Free 2D cad program

[Evan]

I found a new freeware 2D CAD program today. So far it seems to be one of the easiest to use I have found. I haven't tried all the functions yet but it seems to work the way I want at first try. Nearly all other CAD software I have used just pisses me off. This one actually does what I expect. It's fairly basic and does have at least one bug in the auto dimensioning system. It is designed for metric and if set for inches it dimensions everything in decimal feet, like 1.327 ft. Fortunately it is simple to label the dimensions yourself.

See here for PowerDraw:

http://www.tekhnelogos.com/downloadEn.html

A few tips:

Set the options>Map scale to 1 for same scale as drawn.

Set the Page Layout to "T" for 8.5x11

Set the Ruler System to "Witworth" (sic) for inches.

It will import and export DXF from the import/export selections on the file menu.

[cybor462]

Evan,, I have a hard time believing that you have a problem with something technical. Now me yes I have a hard time finding the door knob at times but I did download it and will try it as I have been wanting a cad package that I can play with.

Thanks for the link. I am sure others will try it as well.

[Evan]

I often have problems with other peoples software. I have written a lot myself and if other software imposes restrictions that I don't like or doesn't work they way I expect I get POed.

[scott96088]

Thanks Evan

Nice little cad program.
Works a lot like the one I learned on a few years back.

Scott

[Evan]

There is a semi-workaround for the auto dimensioning bug. Set the scale factor to 12 and although it will still label the dimensions as feet they will be correct for inches.

If you are handy with a hex editor you can search the binary for the four occurrences of the ascii string 32 66 74 and change it to 32 69 6e and it will label the dimensions as "in" instead of "ft".