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Drawing Programs v's Cad Programs.


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I have been using Corel draw 11 for quite some time to draw the lines and framing of my models, I like the way the program works in some ways and not in others. The ability for me to trace over a scanned image and the editing of curves and fills.

 

post-202-0-68936000-1362499795.jpg

 

It is slow though and a memory hog.

 

I have also been using Autocad Lt 2000 for 13 years and I am reasonable competent (still learn new stuff every time I use it) however I always seemed to have trouble with tracing because it does not allow it. For straight drafting I use the Autocad If I am not drawing with a pencil.

 

I have been working on getting better with the spline curves because I will be able to get better definition eventually with the Autocad. so here is my first attempt at the lines of a test hull with Autocad.

 

post-202-0-54080800-1362499807.jpg

 

My question is: that if I export a Corel file via DXF to Corel 11 then go to do any work on the file it freezes the Autocad and I have to reboot the Autocad program, does anybody know of a fix for this problem.

 

Going from Autocad to Corel is not a problem and works fine. And if I want to publish an image from Autocad Lt 2000 I have to save it as a DXF then I open it in Corel then Export it as a JPEG or PNG file, which is a rather long winded way of doing things.

 

Michael

 

 

Current builds  Bristol Pilot Cutter 1:8;      Skipjack 19 foot Launch 1:8;       Herreshoff Buzzards Bay 14 1:8

Other projects  Pilot Cutter 1:500 ;   Maria, 1:2  Now just a memory    

Future model Gill Smith Catboat Pauline 1:8

Finished projects  A Bassett Lowke steamship Albertic 1:100  

 

Anything you can imagine is possible, when you put your mind to it.

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I haven't used Corel in a while, but did you set all line widths to "0"? 

Alternatively, can you export pdf's from Corel with a cut/paste into Lt 2K?  (vectors should still show and edit as such, instead of going to bitmap images)

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Hexnut I am sorry I confused the issue in the first post I meant to say that from Corel via DXF to Autocad which is when it freezes .

I do set the line width in Corel 11 .001" because if I set it to 0" then I see nothing.

 

I just did the PDF into Autocad LT Well thanks for that tidbit of Information , learned another great tip today Thanks. Oh this is such a great site !!!

 

Michael

Current builds  Bristol Pilot Cutter 1:8;      Skipjack 19 foot Launch 1:8;       Herreshoff Buzzards Bay 14 1:8

Other projects  Pilot Cutter 1:500 ;   Maria, 1:2  Now just a memory    

Future model Gill Smith Catboat Pauline 1:8

Finished projects  A Bassett Lowke steamship Albertic 1:100  

 

Anything you can imagine is possible, when you put your mind to it.

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I use ACAD 2000i and I have been able to trace over imported raster files and then redraw those lines to fair them, create construction templates, and then scale them for printing. No real issues. I wonder why you cannot trace over a drawing with ACAD Lt 2000?

 

Russ

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Russ, I have tried every format other than the PDF that I tried this morning none of them work in Autocad Lt. Not my version anyway the PDF did work so now All I have to do is use PDF,s because the normal raster images just come up as a small box with the name of the file.

 

Michael

Current builds  Bristol Pilot Cutter 1:8;      Skipjack 19 foot Launch 1:8;       Herreshoff Buzzards Bay 14 1:8

Other projects  Pilot Cutter 1:500 ;   Maria, 1:2  Now just a memory    

Future model Gill Smith Catboat Pauline 1:8

Finished projects  A Bassett Lowke steamship Albertic 1:100  

 

Anything you can imagine is possible, when you put your mind to it.

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Michael:

When you load a jpeg, do you scale the image afterwards to make it larger? I have to scale the uploaded image to get it to the proper size.

 

Russ

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Hi Russ

When you load a jpeg, do you scale the image afterwards to make it larger?

Upload the JPEG to which program?

 

If I scan a drawing for instance I save it as a JPEG then upload it to Corel Draw II Then I scale the image to whatever scale I am working with. So now instead of doing the tracing in Corel I will save the Corel file as a PDF then load it into the Autocad Light.

