robbor Posted February 6, 2006 Report Share Posted February 6, 2006 Ok im think about desigining some jig heads and want to be able to compute weight of finished project and have real drawing to give to machineist. Can autocad do this??? Also are there any free autocad downloads? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cadman Posted February 8, 2006 Report Share Posted February 8, 2006 Hey robbor. This is the info I can give you. First of all I have been doing this for 25 years, and the last 8 years with a program called Cadkey and Solidworks. First of all you need a solids package to create the image, which you must then extrude out of a block of metal. This definitely can be done with autocad. Problem is as with all cad packages, you must know how to do this. Normally I can finish a simple mold drawing in 20 to 30 hours. A custom mold say like the ultra spin by Do-It molds can take up to 80 hours, just to get the details right, and I have been doing this a long time. Now you have the machining cost if you are going to put this on a matched pair of aluminum blocks. Unless you are very versed at the cad package, it will take you at least 1 - 2 years to learn all the aspects of it, and be proficient at it. Going this route is very rewarding, however you will put in many hours , including the frustration. If you need more info on this, pm me. Cadman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robbor Posted February 8, 2006 Author Report Share Posted February 8, 2006 a couple of years huh and only a few thousand dollars huh? Never doing anything on drawing a did a quick sketch that is darn good(to me)(no demensions) I was just thinking that in cad if you had dimensions that you could input the weight of lead and the computer would calc the volume and tell the rough weight. oh well. Easier to make a mold with 10 sizes and just use the one that is closest to the weight i want. I can come close to the weight I want because i took a piece of wood and milled a few holes, poured the lead in and then measured and weighed and I also had jigheads to compare. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richoc Posted February 8, 2006 Report Share Posted February 8, 2006 I have done this so so so so many times..... Auto-cadd/proE you name it. It never works right because the lead poured varys so much. Pure lead will not work. Get it close as you can. Design and size is what matter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
