ReMark Posted September 17, 2015 Share Posted September 17, 2015 While you and I may think it is counterproductive to be producing a drawing off of a PDF there are others here who do that as a normal course of business and I'm certain they have their reasons. I think with a little effort on your part you could put this "list" together yourself and you do not necessarily have to know the names of all the CAD programs before commencing to assemble the information. You still haven't provided us with the name of any CAD program being used by one of your customers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobDraw Posted September 17, 2015 Share Posted September 17, 2015 The list you are asking for wouldn't really have any value for you, if the people using it don't know what you are talking about, which, unfortunately, is usually the case. Unless those users are familiar with your needs, it is unreasonable to expect them to provide usable files for you. Even if they have an idea of what you need, their output will probably be less than desirable and, at worst, unusable. Also, if you had a list, which BTW, would cover just about everything that most companies are using, it would not be of use to you unless you knew the proper procedure for making the files suitable for you from those programs. That leads me to my suggestion for you. Again, find out what they are using. Then figure out what you need to do to make those files usable for you with little or no work by the parties sending you the files. That will make you more valuable to the client. If you are getting paid by the sources of these files, there has to be some sort of agreement that states the requirements of the data that they send to you. If you are only receiving PDFs and need to manually recreate the CAD, there should be an upcharge for that compared to getting a file that can be put into your workflow with relative ease. You've got to realize that, even if you get .dwgs or .dwfs, they more than likely will not fit your standards and will require some processing on your part. Making files usable for my company's needs used to be a pretty big part of my job. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zach571 Posted September 17, 2015 Author Share Posted September 17, 2015 Again, I work for a small company and I am the entire CAD dept. The people I replaced, for example, drew individual lines to create a center line or hidden line in AutoCAD. We should charge for the time to convert their files but half of our customers either crudely create a print (so they are not very familiar with their CAD program or the fact that many can export different file types) for us or they send in the part and I reverse engineer it. Because of this the mentality is that we convert all drawings over to our own format, including our own tolerances. Absolutely retarded on two counts. One being because then the guys on the floor could read the prints (how about training them?) and second being that by changing their tolerances (usually tightening them) we are creating more work and charging more for the part and probably losing a few jobs along the way. The ones that do have an engineering dept and can provide a CAD file do so when requested and hasn't been an issue. Solidworks was the only one so far that I received and was told what program it was. 2 minutes on google and I had a link to explain how to export as a DXF. and forwarded to the customer. I also found that if I had the full version of AutoCAD I would have been able to view/convert the file myself in. The file I received worked great and did save me time, but ultimately I think I just need to keep one thing in mind, I get paid by the hour and the fact that no one questions the amount of time I spend on a part/project. I'm just very frustrated doing work on things that have already been done! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ROBP Posted September 17, 2015 Share Posted September 17, 2015 Again, I work for a small company and I am the entire CAD dept. The people I replaced, for example, drew individual lines to create a center line or hidden line in AutoCAD. We should charge for the time to convert their files but half of our customers either crudely create a print (so they are not very familiar with their CAD program or the fact that many can export different file types) for us or they send in the part and I reverse engineer it. Because of this the mentality is that we convert all drawings over to our own format, including our own tolerances. Absolutely retarded on two counts. One being because then the guys on the floor could read the prints (how about training them?) and second being that by changing their tolerances (usually tightening them) we are creating more work and charging more for the part and probably losing a few jobs along the way. The ones that do have an engineering dept and can provide a CAD file do so when requested and hasn't been an issue. Solidworks was the only one so far that I received and was told what program it was. 2 minutes on google and I had a link to explain how to export as a DXF. and forwarded to the customer. I also found that if I had the full version of AutoCAD I would have been able to view/convert the file myself in. The file I received worked great and did save me time, but ultimately I think I just need to keep one thing in mind, I get paid by the hour and the fact that no one questions the amount of time I spend on a part/project. I'm just very frustrated doing work on things that have already been done! Individual lines for both hidden and center lines i doubt it unless they exploded all of them and deleted the linetype before closing and or saving. Any other lines in the drawing that are in brocken parts? I know that a graitec package does it when inserted into cad lines dimensions are all in bits and pieces. Eighter that or the cad file was generated with a pdf underlay and lines where drawn over it . