Krash Kendall, question about G-code and CAD

I don't think you will have a problem if it is saved as a DXF file. As far as CAM is concerned, I'm using Mastercam Ver:X which has built in convertor for DXF, parasolid, autodesk, you name it. Our design department works in Solidworks - we haven't use Autocad for quite some time as our needs increased.

I use Vectorworks & some Solidworks for 3D. In each case, when a newer version is installed, there are backwards compatability issues, forcing all saves in older versions for each file format.

Yes. any good CAM platform will read Acad DXF or DWG files. Gibbs CAM and Mastercam run about 8-10 grand for level 1 with a few options, so it is mandatory that they at least read Acad.

Dan, do you use for article diagrams, or side projects or something?

My oldest brother -a registered CE- saved himself from retiring many years ago by investing the original AutoCAD and all the plotters, etc because Arthritis was forcing him to hang up his blue pencils. When he finally did semi-retire (only drawing a few commercial projects per year) he "took on" teaching AutoCAD at some Junior College in the Phoenix area.

He's no longer teaching the class; but still consults on a lot of jobs in Central AZ. Since the last version of AutoCAD before '06 came out, he'd been having troubles with prelims being sent to him - couldn't get all the DXF macros to work on his older version, and vice-versa. He ended up building a P4 machine - trashing his old P2 box- and I bought him WinXP (I get a killer corporate discount through my company's partnership with Microsoft) so he could upgrade (He gets a killer "educator discount" from whomever markets AutoCAD) to the latest version; which has turned out to be AC '06.

I don't understand all the details, but yeah; the latest couple of versions of AutoCAD are not entirely backwards compatible with the older versions.

This is something that I've always been interested in learning. How would someone with no experience with Autocad get started? Is there some freeware out there that I could down load and start playing with or would I have to buy some expensive bundle to get started?

Acad stopped support for versions below ACAD R2000 last year I believe, so ACAD R2005 & 2006 will not save below R2000.

65Mistress, If you wish to get started in ACAD, the best and legal way is to get the most recent version of ACAD LT. It runs about $800 dollars, but if you have a student ID, and a college bookstore that carries it you can ususally get a student version for about $150. I know there are many cheap or freeware drawing programs out there, but if you want to learn ACAD you need ACAD.

In the long run, the best way to learn it is to take classes at a community college.

I forgot about Acad LT (Autocad Light). I used that for a couple years.