 

Once the file is in Autocad Lt 2000 It is put on layer 0 and the layer is locked not frozen, That way the trace goes well as in the case of the example that I started the post with.

Now in order for me to post a picture that I have generated in Autocad Lt 2000

I have to save it as a DXF open the DXF in Corel and then save it as a JPEG PNG or PDF to post it here.

 

 

This is the Autocad file that I traced from the PDF this morning. It is a PDF file test trace of corel Cockwells.pdf

 

 

 

This is a PNG

post-202-0-67624900-1362613659.png

 

this is a JPEG

 

post-202-0-33222600-1362613662.jpg

 

The PDF was the easiest on my computer system resources, and the line weights in the JPEG and PNG are very hard to see in the exported images.

 

In each case the same file in Corel was saved. The JPEG and PNG both had to be reduced from 8,000 pixels to 800 pixels to post. I used Ifanview to do the reductions , it is a free and very easy program to use.

 

This has been a bit of a ramble but I really prefer to draft in Autocad and not draw in Corel.  So I am happy that I have begun to use the spline function and it will make drafting so much easier for me.

 

Michael

 

 

 

 

Edited by michael mott

Current builds  Bristol Pilot Cutter 1:8;      Skipjack 19 foot Launch 1:8;       Herreshoff Buzzards Bay 14 1:8

Other projects  Pilot Cutter 1:500 ;   Maria, 1:2  Now just a memory    

Future model Gill Smith Catboat Pauline 1:8

Finished projects  A Bassett Lowke steamship Albertic 1:100  

 

Anything you can imagine is possible, when you put your mind to it.

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In ACAD 2000i, I upload a scanned jpeg into the ACAD program and then scale it. I can assign that jpeg to any layer I want. Once I have it scaled, I can trace it etc as I need to. I am not sure why you cannot do that with your ACAD program.

 

Russ

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Russ I think it has to do with the level of the Cad package There are a number of things that were not included in the Autocad Lt 2000 The other thing I cannot do it 3D.

 

The difference in cost between the Autocad Lt and the full Autocad is considerable.

 

The thing that I really like about Autocad v's the Corel drawing program is the way the vectored program works compared to the raster program simple things like extending a line or trimming a line those tasks are much more cumbersome in the drawing program and Ortho mode.

 

Michael

Current builds  Bristol Pilot Cutter 1:8;      Skipjack 19 foot Launch 1:8;       Herreshoff Buzzards Bay 14 1:8

Other projects  Pilot Cutter 1:500 ;   Maria, 1:2  Now just a memory    

Future model Gill Smith Catboat Pauline 1:8

Finished projects  A Bassett Lowke steamship Albertic 1:100  

 

Anything you can imagine is possible, when you put your mind to it.

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Russ I think this link will explain some of the reasons why i cannot do some things with my version of Autocad

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AutoCAD#AutoCAD_LT

 

Michael

Current builds  Bristol Pilot Cutter 1:8;      Skipjack 19 foot Launch 1:8;       Herreshoff Buzzards Bay 14 1:8

Other projects  Pilot Cutter 1:500 ;   Maria, 1:2  Now just a memory    

Future model Gill Smith Catboat Pauline 1:8

Finished projects  A Bassett Lowke steamship Albertic 1:100  

 

Anything you can imagine is possible, when you put your mind to it.

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Michael:

I am not sure I understand all of that, but that is okay. I am sorry I could not help answer your question.

 

Russ

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Russ that is OK My question did prompt Hexnut to suggest the PDF which worked. Your comments prompted me to look deeper into the version that I have. A win win as far as I am concerned.

 

cheers Michael

Current builds  Bristol Pilot Cutter 1:8;      Skipjack 19 foot Launch 1:8;       Herreshoff Buzzards Bay 14 1:8

Other projects  Pilot Cutter 1:500 ;   Maria, 1:2  Now just a memory    

Future model Gill Smith Catboat Pauline 1:8

Finished projects  A Bassett Lowke steamship Albertic 1:100  

 

Anything you can imagine is possible, when you put your mind to it.

