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  1. #1
    dudz's Avatar
    Lives in Dunedin, New Zealand. Last Activity: 06-02-2023 Has been a member for 9-10 years. Has a total post count of 275. Received thanks 2 times, giving thanks to others 69 times.
    This must have been asked before....but doesnt come up on search.

    Does there exist an affordable Cad pen, to create cad drawings freehand ?.
    I remember in the days of the commodore 64 PC, we had light pens that worked by drawing straight onto the pc/tv screen (before LCD)
    3 axis CNC/router / Alu profile frame....25mm Alu Cutting bed X=500mm Y=300mm Z=110mm.....Supported 25mm X rails ....Supported 20mm Y rails....Supported 20mm Z rails.....2.2kw Chinese WC spindle..... CSLAB CSMIO/IP-M 4-axis Ethernet Motion Controller....M542 Drivers..SY60STH86-3008BF Motors...running....Mach3 / Cambam / Emachineshop.

  2. #2
    yes you can get graphics tablets. They are ok for artists, not sure how they work with CAD packages.
    https://emvioeng.com
    Machine tools and 3D printing supplies. Expanding constantly.

  3. #3
    Calcomp make CAD based tablets. I imported one from America for CAD but I was a big waste of time and money to me, that said my one was used and I did not get it working. Not through lack of trying!

  4. #4
    dudz's Avatar
    Lives in Dunedin, New Zealand. Last Activity: 06-02-2023 Has been a member for 9-10 years. Has a total post count of 275. Received thanks 2 times, giving thanks to others 69 times.
    Ok. I was thinking more of without a tablet. Maybe a mouse like this for moving over a plan. If I trace the outline of an awkward part onto paper, then I could possibly use this mouse to trace and then upload it. Then apply any details after.

    http://www.amazon.co.uk/367/dp/B0020ZK6MU/ref=sr_1_25?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1447078177&sr= 1-25&keywords=cad+mouse



    Last edited by dudz; 09-11-2015 at 03:15 PM.
    3 axis CNC/router / Alu profile frame....25mm Alu Cutting bed X=500mm Y=300mm Z=110mm.....Supported 25mm X rails ....Supported 20mm Y rails....Supported 20mm Z rails.....2.2kw Chinese WC spindle..... CSLAB CSMIO/IP-M 4-axis Ethernet Motion Controller....M542 Drivers..SY60STH86-3008BF Motors...running....Mach3 / Cambam / Emachineshop.

  5. #5
    Neale's Avatar
    Lives in Plymouth, United Kingdom. Last Activity: 21 Hours Ago Has been a member for 9-10 years. Has a total post count of 1,725. Received thanks 295 times, giving thanks to others 11 times.
    Looks to me as if that mouse is designed to be used with a Wacom tablet, not as a normal mouse. Could be wrong but needs checking?

    I needed to make a cutout in a piece of wood to mount an irregular shape piece of pottery tile. I used my scanner to get a bitmap image and then used a trace feature in a CAD package to end up with a DXF. The scanner output needed scaling (it came out as something like 97% of the original) but once I'd tweaked it, it worked very well. Just a thought - it all depends on exactly what you are trying to do.

    Packages like Fusion360 and OnShape do make drawing easier than with a more traditional package like TurboCAD. You "sketch" shapes like rectangles and circles, then snap them together, add corner fillets, then dimensions, and you can pretty quickly end up with quite complex shape, all fully dimensioned and with the ability to edit very easily. I remember light pens and the like from dedicated graphics workstations from what seems like long ago now, but on the whole I would rather use a mouse and a good CAD application.

  6. #6
    well you can get digitisers but they are mucho expensive, see here. http://www.logicgroup.com/LogicTrace...FeVz2wodc7sDug

  7. #7
    I bought a Wacom[cost 12 quid from the local paper] to do the shading in a logo I was painting on something, it worked pretty well but my lack of artisticness showed. Since I have the tablet I have seen posts about using them for CAD, not that I have tried. I think people use slightly larger and newer ones than mine. Mine just has the two buttons on the pen, but I gather some have a menu area on them. With the Wacom I could draw lines far better than I could with a mouse, and I could vary the line width if I wanted.
    I get shapes like manifold flanges into the pc by tracing them on white paper with a fine pen and after scanning them I draw over the TIF in cad. I did try the livetrace option in illustrator, I found it slower.

  8. #8
    I looked into the same thing a while back as I wanted to get an RC plane plan and put it on a surface and trace over the outlines etc with the mouse/puck. I remember back in the late 80's early 90's being at uni and using a tablet and puck for cad....on a Commadore 64. There are tablets out there but as been said their blinking expensive!
    Neil...

    Build log...here

  9. #9
    dudz's Avatar
    Lives in Dunedin, New Zealand. Last Activity: 06-02-2023 Has been a member for 9-10 years. Has a total post count of 275. Received thanks 2 times, giving thanks to others 69 times.
    Maybe I will wait until all the existing technology inc 3d scanners come down in price......maybe 5 years from now
    3 axis CNC/router / Alu profile frame....25mm Alu Cutting bed X=500mm Y=300mm Z=110mm.....Supported 25mm X rails ....Supported 20mm Y rails....Supported 20mm Z rails.....2.2kw Chinese WC spindle..... CSLAB CSMIO/IP-M 4-axis Ethernet Motion Controller....M542 Drivers..SY60STH86-3008BF Motors...running....Mach3 / Cambam / Emachineshop.

  10. #10
    Quote Originally Posted by dudz View Post
    Maybe I will wait until all the existing technology inc 3d scanners come down in price......maybe 5 years from now
    Or you could scan or photograph it, resize the image appropriately, then import the image into a CAD program, from there it's quite quick to create an accurate drawing,

    - Nick

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