Need Recommendation on 2D CAD Software

[BodyBagger]

Hello all,
For some reason my last request was deleted. But here goes again. A customer of mine is looking for a very simple and easy to use 2D CAD software for creating and exporting DXF sketches to his plasma table and CNC mill. Can someone recommend something other than Autocad that they have personally used and found to be user friendly.

Thanks,
BB

 

[dgowans]

I've not used it, but Solid Edge offers their 2D package for free (or at least did). The price point might just outweigh any concerns over ease of use, etc.

http://www.plm.automation.siemens.com/en_us/products/velocity/solidedge/free2d/index.shtml

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

BluePrintNow from

http://labs.solidworks.com/Products/Product.aspx?name=blueprintnow

http://www.freecad.com/

http://www.freebyte.com/cad/cad.htm

 

[TheTick]

Is BobCAD still out there?

 

[4zengineering]

I dont' know if they still offer it, but Mastercam used to have a version with no CAM called "DRAFT". Scratch that, Looks like it's been renamed "Design LT"

http://www.mastercam.com/LT/DesignLT.pdf

Autodesk also has a program called Autosketch which is like autocad LT LT (that's right, 2 LTs).

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/index?id=2753027&siteID=123112

It's been a couple of years sinced I used either, but I seem to remember being able to export DXFs out of both.

 

[m1mason]

what dgowans mentions is right. The free 2D Solid Edge offers is really the best IMHO. I tried it and it felt like an actual CAD system. It's also backed by one of the biggest companies in the business.

CAD Blog

http://mtm-cadtutorials.blogspot.com/

Profile

http://www.linkedin.com/in/mtmcad

 

[007bondy]

hi
Download google sketchup i think that exports to dxf?
Cheers