Newbie - Altering designs?

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mardybum
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Newbie - Altering designs?

Post by mardybum »

Hi guys and girls,

Bare with me, I’m new to CAD/CNC but have used a Plasma Cutter freehand on many projects.

I’ve downloaded a few designs from here that have been kindly shared, which I’ve sent to a local company for cutting as I don’t have the kit at home, currently...

Anyway, what I’m looking for is advice on altering designs that I’ve purchased or downloaded to suit my intended use etc. Most of the designs available are 90% perfect some want slots adding so they can be welded easier but most are in Imperial measurements, which is workable until the items are clamps and stops which I hope to use on my matrix table.

Being in the U.K. the matrix table is 16mm holes at 50mm pitch, now 5/8” is 15.8mm, so I could team the holes out that little bit after assembly. But sadly 2” is 50.8mm, which will put the holes out of alignment quite considerably.

Question is, using basic CAD software, such as FreeCAD, how difficult is it to alter positions and measurements?

I’m open to other software suggestions too.

Thanks in advance,
Steve
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WyoGreen
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Re: Newbie - Altering designs?

Post by WyoGreen »

It's normally pretty easy to change sizes and positions. I've never used FreeCAD, so I can't tell you how to do it in FreeCAD. You may have to explode the drawing to break apart the parts so you can select and change them individually.
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motoguy
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Re: Newbie - Altering designs?

Post by motoguy »

You can also look into Inkscape for a free, popular solution.
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steel 35
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Re: Newbie - Altering designs?

Post by steel 35 »

It appears Freecad has the array!
If you enter one hole, Spacing, rows & columns, it should do a precise layout for you.
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Larry83301
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Re: Newbie - Altering designs?

Post by Larry83301 »

mardybum wrote: Tue May 21, 2019 3:52 pm Hi guys and girls,

Bare with me, I’m new to CAD/CNC but have used a Plasma Cutter freehand on many projects.



Anyway, what I’m looking for is advice on altering designs that I’ve purchased or downloaded to suit my intended use etc. Most of the designs available are 90% perfect some want slots adding so they can be welded easier but most are in Imperial measurements, which is workable until the items are clamps and stops which I hope to use on my matrix table.

Being in the U.K. the matrix table is 16mm holes at 50mm pitch, now 5/8” is 15.8mm, so I could team the holes out that little bit after assembly. But sadly 2” is 50.8mm, which will put the holes out of alignment quite considerably.

Question is, using basic CAD software, such as FreeCAD, how difficult is it to alter positions and measurements?

I’m open to other software suggestions too.

Thanks in advance,
Steve
Use the scaling function on whatever CAD program you are using. Just measure any piece of your drawing then use " dimension you really want divided by dimension you have" Like this- you want 50mm and you have 50.8mm, just divide the 50/50.8 and your CAD program will shrink the selected part to the size you want. If you need the whole file changed be sure you select the whole file first.


Larry
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