Google has posted a neat free program, for making three dimensional drawings. It is somewhat comprhensive - for instance you can see shadows moving as the sun moves during the day. There is a $500 package if you feel flush with money, but the freebe lets you do quite a bit in "placing" buildings on your layout. An ACAD it is not, but the price is right. http://sketchup.google.com/ ...don P.S. Really OT, but Google also has out a package that is supposed to give Microsoft a real run in Excel. It is NOT geneally available yet, but keep your eyes open.
Not sure if you can do a FANCY car shape, but I'ved fiddled enough to know you can make some pretty crazy objects with angles all over the place inculding cylinders. Can't tell yet you about spheres. Coloring is pretty clever and includes shading. It has a pretty good set of colored patterns and you could get some pretty decent roof shingles and/or brickwork. The video demos are slick along with a great HELP file so the learning curve is extrememly good. The price is right - free - give it a try. ...don
if you fancy using fully parametric CAD try downloading free version of Alibre Design Express at https://www.alibre.com/xpress/software/alibre-design-xpress.asp It is easy and very capable (with good tutorials and support) rgrds Chris ps I have no connection with them, apart from having tried it succesfully
Yes you can do an auto. I have NOT drawn an auto, but I imported one that someone else had done. You can do the auto drawing if you want. On the imported drawing you can rotate in any direction including up-side-down .. and you obviously can draw any shape you want. ...so if you want a BN with four wheels and a steering wheel, go to it. ..don
I thought that it was Alibre Design Professional that was on 30 days trial and Alibri Design Express is simply free. There are obviously differences between the two, but nothing that would stop you from using Express succsefuly for a long time before you would need Professional version. Chris ps you can read a review of it in CAD magazine: http://management.cadalyst.com/cadman/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=262288
Can you steer us to the 30 day limitation in the "freebie" package?? I wore out my "search key" and can not find any such limitation. The PAID $500 package DOES have a 30 day trial limiation. ...don
I downloaded the Goofle free version to play with. I don't have time yet, but I can install it on a computer at work and goof around with it a bit here and there until I figure it out.
The link you gave has 2 "Free Trials" links, one at the top right and the the other at the left margin. The one on the left is definitely a 30 day free trail (states at top of form) but the upper right is just a link to a form to activate (assume this is the free - long term version). There is a box on that page in the upper right for a 30 day trail of the Prof. version. I tried the link on the right and see if is truly the Xpress freebie. No notices and after filling in the form, it allows downloading of the 8.2 software. Takes up to 24hrs to get the key to launch it.
