2D for home projects design and 11 yr old ?

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preventec47
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2D for home projects design and 11 yr old ?

Post by preventec47 » Sun Nov 07, 2021 8:50 pm

I am seeking a modern design 2D CAD program to design small woodshop items like dog houses,
chairs and larger projects like backyard decks and shed. I dont need any of the razzle dazzle
graphics or 3D stuff as line drawings with dimensions on printouts would be all that I need.
I have looked over the market of 2D software and many are programs that existed 20 or 25 years
ago with their toolset unchanged. I want a more modern design program with rubber band stretch, push pull and drag items around easily. But 2D only which should eliminate most of the unnecessary complexity. I want to share this with my 11 year old son. I will gladly pay $39 and much more for a working relatively bug free proven version but not multi thousands for commercial software. I have spent an hour perusing the forum and notice many topics have not been updated for 6 or 8 or more years ..... Is QCAD what I need or can someone honestly recommend something else. ?

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andrew
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Re: 2D for home projects design and 11 yr old ?

Post by andrew » Sun Nov 07, 2021 8:55 pm

This is a very open and rather vague question which can probably best be answered by yourself.

I'd recommend to download the free trial version and try to put together a simple drawing:
https://qcad.org/en/download

preventec47
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Re: 2D for home projects design and 11 yr old ?

Post by preventec47 » Sun Nov 07, 2021 9:55 pm

Thank you. When QCAD was created, was it designed to function very similarly to AUTOCAD so as to attract all those who were already trained in AUTOCAD ? I believe Autocad has its roots in very old technologies and cannot change due to the userbase. I want to move and stretch objects rubber band style by dragging on corners etc. Is that QCAD ?

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Husky
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Re: 2D for home projects design and 11 yr old ?

Post by Husky » Sun Nov 07, 2021 11:17 pm

preventec47 wrote:
Sun Nov 07, 2021 8:50 pm
I am seeking a modern design 2D CAD program to design small woodshop items like dog houses,
chairs and larger projects like backyard decks and shed.
QCAD worked for me in similar cases: 900 sq ft deck, Desk, Birdhouse, Lighthouse Garden Art etc etc ....

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... and If I can do that you can do that too. :wink:
preventec47 wrote:
Sun Nov 07, 2021 8:50 pm
I have spent an hour perusing the forum and notice many topics have not been updated for 6 or 8 or more years .....
Well, that depends on the topic. Your initial post was answered by an Admin in 5 minutes .... on a Sunday. :wink:
preventec47 wrote:
Sun Nov 07, 2021 9:55 pm
I want to move and stretch objects rubber band style by dragging on corners etc. Is that QCAD ?
I searched for years to find for me the best 2D CAD program on the marked. With 30+ years CAD experience under my belt, licensed to train professional technical draftsman (trade) .... I know what I have to look for. I tested each software available to me to see how it works. Finally I settled on QCAD and never regret it.

I recommend to download the trial version and test it like crazy. And if you run in a cul-de-sac there is always a forum with people which are happy to help you.
Work smart, not hard: QCad Pro
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andrew
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Re: 2D for home projects design and 11 yr old ?

Post by andrew » Mon Nov 08, 2021 8:17 am

preventec47 wrote:
Sun Nov 07, 2021 9:55 pm
When QCAD was created, was it designed to function very similarly to AUTOCAD so as to attract all those who were already trained in AUTOCAD ?
No. QCAD is an alternative to Autocad for some but not an Autocad clone.
preventec47 wrote:
Sun Nov 07, 2021 9:55 pm
I want to move and stretch objects rubber band style by dragging on corners etc. Is that QCAD ?
Probably not. This actually sounds more like you might be in the market for an illustration type software (Illustrator, Inkscape, CorelDraw, etc.) rather than a full blown CAD software. CAD is all about precision and dragging around a rubber band to more or less the right size and position sounds more like illustration ("it has to look right") than CAD ("it has to be right").

preventec47
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Re: 2D for home projects design and 11 yr old ?

Post by preventec47 » Mon Nov 29, 2021 6:44 pm

I was under the impression that 15 or 20 years ago CAD systems began to incorporate the ease of use features and the User Interface of the drawing programs into their precision CAD systems and used an Architectural design program in 2005 CHIEF ARCHITECT and IRONCAD that did incorporate all those things... the best of both drawing and CAD precision..... I was just hoping that some of that might have filtered down
to some of the lower end CAD systems 15 years later. I am willing to pay for these features if I can find them but not multiple thousands of dollars for a hobbyist. In addition I am told now that many of the drawing packages have become digital and now possess the ability to supply numeric precision equal to CAD. I will give QCAD a try but my mind is frazzled from already trying seven or eight different trial systems. So far I liked DesignCad 2D because it let me stretch objects to defined snap point dimensions so as to fit the pieces of a dog house together etc. The problem is they had no manual for the 2D product and you had to use the 3D manual never knowing whether the function you were reading about worked in the 2D product. Does QCAD have a dedicated 2D user manual for only 2D functions ?

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andrew
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Re: 2D for home projects design and 11 yr old ?

Post by andrew » Mon Nov 29, 2021 8:55 pm

preventec47 wrote:
Mon Nov 29, 2021 6:44 pm
Does QCAD have a dedicated 2D user manual for only 2D functions ?
QCAD is exclusively 2D.

You can find the user reference manual integrated into the software or online at:
https://qcad.org/doc/qcad/latest/reference/en/

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Husky
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Re: 2D for home projects design and 11 yr old ?

