Guest julienb Posted March 7, 2008 Report Share Posted March 7, 2008 I'm looking for a tool for windowsI began to think about the design (internal & external) of my future controller.I'd like to know if you would have a tool for me in order to help me to design...I mean, a Visio-like tool but more specifical, more midibox-oriented!does it exist ?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cimo Posted March 7, 2008 Report Share Posted March 7, 2008 i had to google to find out what visio is... (drop it)i would advise Inkscape, more and more people are using it, very user friendly and it s got all you need for panel and inside design (2D), it served me well and it is FREE !and it s free multiplatform OSX, Windows and Linux so we can all exchange project seamlessly.simone Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nILS Posted March 7, 2008 Report Share Posted March 7, 2008 Seconded. You won't find a program like "midiBOX Designer 3.5". You could write one though ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jidis Posted March 7, 2008 Report Share Posted March 7, 2008 I've gotten really comfortable with a CAD app called Canvas (was by Deneba Systems, now it may be by ACDSee).I use a really old one though (v.3.5), which is limited to Win98SE & pre OSX Mac. It's tight as crap though. I've done PCB and panel stuff in it.GeorgePS- I've learned that you still won't know exactly what the hardware version will look like until it's born, but it can give you an idea, and the dimensioning will be right at least. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Screaming_Rabbit Posted March 8, 2008 Report Share Posted March 8, 2008 i had to google to find out what visio is... (drop it)I have to intervene. I just checked the two mentioned tools above... that's not really what I call CAD. Visio might not come close to AutoCAD, but at least I can call it a CAD-tool.I come quite good along with Visio and when you have some training, you're quick as hell.Greets, Roger Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jidis Posted March 8, 2008 Report Share Posted March 8, 2008 Canvas has turned more Photshop'y over the years, but when I got it, it was inexpensive competition for ClarisCAD and I guess AutoCAD. It does all the dimensioning and measurement stuff too:Still wish I was as comfortable with something more current. :-[ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sasha Posted March 8, 2008 Report Share Posted March 8, 2008 I don`t believe you need special tool for designing midiboxes. They are usually square shaped, flat, and they are constructed out of flat 2D sheets of metal, acrylic... So as designing the box, in most cases, takes 2D graphics any vector program like Corel Draw, Illustrator, Freehand... will do. Using vector based software is is important as every machine can use those files for manufacturing. My friend designed his box in Photoshop, and he brought the files to me like "ready" so I can send it to the cutters. I have to redraw whole design in Corel to be really useful.If you wanna do some complex constructions and assembly, and if it will not be only for only one or two boxes, than you you better get yourself some CAD software and your life will be easier. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wilba Posted March 8, 2008 Report Share Posted March 8, 2008 I use Zoner Draw 5.http://www.zoner.com/I probably will change to something else one day, as I'm not 100% happy with everything it does, but then I like it a lot more than Illustrator because of the way it handles object position/size. Take a look at the screenshot, from one dialog (upper left), I can change the absolute or relative position of things, as well as view what the current position is... handy for then transferring into Front Panel Designer or PCB design software. It can easily do things like creating multiple copies (i.e. an array of buttons/LEDs at given spacings). Also, any place you can type in a dimension/coordinate, you can use any units, handy for working primarily in inches but specifying sizes of components in mm... or drawing up an LCD footprint using mm dimensions from a datasheet. The grid is nice, and you can move things in grid increments using the arrow keys, which is how I mostly move stuff around so that it stays aligned to the grid (unfortunately moving things with the mouse will align the top-left corner of an object to the grid, which is not what you want most of the time).Things like grouping things on multiple layers means I can have a LED made up of a drill crosshair on a "Drill" layer and the LED picture (red circle) on a "LEDs" layer and toggle the visibility of each layer to produce different displays. One limitation though is the "printed page" co-ordinates with origin at top-left instead of bottom-left... not too big a deal though, since you can move the origin in FPD. Another limitation is the exporting, some things don't get exported nicely, so if you really need something that exports perfectly to DXF for laser cutting or something, this will require some tinkering afterwards in AutoCAD... i.e. I think curves come out as stepped line segments instead of circle and arc primitives. It does print nicely, and you can print across multiple A4 pages with registration marks etc. to easily cut and align the pages (if you're doing 19" rack panels, this is a very handy feature for printing mock-ups).I give it a recommended rating ;) because it's not too much CAD like AutoCAD but more CAD than Illustrator... it's very easy to make a sketch of what you want to build, but a little limited in what you can do with it afterwards... since my workflow usually involves using FPD for the panels, I have to manually create the panel in FPD anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stryd_one Posted March 8, 2008 Report Share Posted March 8, 2008 I think you guys are talking about something different to the OP - he asked about visio, which is a flowchart tool, and thus I'm not so sure he's talking about panel/case design, which you all are...As for a flowcharting app, visio is as good as it gets. I use it extensively for my