Just for fun - QCAD drawing challenge !!!

[Clive]

Hi Guys
A good way to improve your drawing skills with QCAD is indeed just by drawing.
For those of you who are interested, I have set a challenge as follows - it is of course just for fun, but hopefully it will help you to explore different tools and aspects of QCAD that you may not ordinarily use . This challenge will get you thinking about using construction lines a lot and if you attempt the whole challenge then it will get you thinking about the 'isometric' projection possibilities of QCAD too.
The drawing challenge is of a masonry stonework construction.

Some hints to get you started:
Set up layers
Use construction lines
Rotate Two tool
Isometric projection tool
Isometric View - grid options
Hatch tool

Please feel free to post finished drawings here too and share any tips and tricks that you find along the way, which may help others!

Attached:
1. Part finished drawing dxf - which you will need to complete.

Masonry drawing challenge.dxf

(107.02 KiB) Downloaded 522 times

2. This is what the finished 'Front' view should look like.

Challenge 1.png (10.17 KiB) Viewed 15995 times

3. This is what an 'Isometric' projection of the front view should look like - you will need to finish and use the front view for this.

Isometric challenge.png (11.3 KiB) Viewed 15995 times

Have fun

[Clive]

Okay guys, I posted this little challenge back in July of this year. Did anyone attempt and finish it ?

[Grunt]

Hi Clive.

I've recently downloaded Qcad after trying other drawing software and not being able to get on with them. Qcad certainly meets my needs and is very user friendly. The last time I mucked about with CAD was 15 or so years ago on Auto Cad. So with some trepidation I will rise to your drawing challenge.

I have a couple of questions though.

1. Is there an 'array' option f the central circle of 'bricks' or is it move/ copy?
2. Is it possible to copy from one layer to another, deleting the selected entity from it's original layer?

Thanks in advance.

[Clive]

Grunt, welcome to the forum.

Just picked this up, been busy with festive stuff.

1. Is there an 'array' option f the central circle of 'bricks' or is it move/ copy?
2. Is it possible to copy from one layer to another, deleting the selected entity from it's original layer?

1.The Rotate Two tool is used.
2.Select required layer,use the Move/Copy tool and in the dialog window choose to delete the original or you can use the 'Cut' with reference tool and paste to the new layer.

[lphilpot]

Just saw this and it looked interesting. You've already done all the hard work! A few copies, rotates, mirrors, etc. and the front was complete. Hatching the interior space too longer.

But can the 3D isometric projection be done with the community edition? I was able to do a projection of the front face, but not the side. Do I need to draw the side as viewed edge-on? If there's an option to integrate different faces into an isometric drawing in the CE, I've not found it.

Thanks!

(Edit - After digging a bit further, I'm seeing signs I can manually draw the isometric view, using the proper grid/projection, correct? After all this is a 2D program, not 3D )

[Husky]

Just saw this and it looked interesting. You've already done all the hard work! A few copies, rotates, mirrors, etc. and the front was complete. Hatching the interior space too longer.

Looks like you are already on the right track. Great!

If there's an option to integrate different faces into an isometric drawing in the CE, I've not found it.

Yes, check the option box which pops up when you launch the "Isometric Projection" tool ...

Husky-2017.11.14-01.png (7.26 KiB) Viewed 8158 times

... but that doesn't works on this Masonry example (view from the left!). The given shape requires more manual labor which is again an easier task in Pro. But still not a one button solution!

However - to get a feeling how it works you may try something like this.

Husky-2017.11.14-02.png (13.21 KiB) Viewed 8158 times

This is drawn without a grid.

(Edit - After digging a bit further, I'm seeing signs I can manually draw the isometric view, using the proper grid/projection, correct? After all this is a 2D program, not 3D )

Grid would be one of many different ways to accomplish this task. Please note - this Isometric Feature is just a little help to design a projection. It wasn't the goal to have a "one click" solution. And as you already stated - it is still 2D.

[lphilpot]

So how does this look?

It's not perfect -- I discovered (after I deleted the oblique geometry I would've needed for accuracy) that I hadn't drawn quite all the receding edges of the bricks around the top edge quite as far as I could've... but I wasn't going back and doing the copies all over again! Also, I don't have any edges on the far right-hand side, but neither does Clive's original (from what I can see in the image). Being an oblique drawing, it's not vanishing-point-perspective correct, but that's not the point here, I think.

It was a good exercise in copy, relative polar coordinates, endpoint snap, 2-point lines, trim, etc. Even no larger / complicated than it is, it certainly drove home the point of 3D CAD where 3D CAD is needed!

Thanks for the challenge!

[Husky]

So how does this look?

Well done!

[lphilpot]

Thanks.

[Clive]

Well done Len, I posted this in the summer time, four years ago, time....where on earth does it go - or does it go at all?

[lphilpot]

Thanks - The way I did it (in the CE) was highly repetitive, but that's often characteristic of CAD work anyway, from what I've seen. The repetition, practice and discipline are all worthwhile.

[Husky]

The repetition, practice and discipline are all worthwhile.

I'll second that!

This is a project what I've done with a 2D CAD Program in the eighties. No perspective support at all - just the common CAD tools at that time.

Husky-2017.11.17-01.png (246.47 KiB) Viewed 8083 times

After that I was skilled in that discipline.

Any idea what kind of perspective technic I used ....?

[lphilpot]

Looks like two vanishing points to me...? Must've had lots of construction lines!

In the 80s I was doing graphic design, not CAD. The early 90s and CorelDRAW was about as close as I got... Unless you count the copy of EasyCAD that came with MS-DOS 3.3 and my first PC.

[Husky]

Looks like two vanishing points to me...? Must've had lots of construction lines!

Correct! And yes ...................... a ton of construction lines.

[lphilpot]

What is that, by the way? Looks like some kind of aggregate shaker / sorter, maybe part of mining? Or am way off base?