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Michael, I'm glad that the pdf method worked for you.  I do similar operations going back and forth from Adobe Illustrator and Rhino (3d cad).  Illustrator is like Corel in many ways, it's great for scaling bitmap images to proper size, but not good at precision vector drwaing.  Rhino has a "background bitmap" feature that allows me to import the prepared image  (probably much like Russ's version of Acad) and the spline drawing is really nice. It also has a "fair command, so I can draw a bunch of stations, connect the dots, and then when I fair say, a gunwale edge, I can see where it pulls apart from the ends of the stations and what I need to tweak.  I can then rough skin the surface to see where the glitches are, go back and fix the control curves.  Rhino is about  1K usd, which is pretty good for useful 3-d cad, (but on the other hand that's a lot of wood)  I use it for work, so hobby stuff is just a nice bonus...

 

I started working on a trial run, the top are a scan of plans from an old magazine, the lower is vector lines and rough skeleton with a fair as I go rough surface development.  You can see in the lower image where I have the aft stations reasonably well worked out, but you can see ugly creases and ridges where I have to add final stations along the fore.

 

Of course, for me the big challenge is I don't know much about making wooden boats yet, I'm a bit freaked out by how some of these old plans are more basic guidelines than precisely-toleranced surfaces, I have to keep in mind that these things were hand-built and no two were exactly alike...

 

 

post-964-0-00464600-1362684788_thumb.jpg

post-964-0-64404800-1362684794_thumb.jpg

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Bob, those look Nice. I have adobe illustrator I needed it for an Exhibition project that I did back in 2002 I never did like it, I prefer Corel for the bitmap stuff. I have been happily drawing all day. I am working on tracing the Colchester Smack  There are some good images on the Betty CK 145  Website

 

http://www.betty-ck145.com/docueng/smacks/smack_plans.html

 

I am tracing it at full size in Autocad so that when the drawing is finished I hope to have a full set of plans to build an accurate model from. Once the plans are drawn full size in the cad environment it is simple to print them to any scale. I like working in full size because then there is no mucking about trying to sort out scale sizes. a 4x6 timber is drawn as a 4 x6 timber and so on. I don't have to do any mental gymnastics while drawing.

 

The drawing on the link shows that the drawing of the Colchester smack at a scale of 1/90 my Corel file to PDF then imported to Autocad showed the length as 17point  something inches I cannot remember the exact number at the moment. so using the 1/90 as a guide I did the math on the calculator to find the multiplier and scaled the PDF up so that the lines drawing was full size. It worked out to be 34feet 8 inches long. so at 1/24th scale it would be 17 inches or 34 inches at 1/12 scale and so on.

 

I am really happy that you told me about the PDF's because I would not have tried that. and I much prefer to work in Cad I do find that I have to lock the layer that the PDF is on after it is re-sized though.

 

Michael

Current builds  Bristol Pilot Cutter 1:8;      Skipjack 19 foot Launch 1:8;       Herreshoff Buzzards Bay 14 1:8

Other projects  Pilot Cutter 1:500 ;   Maria, 1:2  Now just a memory    

Future model Gill Smith Catboat Pauline 1:8

Finished projects  A Bassett Lowke steamship Albertic 1:100  

 

Anything you can imagine is possible, when you put your mind to it.

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AutoCAD LT is not the same as the regular version. It is the sme whit the newer version like 2010 and up the LT version isn't like the regular there are things you can't do in the LT that you can do in the regular version.

Wacko

Joe :D

 

Go MSW :) :)

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Joe, yes I know that is the case, The trade off for me is that I do not use even half the stuff you can do with LT. so the expense of the full version was not in my cards. I am also not willing to put in the time for the 3D functions in the programs that support it .

 

I have used Rhino and Sketch-up, I found them just a bit too frustrating. when I need a 3D I work with a pencil and sketch it out in seconds.

