Anybody here using CAD?

[Globalti]

This is how it used to be done... I've been given some engineering drawings on sized linen by Foster, Yates and Thom, a Blackburn company who built mill engines. This was a vertical Corliss engine they built for the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway in 1903, possibly to power generators. The bloke who gave me them rescued them when the drawing office was demolished and 20 tons of bundles were burned.

 

[Slick]

I get to play around with it at work but it's very basic stuff I produce and it still takes me forever. Like everything else in those days, real draughtsmanship.

 

[wonderloaf]

I use 3D & 2D CAD all day everyday, started out on the drawing board 40 odd years ago. Creating 2D drawings these days is a breeze but they all come out looking the same, so when you see drawings like this you can't help to admire the expertise, craftsmanship and individualism that goes into them. I'm quite impressed by the two ellipses drawn in the cross section of the wheel spoke, always found them difficult to draw so usually resorted to the 'draughtsman's ellipse' or a plastic template!

One thing I'm not sorry to see the back of is feet and inches (especially fractional inches), metric is so much easier!

 

[wisdom]

My mum. Used to do stuff like that for the cotton mills.used a cows tooth to smooth over where the pins on the inked compasses pierced the linen.
All her pens were ink between two nibs which adjusted to get the relevant line thickness.

 

[Vapin' Joe]

The first year of my engineering apprenticeship was spent in the firm's drawing office, under the tuition of a brilliant draughtsman. I was only supposed to be there for three months but he reckoned I had a flair for it and I really enjoyed the work so he kept me there. He wanted me to get my apprenticeship changed from mechanical engineer to draughtsman because he thought I could do well, but like a total prat I made what was probably the biggest career mistake of my life and decided to get my hands dirty on the shop floor instead.

Although I completed the apprenticeship and did ok the job wasn't for me so I quit and never went back to engineering. If only I had taken up the offer of changing...

 

[MikeG]

Yeah. I'm an architect, so I'm using Draftsight all the time. I love the old stuff I used to do on the drawing board, and I wished I'd started collecting architectural drawings 30 years ago.

 

[JhnBssll]

Very cool I started my engineering career as a CAD draughtsman. I still use 3D CAD regularly but rarely create drawings anymore, although I would guess there were a few hundred in the archive with my initials on We use Creo 4

 

[wisdom]

Are there any cad apps suitable for drawing plans for simple metalwork.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

No but I did technical drawing at school years ago. Got my certificate somewhere. The old T square and drawing board.

 

[Pumpkin the robot]

Part of my toolmaker apprenticeship involved working in the drawing office, I think I still have the drawings we did of cams. Now everything is cad. I use Solid works, rhino, powershape, autocad etc etc.
We still have some drawings from 1940 that we use to make spare parts for old machines that are no longer in production.

 

[Reynard]

Mmmmm, I've done my fair share of 2 and 3-D draughting, both by hand and on CAD and other modelling and simulation packages in my time as an Automotive / Strength of Materials engineer and postgrad researcher. By hand was always my preferred method, but you can't do stress or impact analyses on a paper drawing...

I still have a complete set of drawings for a mid-90s Indycar / Champcar chassis lurking in a cupboard somewhere...

 

[sheddy]

Are there any cad apps suitable for drawing plans for simple metalwork.

The usual process is to create a 3D model, which will automatically generate your 2D views for the drawing.

Maybe try some free stuff ? https://www.lifewire.com/top-free-cad-packages-485330

 

[wisdom]

The usual process is to create a 3D model, which will automatically generate your 2D views for the drawing.

Maybe try some free stuff ? https://www.lifewire.com/top-free-cad-packages-485330

Brill thanks.

 

[joshs]

This is how it used to be done... I've been given some engineering drawings on sized linen by Foster, Yates and Thom, a Blackburn company who built mill engines. This was a vertical Corliss engine they built for the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway in 1903, possibly to power generators. The bloke who gave me them rescued them when the drawing office was demolished and 20 tons of bundles were burned.

View attachment 451586 View attachment 451587

hi where are these drawings from, we've been given a load from Brighton from the Y&T archive and we have them at Leigh Spinners Mill in Leigh im photograghing them at present. i know the fellow that saved them, from oakmount mill. i am part of the group restoring the Yates & Thom engine at leigh spinners

 

[Andy in Germany]

We learned to make drawings for our my Cabinet Makers apprenticeship, and the college spent a lot of time and money trying to teach us to achieve the same on computers, but I just don't think the right way. I never really managed anything more than a box, which sometimes was even the correct size.

I was the only one in my year to design my final project on paper, and I've never used CAD since. This has the added advantage that I can make a drawing wherever I am instead of worrying about needing a computer with the correct programme...