hey, my name is mike king and i,m looking for more information on how auto-cad is being used in the industry. I grew up around surfing, my dad is a old school long boarder from Rincon(Dave King). I am from Ventura,Ca. and now living in Oregon trying to get stoked on surfing all over.I’m taking a computer class and have to do a report on how computers are used in what intrest me, I chose the surfing industry. please e-mail me at
Hi Shane Tried to mail this to youbut got returned Go to this link. http://www.viser.net/~anthwind/Software___CAD/software___cad.html There are 1 or 2 programs that you can download as well there is a very interesting demo program that you can play with called Shape3d which is for the CNC shaping machines. I personally use Auto CAD LT it helps me visualize the board before it is shaped and I can print accurate templates from it saving me time and money. Hope this helps a bit. There is also a bit of history in the Swaylocks archives. Some guys praising computer designed boards and some guys against it. Have a read. Cheers
grant-thanks for the link. that software is pretty cool. i downloaded it and started tweakin a custom shape in no time! thanks for the info.
Hi Grant, l am learning autocad 2000 and have a bit of knowledge with 3d drawings, can you give me a bit of insight on how you draw your boards, are they in 3d? l can draw them 2d easy enough but 3d is a bit of a mind warp. KR
Hi KR Sorry mate mine are also 2D. I have spoken to the companies drauftsman he saya it is quite a challenge as the curve is constantly changing. I will ask him the how toos on this matter and maybe get a hyperlink to post here. Cheers
Another link. Got this from the surfer mag design forum ther is a disscusion going on at the moment http://www.allaboutsurf.com/0311/articles/kkl/index.php Cheers
In the last year I just switched over from Autocad to Inventor R5. Inventor is much better at "lofting’ than Autocad. That it, it wil extrapolate the compound curves of a board once certain "constraints’ are defined on the board template.
We don’t use AutoCad. We use MasterCam. AutoCad is geared towards the design side. Where as MasterCam is geared towards the machine control side (The accuracey is much tighter in MasterCam. We cut injection custom injection mold detail for the Red X and Soft Surfboard fin shapes we make as well as wax combs and leash ends. Cad/Cam programs in general have made it possible to create many of the things we take for granted today. It has only been ten years since these types of programs have become within reach of the small and medium sized machine shops.
To quote the Autocad manual, "The Autocad surface modeller defines faceted surfaces using a polygonal mesh. Because the faces of the mesh are planar, the mesh can only approximate curved surfaces. With Mechanical Desktop(R), you can create true curved surfaces. " Basically, you need to avoid Civil Engineering derived CAD software, and get a proper Mechanical Engineering CAD package. Mechanical Desktop is Autocad’s mechanical engineering CAD software equivalent. I suggest you may want to evaluate “Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire” if you really want to do proper modelling and drafting. Good CAD software is not expensive anymore. See the site provided below - for pricing. The main site is www.ptc.com http://www.proestudent.com