El Jefe'
impressed. (Not much does impress me though, since I was weaned on Microstation.)
John Stevenson wrote:
> On Sat, 17 Oct 1998 17:56:03 -0700, El Jefe' <Xbad...@hotcoco.infi.net> wrote:
>
> >I downloaded TwinCAD myself to check it out. Sad to say I wasn't very
> >impressed. Especially because everything had a Win3.X feel to it. (Check it
> >out you'll see what I mean.)
> >
> >I have to say the best low buck .DWG CAD program right now is IntelliCAD. I
> >haven't tried LT98 yet, but then its not programmable anyway, so I probably
> >won't. Besides, we just upgraded to LT97 at work, and Autodesk sold it to us
> >without telling us LT98 was around the corner. So I'm a little miffed with
> >them anyway.
> >
> Another decent one to look at if you want an Autocad clone is Vdraft at
> http://www.vdraft.com
> There is the usual restricted demo on the site but this one does print, although
> it has a demo box in the middle of the print area.
> They also do a home / non commercial copy for $99.
> These people actually wrote the code for the DWg standard for Autodesk so it is
> compatible.
> Usual not associated bullshit.
>
> Regards,
>
> John Stevenson at
>
> engi...@btinternet.com
>
> Nottingham, England.
--
John Stevenson
>Has Vdraft gotten better? I looked at it about two years ago. I wasn't overly
>impressed. (Not much does impress me though, since I was weaned on Microstation.)
>
>John Stevenson wrote:
>> Another decent one to look at if you want an Autocad clone is Vdraft at
>> http://www.vdraft.com
>> There is the usual restricted demo on the site but this one does print, although
>> it has a demo box in the middle of the print area.
>> They also do a home / non commercial copy for $99.
>> These people actually wrote the code for the DWg standard for Autodesk so it is
>> compatible.
>> Usual not associated bullshit.
>>
I can't answer that as what I think is not what other people think.
I was just pointing out an alternative.
I personally use Fastcad from http://www.fastcad.com
Like a lot of people I have grown up with this program and it will take a lot to
get me to change after the learning curve and the fact I would have to convert
all old drawings.
This must be the same for most people though.
Only the people new to CAD are really free to make a choice
I looked at Microstation a couple of years ago, in fact my son bought the
educational version, but I wasn't impressed for what I wanted, it was too
complex for the simple 2D work I do, but that's only my opinion.
I still think that for ease and outright speed of drawing the old Generic Cadd
was hard to beat. Full screen, no silly tool bars, all two digit commands and
this was years ago. OK so no 3D but 90 percent of work is still in 2D.
And this was years ago, look at some of the modern stuff with drop down tool
bars , fill in dialog boxes etc, sometimes I think we are going backwards just
to impress the other 10 percent.
No flames intended, just my opinion.