Hi all,

Its my Dads birthday soon, and he has had an idea for a garden sculpture consisting of 8 stainless 'legs' holding up a stainless ball (don't ask me why as I've no idea!!).

I'd like to turn his concept into reality, and the best way would be to get the stainless 'legs' water or laser cut - is there a SIMPLE CAD programme that I can download which I can then use to design the legs, and then give to someone to cut???

Any help gratefully received!

Many thanks

Chris

dont know about the program but if your looking for someone to cut it id recomened ANDYW7DE on here, did a few bits for me, he did the drawings in CAD for me aswell from some dimensioned drawings i made

I should think someone will have a copy of autocad lite you could have. There are a few free ones which will let you create DXF files too, but none spring to mind.

David

hi there
download "proge cad" free good and autocad compatable.
GRAHAM

It will be cheaper if all the legs are the same and 'nest' in a nice tessellated pattern.

I use QCad from Ribbonsoft for 2d which produces dxf files, and I found easy to use (much easier to get started than autocad)
.
http://www.ribbonsoft.com/qcad.html

I use emachineshop, which is a free download from http://www.emachineshop.com

You can even order your parts directly from the application too (which only really makes sence if you are in the US) but the pricing feature is good so you can compare different designs, materials, machines etc and the costs.

It'll export in dxf and I've used this a few times to get a local company with a laser cutter to knock out stuff for me.

It also will render you a nice "picture" of your design too, taking into account any bends you've placed which is great to visualise a final design before getting it made.