Official Luthiers Forum!

Does anybody know of a free viewer for a .cad file?

I need to open a file and get dimensions off of it. This is a file extension used by some of the low end softdesk products. All I can seem to find are .dwf viewers and I have one of those.

Thanks.

_________________
Brock Poling
Columbus, Ohio
http://www.polingguitars.com

Brock,
I did a little looking and it seems that .CAD files tie back to a software package called Softdesk Drafix. From what I read there isn't a conversion utility but if you can find someone with that software they should be able to open the drawing and then save it in a differnt format (ie .DXF). It seems many others have been faced with this same issue.

Good luck!

_________________
Brad
Avon, OH

Yeah, this is a rosette I made a while back. I just need the dimensions off of it but I lost the software I created it with...   

Serves me right for using a crappy cad package I guess.

_________________
Brock Poling
Columbus, Ohio
http://www.polingguitars.com

Autodesk bought out Drafix years ago, which became Quickcad in the Autodesk line and should be able to read in the .cad files (I think that's the Quickcad native format from what I can gather). There's a Windows 98 version of Quickcad on eBay for $1 (plus $12 shipping) if that's worth it. May not be worth it if you just need the one drawing.

My old boss (who currently lives a few doors down) used to use Drafix before he switched to Autocad in the mid-90s, I just emailed him to see if he still had it loaded up on his PC, as I think he still has some old house plans still in that file format. I don't even know if Drafix runs on XP (don't see why it wouldn't). I'll let you know if I hear back from him.

_________________
______________________________
Jonathan Kendall, Siloam Springs AR

Brock, I can borrow the Drafix disks from him and see if I can load it up on my machine. Let me know if you'd like me to try that.

_________________
______________________________
Jonathan Kendall, Siloam Springs AR

yeah, that would be great... thanks.

_________________
Brock Poling
Columbus, Ohio
http://www.polingguitars.com

I have AutoCad, if you want , email it to me here at work, I'll save it in another format, send it back to you. I'll be here at my desk until 1:00 PM. Clinton

crich@constructionone.com

614.961.1136

Hi Brock,

I've been searching for a while and have not found anything yet that states that it is a viewer for a .cad file. (same goes for anything stating that it would convert a .cad file to .dxf or .dwg)

You might try downloading a trial version of AutoCAD from Autodesk.com or maybe even trying the trial version of IntelliCAD which can be downloaded at cadopia.com (the software was free about 8 years ago, but I guess they've improved their software enough that they can charge for it as a substitute for AutoCAD now)

Other than that, I've tried to find you an alternative Free CAD software program to use, but so far I haven't found any that I like. I did find one called "Power Draw" on Download.com, but as of right now I don't really like the package. (There doesn't seem to be a way to specify a diameter or a line length).

I'll keep my eyes open and let you know if I find anything.

Hopefully someone else will be able to help you that can get their hands of the SoftDesk package.

_________________
Thanks,
Blain

http://www.ullrichguitar.com

"89.67% of all statistics are made up on the spot."

I've got the disks for Drafix, Brock, send me the file if you want me to still take a crack at converting it. I'll have to load it on my laptop since that's the only PC I have with a floppy drive. :) I PM'd you my email address earlier today.

Autocad won't open or import .cad files, at least 2002 or 2007 version won't.

_________________
______________________________
Jonathan Kendall, Siloam Springs AR

FWIW, A good selection of CAD software can be found at: http://www.freebyte.com/cad/cad.htm

Alibre Design is one that I tried out for a few minutes and liked. It is a free version of a package that they sell and it allows you to create 3D parts, assemblies, as well as 2D drawings.

It or any of the other packages might help if you no longer have your other CAD software available.

Also if you visit the freebyte page listed above, and scroll down to "CAD management systems" there's a package called "Columbus" that claims to let you view almost any CAD format. It may not work for .cad extensions, but may also be worth a try.

I hope you have luck accessing that rosette that you created, but if not, maybe you could re-create another in another package.

Good luck!

_________________
Thanks,
Blain

http://www.ullrichguitar.com

"89.67% of all statistics are made up on the spot."