designs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wilba Posted March 8, 2008 Report Share Posted March 8, 2008 Mmmm... Inkscape rocks.... I think I'm switching ;D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cimo Posted March 8, 2008 Report Share Posted March 8, 2008 Mmmm... Inkscape rocks.... I think I'm switching Grin.. come home dude Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest julienb Posted March 9, 2008 Report Share Posted March 9, 2008 thanks a lot for all of you :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sebiiksbcs Posted March 28, 2008 Report Share Posted March 28, 2008 When looking at that Zoner sceenshot, it really seems to be similar to Inkscape. I just switched inkscape's background to black :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wilba Posted March 28, 2008 Report Share Posted March 28, 2008 FYI I'm still using Zoner Draw 5.Inkscape doesn't have the Transformations tool window, which I just cannot live without for this stuff (I do a lot of typing in dimensions, coordinates, widths, heights, and in multiple dimensions too). Maybe I should suggest this feature to the Inkscape developers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sebiiksbcs Posted March 28, 2008 Report Share Posted March 28, 2008 What do you mean by transformations? Move, Rotate, Scale, Clone, Matrix and such? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wilba Posted March 28, 2008 Report Share Posted March 28, 2008 See the screenshot I posted before. That little window in the top right. It not only shows/edits the dimensions of everything, those 9 little squares let you see/edit the coordinates of the corners/midpoints and even resize things while that corner/midpoint stays fixed. It's what makes this app a good compromise between artwork/graphical stuff and CAD stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sebiiksbcs Posted March 28, 2008 Report Share Posted March 28, 2008 Yeah i see. Inkscape actually has similar functions, but what annoys me is that I cannot set center origin. Every parts' coordinates are at the point of their bottom left corners. That makes me switch between inches and mm, then calculate their coordinates, then switch back to inches to align them... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ganchan Posted April 6, 2008 Report Share Posted April 6, 2008 https://bugs.launchpad.net/inkscape/+bug/170347/+viewstatushttp://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/Feature_Requests Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dstamand Posted July 16, 2008 Report Share Posted July 16, 2008 For those who don't know, Solid Edge 2D Drafting is free.http://www.plm.automation.siemens.com/en_us/products/velocity/solidedge/index.shtmlI am using the full 3D package since 1996. I can tell you that this is a very powefull 3D CAD parametric feature solid modeling software for the price.Download here the Free 2D drafting package :http://www.plm.automation.siemens.com/en_us/products/velocity/solidedge/free2d/new_user.shtml Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMS Posted July 16, 2008 Report Share Posted July 16, 2008 i use the pencil tool in gimp (free) for quick sketches.. then i'd use qcad (free) if you don't have access to Autocad to do a drawing with dimensions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stryd_one Posted July 16, 2008 Report Share Posted July 16, 2008 2D Drafting is free.<snip>the full 3D package.... for the price.That's not "free" that's "crippleware" like eagle.... The idea is to suck you into the free version so that when you go to a full-featured package you'll choose theirs because changing apps is difficult. It's not a business model I like to support.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arumblack Posted July 16, 2008 Report Share Posted July 16, 2008 Viso is not just for flowcharts....You can do all kinds of things such as schematics and room layouts, the Pro version has lots of this, not sure about the standard version though. I have it at work and it is good for some things and if you can do MS's VBA you can make it do some amazing things (Which I admit, I am not so good at). However, it is not my prefered tool. though you could use it for front panels it has powerful Arrying features and you can make custom libraries (Called Stencils).Recently I have been using Google Sketchup (not for midibox, but you could I suppose). You would probably have to make a lot of components yourself but there is a large library on the web and anything you make can be used as a component in another Drawing. Sketchup is 3D and does dimensioning for you. It is really easy to learn and quick and powerful. Now you won't get any cnc files out out of it or anything (the not free pro version may have some other options) but I find it great for "Will this fit" scenarios. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stryd_one Posted July 16, 2008 Report Share Posted July 16, 2008 Totally, I use visio like crazy. I'm going to be switching to openoffice soon :)Sketchup was really nice, but again it's crippleware. I came across something similar though, "Wings3D". It's used to create the models for the kicad 3D images which is how I found it, but it does full 3d rendering and exports dxf among other formats... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arumblack Posted July 17, 2008 Report Share Posted July 17, 2008 Does open office have a Visio like program? Ithought it was just a word/excel/access/powerpoint clone?Will have to check out that wings 3d. Already checking into KiCAD. Got anymore free Gems out there? It's hard to believe the free software that people just don't know about. there really is no reason for piracy at all (except laziness and "Everybody else uses it", wich are not valid IMO). Sorry to digress from the topic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stryd_one Posted July 17, 2008 Report Share Posted July 17, 2008 I've got a list as long as my arm, but not all midibox related... should I start another thread?Ooo "Draw" is the one you want... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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