 

Michael

Current builds  Bristol Pilot Cutter 1:8;      Skipjack 19 foot Launch 1:8;       Herreshoff Buzzards Bay 14 1:8

Other projects  Pilot Cutter 1:500 ;   Maria, 1:2  Now just a memory    

Future model Gill Smith Catboat Pauline 1:8

Finished projects  A Bassett Lowke steamship Albertic 1:100  

 

Anything you can imagine is possible, when you put your mind to it.

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 have used Rhino and Sketch-up, I found them just a bit too frustrating. when I need a 3D I work with a pencil and sketch it out in seconds.

 

Michael

 Rhino did have a pretty big learning curve, but I've been using it for a long time now, so it's like an old pair of workboots.  I'm sort of tied to what my clients can talk to. (Which is why I switched to Illustrator years ago, even though, as you pointed out, Corel does some things better.) Plus, I occasionally send stuff out for rapid prototyping, so I need watertight solids.  I have to admit though, I learned surfacing on paper and foam blocks, so it's still the go-to for figuring stuff out.

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Michael,

 

Saw your thread and started reading it. You can convert a jpg/jpeg to a dxf file with WinTopo. They have a free and a Pro version. I presume the free will do for what we do with it.

Carl

"Desperate affairs require desperate measures." Lord Nelson
Search and you might find a log ...

 

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Hi Carl, I am not having any problems converting JPEGS to DXF the issue is that my version of Autocad seems to freeze up with DXF's from a JPEGs for tracing, but it does recognize the PDF. so that works for me.

 

I am working on a set of plans for a Colchester Fishing Smack. Using this boat as the reference

 

http://www.betty-ck145.com/docueng/betty_ck145/betty_ck145.html

 

Michael

Edited by michael mott

Current builds  Bristol Pilot Cutter 1:8;      Skipjack 19 foot Launch 1:8;       Herreshoff Buzzards Bay 14 1:8

Other projects  Pilot Cutter 1:500 ;   Maria, 1:2  Now just a memory    

Future model Gill Smith Catboat Pauline 1:8

Finished projects  A Bassett Lowke steamship Albertic 1:100  

 

Anything you can imagine is possible, when you put your mind to it.

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Michael,

 

Been a design engineer for 10 years, and a patent attorney for 20 more. Have used Corel Draw all that time, am also to v11. Once you know it, it's like that fuzzy bear blanket you just can't seem to let go of.

 

Did have to get a bit more grarly professional about some things and went with TurboCAD. I've had v7 on the machine for a while, but saw a legacy out-of-stock box of v17 on the wall for $109. Bought it, loaded and registered it. IMSI came back with an email the said "click here" for your free upgrade to v18 Pro. Like I didn't get all over that in a heartbeat?

 

Used TurboCAD in the past to do some really technical stuff so I'm no novice to it. v18, though, is a generational advance. I'm doing some work for Airbus with it and it interfaces seamlessly with their $10k drafting programs, both up and down. Am going to use it for plan drafting.  Think it's pretty righteous and is a good alternative to AutoCAD. Just MHO.

 

John

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And without a doubt it was worth the money and you got the free upgrade as a bonus. The money difference between the others is a real big difference, I know this for a fact. But as a old person since I have been using AutoCAD and SoildWors I am not into switching to something else dince I have already paid for what I have, just wish I had the chance to use others I have read about. Would have save a hell of a lot of money.

Wacko

Joe :D

 

Go MSW :) :)

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Hi John, thanks for the info, Like John said we make choices early on and get to apoint that learning a new set of software tools at this stage is not something I have the inclination or the funds to do. I am not one to use the free stuff much and I like to have original software registered so as to get the support when needed. Although I am now happy that i can use the PDF into Autocad basically I'm covered for my needs.

 

Michael

Current builds  Bristol Pilot Cutter 1:8;      Skipjack 19 foot Launch 1:8;       Herreshoff Buzzards Bay 14 1:8

Other projects  Pilot Cutter 1:500 ;   Maria, 1:2  Now just a memory    

Future model Gill Smith Catboat Pauline 1:8

Finished projects  A Bassett Lowke steamship Albertic 1:100  

 

Anything you can imagine is possible, when you put your mind to it.

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