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Preserve the value of existing data with the best available transition tools, including help documentation for AutoCAD users, the ability to drag 2D drawings into.
I drew some templates up yesterday on SketchUp, with the intention of printing them out & sticking them to MDF to cut them out. For some reason though no matter what I did, I couldn't get SketchUp to accurately print out at 1:1 scale.
I searched the 'net, and found various posts about this issue, but gave up in the end. Whilst searching, I found a drawing program I'd not heard of before, called. It operates on the cartesian co-ordinate system, so it's more like 'proper' CAD programs in that respect, but it's purely 2D.
Printing to exact scale is a doddle with this program! If you want to produce accurate physical templates from a CAD drawing, this is a great program. Just thought I'd share. It's completely free to download and use, but activation is via e-mail so you do need to give a valid e-mail address.
I was just about to make my own templates but I'm glad I searched FOG first. Draftsight is a good 2D CAD but there is another one from Siemens who makes SolidEdge ST6 If you are a student or teacher you can download a copy for non-commercial use of SolidEdge ST6 here I believe the commercial licenses for SolidEdge are a little more affordable than SolidWorks and easier to obtain.
I started out last year using SolidWorks but a few months ago I tried SolidEdge ST5 and really liked the interface (synchronous) and a lot of it made more sense to me than the more traditional history based technique used with solidworks. You can use either method in SolidEdge.