Designing basses in CAD

[ChunkyMunky]

Hello, you fine pluckers!

Since reading some of the threads on here, I'm feeling really inspired to build something of my own. I've caught building bug and emphatically so. 

I'm studying an access course in Engineering soon and there's a section of it dedicated to CAD (Computer Aided Design). I was thinking about tinkering with designs and making something of my own with it and potentially getting some bits CNC'd or to use CAD to aid my progress as a complete newbie. As an example, I had the idea of designing a headstock that has the element of all of the basses I've GAS'd hard over the years and combining the 'average' shape of them. A tad uncreative, I know. 

Does (or has, rather) anyone experimented using CAD in conjunction with luthiery at all? 

[Norris]

A good, free introduction to CAD is inkscape. I've used it quite a bit for designing various bits of guitars. 

https://inkscape.org/en/

CAM is a slightly more involved subject, but you can use software to convert your inkscape files into a suitable format and then add the depth information for CNC milling. Not wanting to detract from BC, but ProjectGuitar.com have a forum dedicated to computer aided manufacture that contains a wealth of information 

[ChunkyMunky]

1 hour ago, Norris said:

A good, free introduction to CAD is inkscape. I've used it quite a bit for designing various bits of guitars. 

https://inkscape.org/en/

CAM is a slightly more involved subject, but you can use software to convert your inkscape files into a suitable format and then add the depth information for CNC milling. Not wanting to detract from BC, but ProjectGuitar.com have a forum dedicated to computer aided manufacture that contains a wealth of information 

My word, this is a step up! Thanks, Norris.

[Christine]

I believe Solidworks is about as good as it gets and you can get a student licence for it quite cheaply. It may well be what you use in college once you start. I used to work with a young lad who used it as part of his job and he could build anything out of it. He also used a third party rendering package that was very impressive too but I forget the name, if I remember I'll update with it

edit: Keyshot

[ChunkyMunky]

On 04/07/2018 at 22:48, Christine said:

I believe Solidworks is about as good as it gets and you can get a student licence for it quite cheaply. It may well be what you use in college once you start. I used to work with a young lad who used it as part of his job and he could build anything out of it. He also used a third party rendering package that was very impressive too but I forget the name, if I remember I'll update with it

edit: Keyshot

Thanks, Christine! Much appreciated, I'll have a whirl and indulge in the two. Slowly coming around FreeCAD as it is. 

[Matt P]

I use CAD as a large part of my day job (design engineer) i'd suggest trying to find out which package your course will be using and then getting a copy as soon as you have official student status, i believe that most of the major CAD packages offer free versions for students,  for me it was Autodesk Inventor and mechanical desktop at uni and then the same for my first 8 years in industry, for the last 2 it has been Creo (pro engineer)  all the packages are slowly converging to have the same functionality and a very similar look, it's not that difficult to transition from one package to another (although i do miss one or two of the functions that Inventor had)

you should feel lucky that the CAD software companies have started offering free versions to students, i had to pay £120 for my 3 year student licence and that printed a black text border on every drawing clearly staing that it was a student version and not for commercial use! and as an additional kick in the teeth within 3 months of buying my software the Uni upgraded to a newer version and my copy was already out of date.

i have used CAD for tiny bits of Bass designing but am yet to build anything, mostly i find it useful for calculating positions and angles as everything can be drawn full scale and the package will usually do all the inch to millimeter conversions automatically.

 

Matt

[Woodinblack]

QCAD is quite good for small things, but grinds to a halt for big stuff. I used qcad to design my Fireman that I just finished

Draftsight has a free version that works well

[Matt P]

I should also point out that most CAD packages require a fairly good Graphics card and a healthy amount of RAM, as guide my company workstation has 16Gb of ram and a 2GB Nvidia Quattro graphics card, it's worth checking the recommended spec from the CAD package websites. you might also find that you need to upgrade to a higher level of windows as many of them require a professional or enterprise version. the Laptops that are used at work are about £2.8k each (15" screens and standard screens) the pc I had at Uni was £1400 not including software and that was ok for about 3 years of CAD before it needed upgrading.

 

Matt

[honza992]

I've been down this road before.  I'd like to use some sort of program to do 2D drawings of guitars partly just to help with the design process, and potentially to cut out templates.  

If you already know how to use CAD, this seems to be pretty straightforward.  That is a very big 'if' though.  I even had a couple of lessons to see whether I could pick it up but it was just completely overwhelming.  Vectors, and radius, and centre points and this and that etc etc etc.  I think it would take me months to be able to create even very simple drawings in CAD. 

I compare that with building a website and the differences are amazing.  Using something like Wix, I can create what to me looks like a professional and complex website in seconds.  Wix takes away all the complicated stuff (vectors, radius, centre points, etc etc etc) and just lets me drag and drop. 

Is there really nothing that is as simple as Wix for CAD?  Do I really need to spend £2.8k on a computer and hundreds on software and hours and hours of scratching my head trying to work out how to link up a straight line to a curve?

 

[Norris]

21 hours ago, honza992 said:

Is there really nothing that is as simple as Wix for CAD?  Do I really need to spend £2.8k on a computer and hundreds on software and hours and hours of scratching my head trying to work out how to link up a straight line to a curve?

There's a certain amount of drag and drop of primitive shapes in most CAD packages. However you then need to work out how to manipulate them: stretching, combining and occasionally having to adjust a cusp node.

The Inkscape program I mentioned above is FREE. It runs on pretty much any computer - PCs, macs, linux; and on very modest hardware. My desktop at home is an ancient Windows 7 PC. When you switch it on, go make a cup of coffee while the hamsters get up to speed! Inkscape is still very useable. If you are struggling to work out how to go something, there are loads of online tutorials. 

Obviously if you've not used CAD before, it takes time to get with the lingo, work out the kind of things you can do, and how to do them. If you have a computer, the only cost is your time and patience. When you can weld shapes together, edit nodes, etc. pretty much anything is possible. 

[BigRedX]

23 hours ago, honza992 said:

I've been down this road before.  I'd like to use some sort of program to do 2D drawings of guitars partly just to help with the design process, and potentially to cut out templates. 

If you just want 2D any vector-based Illustration program will be fine. If you are already an Adobe Creative Cloud subscriber, then Illustrator will be included in your package. Otherwise have a look at Affinity Designer which is currently on offer for £33.99

[Owen]

I would love to design a bass and have it CNCd into existence. I would happily pay someone to make it happen.