Jump to content

ProjectGuitar.com CAD plans and the .DXF format


ProjectGuitar.com

Recommended Posts

All of our CAD plans are available for download are in the DXF format. This is an industry-standard vector format very similar to Autodesk's DWG but provides almost universal compatibility and is able to be opened in almost all CAD packages.

The simplest way to open a DXF file is using Autodesk's own free online AutoCAD 360 cloud application at https://www.autocad360.com/

After a quick signup you can upload DXFs (plus a variety of other formats) to your account in order to view and manipulate them online, share them with other people or work from drawings across different devices. AutoCAD 360 is also available as an app for iOS and Android devices, which is immensely useful in the workshop when you need to extract a specific measurement from a drawing! AutoCAD 360 currently possesses limited output capabilities, meaning it is not easy to print out drawings at 1:1 scale.

Free CAD software is available from many developers, eg. QCad, LibreCAD, FreeCAD. Inexpensive commercial software such as TurboCAD Designer (this is what I work in and a bargain for $40) offer wider feature sets and are often more friendly to use. TurboCAD is also available as a trial download, so by all means give it a test drive....useful even if you are only wanting to print out a drawing for a project!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 years later...

A word of slight warning in case any of you want to try BobCad.  Its a professional level CAD software that is designed for machine shops, but if you buy it, BobCad will hound you incessantly with promo emails, and call you incessantly by numerous sales people. 

Personally, I found QCAD to be so intuitive, that I self-learned it in one weekend, in order to send huge sheets of SST for laser cutting.  The dxf format has never given me any issues when I send dxf files out for waterjet, laser, and CNC machining, as I do quite a bit of exotic fabricating of composites, glass, SST, plastics, etc.  All for fifty bucks download from Ribbonsoft.  I'm sure TurboCad is just as easy, yet there has not been a drawing I cannot do yet - it has all the features one would want for 2D cad.  

When I need to laser cut my fingerboards, I used the StewMac fret position calculator, input the measurments into QCAD, then cut a template on my laser, and it lines up perfectly against a Strat neck.  Tons of uses for luthiery.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 year later...

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...