Novice needs advice on basic drawing and cutlist software.

[stoneaxe]

We make custom doors, with fine wood mullions.
Tiny shop, but well tooled for what we do.
We need a basic CAD program- one that will allow us to draw a door, and generate a cut list. There will be some constants, like the depth of a mortise, and some variables, like door size and mullion pattern.
Right now this is being done on a job by job basis in photoshop , and it is slow.
And I have to generate a hand drawn cutlist anyway.
I know this is a woodworking question, but maybe some of you can point me in the right direction.

 

[memphisjed]

Viacad. The cut list in bom still needs hand edits, about the same as solid works bom. It is easy with cad to finger a cutlist compared to olden days. Click a line and its length is shown.
I think revit has a cut list option-by the time you get to that tier of it you are looking at real money.

 

[EmGo]

We need a basic CAD program- one that will allow us to draw a door, and generate a cut list.

As a tribute to Sandy Livingstone, who was a super nice guy (for a Brit), take a look at Alphacam. When he was there it specialized in woodworking. Maybe different now but doesn't hurt to look.

 

[Mtndew]

Man I need caffeine, I thought that said cultist software.

 

[stoneaxe]

Man I need caffeine, I thought that said cultist software.

You have been here long enough to know there is some truth in that.......

 

[rcoope]

You have been here long enough to know there is some truth in that.......

The main cult around here is not liking MasterCAM but being unable to articulate a clear alternative that isn't more expensive and a bigger organizational disruption. Now if you'll excuse me I'm waiting for a comet to give me a sign to upgrade Soldiworks to 2024 since we're two versions behind.

 

[rcoope]

More seriously we've been able to do some decently clever bespoke things with Solidworks weldments, where we can, for example, use the weldment functionality to design 80/20 extrusion frames with captures panels and the rubber gasket for the panels, and get all the dimensions out in the BOM more or less automatically. It's probably overkill and obviously expensive but then you have an easy to use and very sophisticated platform for lots of other things as well.

 

[stoneaxe]

I need something stupid easy- really.
I want to draw a 3-0 6-8 door, draw the stiles and rails, have a preset mortise depth added to the rail length, and be able to have a cutlist from that. Or a 36 1/2" door by 81" , and have a cutlist.
Most of the programs are so far over what I need it is like the Wright brothers looking at an F18.

 

[SMFKT205SA]

Alibre or ProgeCad are cheap enough to do what you want.

 

[Areo Defense]

Stoneax,
It sounds like you don't need a seat of Solidworks, rather something less expensive. However if you can justify a seat and put it use more often than not, it could definitely do exactly what you need. In between my manufacturing engineer gigs, I had a design engineer position with a company that specialized in high end retail displays for prime brands and also other misc stylized items. One of my projects was to design full vertical/horizontal mullions for six metal framed commercial windows to make them look less commercial lol. The widths and heights varied a bit so in SWX I designed a single mullion using equations to easily alter the size. I must have made a simple assembly at that point because I remember using a table to show all the custom sizes. Paperless prints were created for the router dept to cut them from 6mm komatex or something similar. The window frames must have been steel because I also designed some matching strips, inlaid with flexible adhesive backed mag strips to go in the corners to hold the mullions in place. The mullion and retainer strip models were parametric so everything was tied together, super easy to customize and to kick out new paperless prints.

If you can apply this methodology to other products you manufacture, you can justify a CAD purchase. There are probably CAD products available specifically for woodworking but sorry I cannot recommend anything, I'm just pointing out that you may well be ready to invest in some good software that can make your company money.

The image below shows the mullions. If you look closely at the windows you can see reflections of the edge-lit lights we made. 90% of this room was custom made, even the table tops which were multi-layered to give it depth from frosted top layer to an opaque bottom. We made some cool shit there.

 

[garyhlucas]

I need something stupid easy- really.
I want to draw a 3-0 6-8 door, draw the stiles and rails, have a preset mortise depth added to the rail length, and be able to have a cutlist from that. Or a 36 1/2" door by 81" , and have a cutlist.
Most of the programs are so far over what I need it is like the Wright brothers looking at an F18.

What want is stupid easy. What you NEED is not stupid easy, but will pay quickly. For just 2D take a look at DraftSight. It is very AutoCad like but I actaully prefer it. I only use 2D for an occasional sketch to figure out geometry and to do electrical and layout drawings, otherwise its SolidWorks.