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I belong to an awesome shared workspace in town and have access to a [url="https://fslaser.com/Products/View/0"]Full Spectrum Laser[/url]. It seems like a great opportunity to make some layout tools like radius templates, body templates, and so forth.

The computer that runs the laser uses the stock software, RetinaEngrave 3D. I can cut from raster and vector graphics. I had to take a class to get "certified" to use it. We learned that it needs to cut from XPS files in vector mode, but the manual says it can cut from XPS and PDF. So who knows.

I'm not even really there yet, though. I still need to learn how to draw. So my question for you is, what is the simplest, most inexpensive way to start making technical drawings? I'd just like to start by making a triangle with a 50° hypotenuse (like the one in the "Live Back" section of Trevor Gore's books) and a few radius templates.

Thanks, guys.

What operating system are you using?

I'm hearing the "first comes love, then comes marriage," rhyme in my head

After learning out how to do those basic things, it would be rad to figure out how to turn my pencil and paper drawings into files that I could turn into templates.

I'm a Mac guy. OSX.

Draftsight. Free, 2D, dumbed-down AutoCAD for us mortals.

Pat

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formerly known around here as burbank
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http://www.patfosterguitars.com

There used to be a good vector drawing program called iDraw.

It was recently bought by Autodesk and is now in the Mac App store as Autodesk Graphic.

https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/graphic/id404705039?mt=12

Personally I'd just use Rhino for Mac for the kind of geometry you described in your original post.

http://www.rhino3d.com/mac

Very easy to draw that kind of stuff in Rhino, but I can't really give any comparison to other programs mentioned because I hardly use them.

Ah, great find, Leo. Thank you. $28 is a great price. Do you know if you can specify things like the radius of an arc?

Awesome awesome awesome. Mortal is what I need.

I'm sorry I don't know. My wife uses and enjoys the program a lot so I thought I'd mention it.

As I say I use Rhino and you can definitely specify radii, angles, lengths, distances, etc. for any geometry you draw.

It looks like I can get Rhino for $95 as a student. If the other options don't work, I'll have to decide if it's something worth pursuing to me. $95 is a great price compared to the regular retail.

Give Draftsight a try. Rhino is an order of magnitude more complicated and drafstight is free.

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http://www.birkonium.com CNC Products for Luthiers
http://banduramaker.blogspot.com

One of my best friend's came over Thursday night for some root beer and bro time. He's a draftsman by day and models ground surfaces for an engineering company.

He was skeptical when I told him the program was a freebie, but he loved it within minutes. He said I could do anything I wanted with it at this point. He was going through all kinds of commands that went right over my head and only found one or two that weren't the same. I was ready to plop down for Rhino, too. I'll gladly keep my $95.

Here's my first official drawing: a triangle for laying out the braces on Trevor Gore's live back design. My goal is to do simple 2D stuff and hopefully graduate to the CNC.

James, looks like you're off and running!

Pat

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formerly known around here as burbank
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http://www.patfosterguitars.com

When you start getting ore into CNC hit me up and I'll help with any questions I can answer.

Good luck on your journey.


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