Post by Husky » Mon Nov 29, 2021 11:38 pm

preventec47 wrote:
Mon Nov 29, 2021 6:44 pm
I was under the impression that 15 or 20 years ago CAD systems began to incorporate the ease of use features and the User Interface of the drawing programs into their precision CAD systems and used an Architectural design program in 2005 CHIEF ARCHITECT and IRONCAD that did incorporate all those things... the best of both drawing and CAD precision..... I was just hoping that some of that might have filtered down
to some of the lower end CAD systems 15 years later. I am willing to pay for these features if I can find them but not multiple thousands of dollars for a hobbyist. In addition I am told now that many of the drawing packages have become digital and now possess the ability to supply numeric precision equal to CAD.
Many programs did that - and failed miserably! There is not one low cost program out there which is perfect in every aspect what you are asking for unless you pay thousand of dollars. Why? First you need a marked which is asking for "All in one" and that marked doesn't exist. 2. You have to program all those features which have to play flawlessly together - that is a big task to accomplish which cost a lot of money. As a developer why would you invest time and money when obviously the marked not exist ...? A market is still ruled by making money - like it or not.
preventec47 wrote:
Mon Nov 29, 2021 6:44 pm
I will give QCAD a try but my mind is frazzled from already trying seven or eight different trial systems. So far I liked DesignCad 2D because it let me stretch objects to defined snap point dimensions so as to fit the pieces of a dog house together etc.
I wondering that you tested seven or eight different programs and haven't noticed that QCAD Pro has a nice Stretch tool which can be used to manipulate precisely (all snap points etc.) a dog house ...
preventec47 wrote:
Mon Nov 29, 2021 6:44 pm
Does QCAD have a dedicated 2D user manual for only 2D functions ?
As Andrew already mentioned there is a full list of all tools used in QCAD. The integrated Reference Manual.

Additional QCAD comes with a "Status Bar" and a "Command Line" which tells you for each tool, step by step, what kind of next input is expected. On that way you can learn each tool on the fly ...

Additional - there is a QCAD book out there - written by the QCAD developers. It is called "QCAD - An Introduction to Computer-Aided Design". It will give you an excellent insight into the CAD world and also explain step by step most of the implemented tools in QCAD. It could also help with the questions coming from an eleven year old kid ... :lol:

Preview of the book:
https://qcad.org/qcad/book/qcad_book_preview_en.pdf

You can buy it here - I hope you are not disappointed that it doesn't cost thousand of dollars ... :wink:
https://qcad.org/en/online-shop

Additional: The QCAD forum is an excellent resource to find / get help. Don't underestimate that fact!

Whatsoever - I recommend to you to start a project like your dog house. The best way to learn a program is to solve every upcoming drawing problem with the CAD program. That is the fastest and saves way to see if a program fits your needs.

Talking about you are right now tending to buy Design CAD 2D. If that is the program what fits your needs - do it. I personally have no problem with that decisions.
But - here is my offer: Test the trial Design CAD 2D program, find an actual task (dog house?) which you can solve with Design CAD 2D but for some reason you think that QCAD can't solve that problem. Challenge ME with that task and I'll see if QCAD can solved it or not. If QCAD can solve it I'll show you how and you decide what would be the easier way for your needs. Deal?
Work smart, not hard: QCad Pro
Win10/64, QcadPro, QcadCam version: Current.
If a thread is considered as "solved" please change the title of the first post to "[solved] Title..."

spaskalev
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Re: 2D for home projects design and 11 yr old ?

Post by spaskalev » Thu Dec 02, 2021 3:43 pm

I've been using QCAD Pro for drawing various things for more than an year now. The accompanying book is really helpful in both introduction to the concepts of CAD as well as to QCAD itself. I started with no knowledge of CAD and similarly to your ask at first I was looking for a tool that is more like sculpturing and interaction between pieces and less like drawing. QCAD is all about drawing and it is great at it. Watching a video on drafting techniques and the language of lines is also helpful - and once learned it will allow the 11y old to read any set of blueprints :)

For constraint-based modeling in 2D/3D a free option that kinda works is SolveSpace. Its workflow is however way, way more complex than the simple and straightforward 2D drafting that QCAD provides.

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lphilpot
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Re: 2D for home projects design and 11 yr old ?

Post by lphilpot » Thu Dec 02, 2021 4:14 pm

For what it's worth, I'd suggest not discounting the ability of an 11 year old to learn (Q)CAD. :wink:

While a more purely visual approach might appear initially easier, the 'standard' CAD way is (IMO) more just 'different' rather than 'difficult'. Learning it from the outset will provide a great foundation for future growth and development. Once the discipline of accuracy, method and forethought is established, I think it will be far easier to additionally learn more visual workflows than going in the opposite direction: visual, then accurate.

I'm certainly no CAD pro by any means but I was a graphic designer for many years, during the time when computer aided design first showed up in the early / mid 1980s. I took to vector drawing naturally (CorelDRAW), many times with a quasi-CAD approach. But I was the exception among most of my designer friends. They were 'free spirits' :lol: who had to make a specific effort to be accurate. For me, playing with CAD 'scratches' both my creative and disciplined 'itches'.

So my point is, learn discipline first and then get creative: Learn the rules, then break 'em (within reason!). Plus, with the freely-available Community version of QCAD, what's there to lose?
Len
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