Beginners 2-D CAD

[Ian Smeeton]

I learned to draw with paper and pencil, set square and drawing board (yes, I am THAT old)

 

I had been looking for a while to find a CAD program which would work on my elderly machine, and eventually found LibreCAD, a free download, which I actually managed to download, install and run.

 

I am just dipping my toes into the water, the plan being, once I have worked through the tutorials and help files, to select a simple building from Paisley St James, draw it, print, and then use the drawing as a template to make the building.

 

One question which has occurred to me is: Do you draw 'full size', then scale as required, or draw to scale?

 

Regards, and thanks for any help for a 'Newbie'

 

Ian

[chuffinghell]

I learned to draw with paper and pencil, set square and drawing board (yes, I am THAT old)

 

I had been looking for a while to find a CAD program which would work on my elderly machine, and eventually found LibreCAD, a free download, which I actually managed to download, install and run.

 

I am just dipping my toes into the water, the plan being, once I have worked through the tutorials and help files, to select a simple building from Paisley St James, draw it, print, and then use the drawing as a template to make the building.

 

One question which has occurred to me is: Do you draw 'full size', then scale as required, or draw to scale?

 

Regards, and thanks for any help for a 'Newbie'

 

Ian

 

Hi Ian

 

I started 'on the board' too

 

You can do either, there's no right or wrong way

 

I'm a draughtsman and we draw everything 1:1 (full size) and scale up the drawing sheet, that way we can copy and paste components from other drawings knowing they are all the same scale (if we were say putting together an assembly drawing from individual components)

 

We adjust the 'print scale' to print off at the desired size

 

But I cant see a reason why you couldn't draw full size and then scale down the whole drawing to the desired scale before printing

 

Hope that helps

 

Chris

Edited July 9, 2018 by chuffinghell

[Spitfire2865]

While proper draftsmen will always recommend drawing 1:1, model building requires a lot more considerations.  As you probably hear from any kitmaker asked to resize  etches to a different scale, it often requires an entire redesign due to tolerances changing.  Same with 3D CAD design, what  may work in one scale wont in another.  

So Id say definitely draw your finished parts to scale, not 1:1.  That way any minimums are observed throughout the design.

[Ian Smeeton]

While proper draftsmen will always recommend drawing 1:1, model building requires a lot more considerations.  As you probably hear from any kitmaker asked to resize  etches to a different scale, it often requires an entire redesign due to tolerances changing.  Same with 3D CAD design, what  may work in one scale wont in another.  

So Id say definitely draw your finished parts to scale, not 1:1.  That way any minimums are observed throughout the design.

 

One each way, then.

 

I will have a play later this evening. I am leaning to drawing 1:1, then scaling the printout. 

 

As I am planning on using this for buildings, and will be working very much in 2-D, it seems to me, to be easier.

 

Thanks for the input,

 

Regards

 

Ian

[sharris]

I'd say for something like buildings and aren't constrained by the manufacturing process or other compromises, working 1:1 is fine and you can type in dimensions from the original drawings or measurements if you have them.

 

If you're designing etch masters, I'd agree with Trevor (Spitfire) and draw at your model size. Another point in favour of drawing at model size is if you're incorporating 3rd party parts - for a chassis you might want to incorporate hornblocks or a gearbox for which you'll have model sized dimensions and it wouldn't make sense to scale them up to 1:1 - for a building this you might also want to do this if you're using, for example, pre-etched window-frames and doors which don't exactly match the prototype - you can then drop them into your drawing at model size, and tweak the model size dimensions to make the proportions look correct. 

[Robin2]

I use LibreOffice draw and I make my drawings 1:1 at the size the finished item will be. For example if I want to draw a rectangle that is 4m by 3m in real life at 1:50 scale I will make the LibreOffice rectangle 80mm x 60mm

 

That way I can deal with rounding errors and things that scale too small before I put them on the drawing.

 

...R