QCAD - getting started guides.

[Len Cattley]

Thanks Adrian I thought you were under stress lol, I will give you a knudge if you need one
Len

 

[SteveO]

Just to add my support for the series to continue – I'm really enjoying the difference between what I use now and a proper CAD package – takes me back to uni!

 

[Len Cattley]

Hi Adrian, I think you might need a nudge

Len

 

[adrian]

Hi Adrian, I think you might need a nudge

You do right to keep giving me a nudge. It's still on the to-do list and not forgotten about. I've just written up a short article for the S7 newsletter about etching the new side frames for the tender. I've made reference to the QCAD tutorials in the article so I do need to finish off the sequence to the etched artwork. This weekend is fully booked - camping and cycling in the peak district. Hopefully get something moving next week or by the weekend. Feel free to give me nudge again!

 

[Len Cattley]

Ok will do, hope it doesn't rain for you up there, it's a beautiful place, long time since I was up there.

Len

 

[Len Cattley]

Hi Adrian it would be nice to finish this off.

Len

 

[adrian]

Thanks for your patience - I found a little time to produce the next "episode". This covers building up some of the detailing to get the shape of the frame from a rectangle to closer to the drawing.

 

[Ressaldar]

Hi Adrian,

Your post above timed at 07.56 is the last one that I am picking up - I find it hard to believe that nobody has posted anything else today, is there a problem?

cheers

Mike

 

[JimG]

Hi Adrian,

Your post above timed at 07.56 is the last one that I am picking up - I find it hard to believe that nobody has posted anything else today, is there a problem?

I was beginning to think that as well.

Jim.

 

[Rob Pulham]

There was me thinking it was quiet because everyone was at Aylesbury show......

 

[Len Cattley]

Off to York and Cleckheaton tomorrow hope Adrian puts the rest of the instructions up as I hope to start some cad soon.

Len

 

[jamiepage]

Adrian,
A quick thank you for these tutorials. Herewith a couple of footplate panels which arrived from the water jet cutters today, after I managed to send them something they could recognise.
Entirely due to your lessons, so thank you very much.
Curved bits next,
Yours
Jamie

 

[Len Cattley]

Back from the NRM with some plans ordered but not with the ones I want as they were not saved
Will have to work with the Wild Swan books I have, but some measurements are not on the plans, so how do I work out what scale to use?

 

[Steve Cook]

Can you not derive the scale from known dimensions Len?
Things like wheelbase, buffer centre height over rail, wheel diameters etc will give good approximations within the constraints of drawn line thicknesses.
Steve

 

[Len Cattley]

I can do that, will need a calculater to help me. I will try and do what Geoff Holt says in his book, do you know of any software that cleans up scans Steve?

Len

 

[Steve Cook]

Sorry Len, no idea on that front.
Steve

 

[JimG]

I can do that, will need a calculater to help me. I will try and do what Geoff Holt says in his book, do you know of any software that cleans up scans Steve?

Len,

I haven't found a piece of software that makes a decent job of generating line drawings from scans. By "decent" I mean something that produces a result that doesn't require hours of cleaning and tarting up. I now tend to use Draftsight and import an image of the picture or drawing to place in the background, and draw over it with the Draftsight facilities. You don't have to worry about scaling immediately, but just try to get a good copy from the image then using the scaling feature of Draftsight with a dimension of known length to re-scale the whole drawing.

Jim.

 

[Len Cattley]

Hi Jim unfortunately I don't have Draftsight, will Q-cad do the same as I have that?

Len

 

[JimG]

Hi Jim unfortunately I don't have Draftsight, will Q-cad do the same as I have that?

Len,

I don't know - I've never used QCAD. Adrian will have to jump in on this question. I use Draftsight since I found it easiest to work with background images. You can also re-scale the images quite easily in Draftsight if you wish. I normally use AutoCAD LT, of which Draftsight is a pretty good clone, but handling images in my version of LT is much more difficult.

I don't wish to move you off QCAD if it doesn't handle images easily, but Draftsight is a free download.

Jim.

 

[adrian]

Hi Jim unfortunately I don't have Draftsight, will Q-cad do the same as I have that?

Len

Yes QCAD can import images files, I'd create a new layer specifically for the drawing and then on the lefthand side there is a button with what appears to be a photo. This is labelled "insert bitmap" but it will read several different image formats.



There are controls to set the height, width and rotation of the imported drawing.

This is the scan of the tender drawing imported into QCAD.



I hope this helps.