P.S. Re "book recommendations." Once the number of software books passes
six or seven feet of shelf space, I really feel one should just load the
program and click away. If it's not friendly enough to let you get started,
the learning curve is too long and life is too short. (Scan the manual's
intro and index to get an idea of what you should be able to do. Use the
help files and error messages to find out why you can't.)

Roger

http://home.earthlink.net/~derbyrm

"Roger Derby" wrote in message
nk.net...
Good answer, Tim.

I messed with and developed CAD systems from 1965 thru 1998, but I
couldn't come up with a recommendation. These days I've reverted to the
2-D drawing techniques I learned in high school and use Corel Draw to
implement them. (Tell it to work at 12" = 1' 0" and do your scaling in the
print routine.)

Like most tools, it needs to fit YOUR hand. I got a copy of Evolution
Computing's "Easy CAD" with some piece of computer hardware I bought and I
loved it. These guys program my way -- minimal memory use and really fast
algorithms. I went thru the upgrades for a while and even bought their
"Fast CAD" which is 3D and includes all the bells and whistles. However,
I kept switching between it and Corel's Draw and that wiped out my
dexterity with either Both have good interfaces, but they are different.
http://www.fastcad.com/n-products.shtml

While Turbo CAD is low cost, I've never made it work for me. The "Man
Machine Interface" is as alien to me as that conjured up by DEC's database
designers. Wombats :-( (Yes, I bought the tutorial CDs, but ... )

For boat design, Greg Carlson's "Hulls" is worth every penny (it's free).
No, no. Sorry, Greg. It's a good program and it does the job within the
stated limitations. http://www.carlsondesign.com/#Fun_Shareware It is
limited to six chines, and it has no error messages -- when you screw up,
it stops, but the interface is reasonable and the results are good. I
used it to lay out the strakes for the Chebacco I'm building, but it took
two passes because I needed seven chines for the six strakes. (The "wide
sheer" pass got the garboard strake and adjacents. The "wide garboard"
got the sheer strake and adjacents. The strakes in the middle matched to
better than my ability to cut plywood.)

Roger

http://home.earthlink.net/~derbyrm

"Tim W" wrote in message
...

"chipster" wrote in message
nk.net...
I could use some advice from those of you with experience using
free or low-cost "beginner" CAD software suitable for designing
& drawing small boats.
I've hand-drawn plans in the past and have absolutely no experience
using
CAD or any other aid but my current project is bending my brain.
I've found some shareware through Google, but have no idea which of the
offerings is suitable.
I 'll need some start-up education, too, so a book suggestion or two
would
also be appreciated.

Worth being a bit clearer about exactly what you want to acheive with the
CAD program.

If you want to produce plans on paper in 2D that is fairly
straightforward.
If you want to model 3d visualisations from pencil or 2d drawings that is
not too hard when you get the hang of it but quite time consuming.
If you want to do your primary design work in 3d and then use that data
to
make templates, drawings, etc that is pretty hard.
If you want the CAD software to do calculations for you that can be
highly
technical and require a lot of learning.

Actually if you are talking low-cost/free software you can't do the more
advanced stuff anyway, so here are my recommendations:
TurboCAD for 2d draughting - any version from V4 onwards will do a good
job.
Not too hard to learn. There may be a free version. I find it very clumsy
for 3d work. Autocad compatible.
Sketchup for 3d visualisations. Delightfully easy to use, but as the name
implies it is for representational drawing, an architects 3d sketching
tool,
not an engineerig aid.

HTH

Tim W