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zach571 Posted September 17, 2015 Author Share Posted September 17, 2015 Individual lines for both hidden and center lines i doubt it unless they exploded all of them and deleted the linetype before closing and or saving.Any other lines in the drawing that are in brocken parts? I know that a graitec package does it when inserted into cad lines dimensions are all in bits and pieces. Eighter that or the cad file was generated with a pdf underlay and lines where drawn over it . These drawings were created back in the early 2000's, not generated from a pdf, by (from what I was told) a guy that was a draftsman for years, pencil and paper where you indeed drew individual lines. Alot of those drawings are a mess and looks like trim and object snaps also were not part of his knowledge. The CAD fellows after him, learned from him and I see all the same mistakes were passed down. Along the way someone did figure out how to change the line type though. That is the mentality of this whole place though, very old school. Zach571 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ReMark Posted September 17, 2015 Share Posted September 17, 2015 (edited) I'm curious. Who handles calls from existing and new clients and why aren't they asking up front what program was used to create the drawing they want to send over? Some CAD programs can directly open DWG and DXF files while others may have to import/export them. Unfortunately all CAD programs are not alike. A few programs that can view, edit and create DWG/DXF files are: Nanocad Sketchup Babcad Zwcad IntelliCAD TurboCAD ProeCAD Bricscad DesignCAD 3D Max QCAD DoubleCAD XT CorelCAD Edited September 17, 2015 by ReMark Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ROBP Posted September 17, 2015 Share Posted September 17, 2015 These drawings were created back in the early 2000's, not generated from a pdf, by (from what I was told) a guy that was a draftsman for years, pencil and paper where you indeed drew individual lines. Alot of those drawings are a mess and looks like trim and object snaps also were not part of his knowledge. The CAD fellows after him, learned from him and I see all the same mistakes were passed down. Along the way someone did figure out how to change the line type though. That is the mentality of this whole place though, very old school. Zach571 Old school cute therefore you have no choice but to invest a little time and do them one by one to clean them up a bit when they are needed in the shop with their respective linetypes and tranfered to each preset layers etc. Good luck Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zach571 Posted September 17, 2015 Author Share Posted September 17, 2015 Customer service (2 people) or the sales team (4 people) are the ones receiving the information. I have been here for almost 2 years and constantly ask each of them if there is a CAD file available when they bring me a pdf (which is everytime) and also tell them very specifically to ALWAYS request a .DWG or .DXF, even if the print received was drawn on a napkin!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ReMark Posted September 17, 2015 Share Posted September 17, 2015 Somehow you have to insert yourself into the call lineup so you can speak directly to the customer OR send an email to all six people and tell them before they get off the phone with the client to transfer the call to your phone because you have a couple of questions that need to be asked. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ROBP Posted September 17, 2015 Share Posted September 17, 2015 No dwg no production but if client does not supply you end up drawing the planning for production anyway Either way there will be eng involved if not the questions will arise or the time spent producing will be double no counting the miss a wasted materials that company will end paying anyway. Rule of thumb if it does not fit in cad 99% of chances shop will waste material and time.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobDraw Posted September 17, 2015 Share Posted September 17, 2015 I'm just very frustrated doing work on things that have already been done! You are not alone. I once drew floor plans for the Empire State Building from scanned copies of copies of the original plans because no one could find them in CAD. After I was done, we finally received them. They were crap compared to what I had done. In a small shop with limited resources, I wouldn't count on things changing much for you, unless the people you work with change their ways or put you in contact with the clients. You can't rely upon others to get you what you want, if they don't know what they are asking for. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zaphod Posted September 17, 2015 Share Posted September 17, 2015 Even if you get DWG/DXF files from your customer, chances are they may have overwritten dimensions, or drawn to the "looks good on paper" standard of using fractional dimensions, or possibly drawn to some insane scale, I once received a drawing where a 30” line was drawn at 280’. I feel your pain of redoing things that have already been done, but sometimes it’s the nature of the business. If you have to work with old files done as you described, check to see if you have the “OVERKILL” command, it will help them clean up. And at all costs avoid “sketch-up” the 3D that I have received from it is nothing less than a memory clogging crashing nightmare. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevsmith Posted September 17, 2015 Share Posted September 17, 2015 Software with Drawing Dxf Export Option: Solidworks Autodesk Inventor Pro Engineer / Creo Catia Solidedge Siemens NX Microstation All of the systems Remark has highlighted. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dana W Posted September 18, 2015 Share Posted September 18, 2015 If I had a list of all the commonly used CAD programs I wouldn't have asked my question. The majority of the programs listed I have never heard of, makes it hard for me to search for programs I do not even know the names of. Seems a list of CAD programs that export to .DWG and .DXF does not exist, which is all that I was looking for. I receive pdf drawings and when requesting a .DXF/.DWG I often get an "I don't know what that is?". It would save me time if I could paste a list and state "If you are using one of these programs, you can save the file as a .DWG/.DXF." Since they often seem either lazy or lack the knowledge of the program they are using. Seems retarded to me in this day and age to be creating a CAD drawing off of a PDF so often. I work for a small manufacturing company that needs pre heat treat prints for everything. Zach571 See, the thing is, we don't have that list either. What's more we don't do google searches for any old Tom, Dick, or Harry that might ask, nor do we do any other sort of office clerk duties free of charge. Be that as it may, THIS LINK I found that took all of 3 seconds to locate, yielded a pretty comprehensive list, and is yours free of charge, mostly because I am tired of seeing this thread keep popping up. Would you like some coffee while I'm up? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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