Learning CAD

Something I'm learning at the moment is CAD. You've heard me mention enough how I want to give back. To enable me to do that, drawings and cut lists will be essential.

I had previously used SketchUp. I didn't go for it this time so I looked at other options. Many claimed to be free. In reality, you hand over your details and if you forget to cancel you start getting charged. Plus, many of those systems are expensive and in my case, using a sledgehammer to crack a nut.

So what did I go for? FreeCAD. What made this an easy decision was the work of Mango Jelly Solutions. The tutorials he provides, for free I might add, are highly professional. It's the kind of quality I would expect to pay for. So I did. There is an option to contribute via Patreon and it was the least I could do.

For a hands on person like me, learning to draw with a computer is not exactly fun. I experienced frustration along the way but that was equal to the sence of achievement when I had completed the first three lessons and produced the drawing shown above.

I'll initially use FeeCAD to produce drawings of our essential shop jigs and fixtures. A shooting board, bench hook and a mallet. Once I have them ready I would really like to hear what you think about them. How do they stack up against other plans you've used and what could be improved. Any plans that support my work for getting people started in the home workshop will be for free.