Need a good drawing program

[OfArtAndArsenal]

Man, Sketchup just pissed all in my popcorn.

Sigh.

My free trial of 8 pro expired. And the new version of whatever their "free" program is won't run on my version of OSX. And I don't have $500 burning a hole in my pocket to buy the full version. Which leaves me with a number of neck layouts, body contour dimentions, headstock ideas, etc that I have no program to open with.

Damnit anyway.

So what are some other good drawing programs? Sketchup was working pretty well for me. Had some issues with compound curves like volutes and body radius, but otherwise a solid program. Something similar in functionality is what I'm looking for. Nothing super complicated, but MS Paint isn't what I'm going for either...

And free is for me. Unless there's a free version I don't know about, the first person to suggest AUTOCAD might get negative rep...

Love you guys.

 

[foreright]

3d or 2d?

For 2d, Draftsight is probably your best free bet - creates files that are fully Autocad compatible if that's important.

For 3d, I haven't found any software packages that are not horribly clunky or quirky that dont cost a fortune!

 

[AwDeOh]

Can your OSX version use Wine Skin to run SketchUp? I had it running perfectly fine in Ubuntu using the linux Wine.

Also you should be able to get whatever free version of SketchUp you like through torrent websites, you can even get the Google versions prior to Trimble taking over.

 

[OfArtAndArsenal]

2d or 3d?

Was looking for 3d, but if I can't find anything I may give draftsight a shot, thanks!

Can your OSX version use Wine Skin to run SketchUp? I had it running perfectly fine in Ubuntu using the linux Wine.

Um. What?

Also you should be able to get whatever free version of SketchUp you like through torrent websites, you can even get the Google versions prior to Trimble taking over.

I'll look into that. Honestly I forgot it used to be google. I thought something was different when I was looking at it this time....


Thanks fellas!

 

[AwDeOh]

Wine Skin is a sorta like an emulator (like you'd use to play old SEGA/Nintendo games on your PC), it lets you run Windows software on OSX. That's how a lot of people play PC games on their Mac. I'm guessing that if you can't find a version of SketchUp that'll work natively with your OSX version, that'd be your best option. I'm guessing there are probably other compatibility layer programs out there, Wine is the only one I'm familiar with because I run linux on some of my computers.

Wineskin: play your favorite Windows games on Mac OS X without needing Microsoft Windows | Wineskin, Play your favorite Windows games on Mac OS X without needing Microsoft Windows

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wine_(software)

Also, Wine = Linux, Wineskin = Mac OSX

Lemme know if you need a hand tracking down a particular version dude.

 

[Peffel84]

Rhinoceros 4.0!!

real nice and easy to use!

 

[OfArtAndArsenal]

@Awdeoh: Gotcha. Thought it might be something like that. I've never messed with emulators on my Mac. Honestly my computer tech skills are mediocre at best. I knew a lot more in college when I spent most of time on my computer anyway, these days I'm so behind the current technology scene. Thanks for the suggestions though, man. I'll let you know if I can't scare up a usable version.


@Peffel: I'll check that out too, thanks!

 

[muffinbutton]

I just got emachineshop. I've only used it for 2D but I'm pretty sure it does 3D as well. It works really nicely and you can import fretboard mock ups from fretfind2D into it.

 

[ElRay]

... emachineshop ...

Nice, but Windows only.

Ray

 

[OfArtAndArsenal]

^ F...

 

[muffinbutton]

Nice, but Windows only.

Ray

shit. sorry.

 

[ElRay]

I've looked into this and I've grabbed, but not really used:

• DraftSight
• CADintosh
• AutoDesk Inventor Fusion
• AutoCAD WS

I also had a beta of PunchCAD's ViaCAD and I liked that, but I haven't looked at CAD software for about a year.

Ray

 

[morgdav]

You might try Moment of Inspiration (MoI, 3D modeling for designers and artists).

 

[AwDeOh]

I just got emachineshop. I've only used it for 2D but I'm pretty sure it does 3D as well. It works really nicely and you can import fretboard mock ups from fretfind2D into it.

Checking it out now. I feel dumb that I didn't know about this before, the idea of firing off orders to a CNC company direct from the modelling software is awesome!

 

[muffinbutton]

Haha. Glad I could help someone.

 

[ElRay]

Checking it out now. I feel dumb that I didn't know about this before, the idea of firing off orders to a CNC company direct from the modelling software is awesome!

That is the cool aspect and I keep it in the back of my head. It may make me install BootCamp yet.

Ray

 

[psikoT]

Try Blender, it's free:

 

[AwDeOh]

^ Wow.. just wow.

I'm guessing Blender lets you use rulers and everything so you can plan out the fine details?

 

[psikoT]

^ Wow.. just wow.

I'm guessing Blender lets you use rulers and everything so you can plan out the fine details?

I never use rulers in 3D, but yes, most 3d programs let you work at almost microscopic levels... the faster approach in this case would be importing a 2D drawing in Adobe Illustrator or DWG format and start modeling over the 2D plan, but you also can start drawing in 3D from scratch.

I've suggested Blender because it's free and very powerful, and there are plenty of tutorials out there... I can't see a better option IMHO.

 

[psikoT]

More pics, Blender rocks!