FAQ |
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General CADD LinksHere
are some Generic \ General CADD Links. I have grouped them into subject \ support areas for ease of use. The Links should take you directly to the subject page. However Web Masters have a tendency to improve their sites on a regular basis, so if you find a link that is broken please let me know.
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Click on thelogo to Link |
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Home Page |
The first place to look for Technical Support has got to be the
General Cadd Web Site or Alternatively email. support@generalcadd.com The Logo takes you
to the General CADD Home Page The Home Page has
links to:- Command list
Page, Screen images, General
CADD business plan, General CADD Forum |
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Discussion Forum |
General CADD Discussion Forum A very active forum
with curently (Pre GCP launch August 2002) just over 250
registered users. The forum is split
into the following discussion areas:- Company
Announcements, User General Feedback, Discussion of Macro Language and
Macros, Wish List, Operating System Discussions, Printer – Plotter
User to User Discussions, Manufacturing Application Discussions, 3rd
Party Applications, Open Conversation Forum, Bug Reports, How to use this
Forum, Recommendations to General CADD |
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Generic CADD
discussion group: wwd.cirs.com/gcaddforum |
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Power Users Support Sites |
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CaddVillage is the latest in a Trilogy of 6 websites (Just Like the Hitch Hikers Guide and Star Wars ) that started in 1996 with CIRS.Com (Construction Industry Resource Service). In 1997, when Autodesk discontinued support for Generic Cadd, Genericcadd.com.was created. With the introduction of Genericcadd.com they started supporting and selling CADD related products, and in 1998 they added Visualcadd.com. In 1999 a web store CaddVillage was added to sell Visual Cadd 3.0. CaddVillage was created to provide products and support to the worldwide CADD community via the internet. |
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Reviews |
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A review / commentary on the development
of General CADD Pro. By Noel H.
Browning. If you were a
Generic CADD User you would have heard of Noel, he is responsible in no small
part for helping to keep Generic CADD users afloat and working, and I feel if
not for him and the numerous web sites he created, we would not be
seeing General Cadd rise from the ashes of Generic Cadd. |
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Inside General CADD Pro is the new e-book by Ralph Grabowski for those wishing to learn how to employ General CADD Pro. A dozen beta chapters and appendices are available now as free downloads in PDF format. Additional chapters are posted as Ralph complete them, at a rate of about one a week. This e-book is based on the popular Learn Generic CADD 6.0 in a Day book, originally published by WordWare Publishing (Plano TX). Availability Inside General CADD Pro is expected to be completed by September, 2002. The chapters available now are in beta format, and distributed as shareware. When the book is complete, it will be available for US$25 in locked PDF format, with Chapter 1 and Appendix A avaialable as free downloads. |
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Operating Systems |
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Running
General CADD on Linux under WINE (Windows emmulation): http://pfrostie.freeservers.com/cad-tastrafy/wine.page3.html |
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Generic CADD Support Sites |
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GenericCadd.Com A Cadvillage Website This site is
dedicated to preserving the technology of Generic CADD for all Users and
Developers of the program. Encouraging the organisation of a formal not-for-profit
Generic CADD Society |
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Connect
Generic CADD with CalComp plotters: http://www.calgraphinc.com/ |
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Export
Generic CADD drawings as PDF files: |
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Noel Browning's
CADD Cottage A Cadvillage Website Visit the Cottage for: The Dust Jacket,
Drafting Guide, Grumblings and Generic CADD Fonts |
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The History of
Generic CADD |
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The History of Generic CADD as Seen by Lew Merrick A very interestinig
read from a man with a self confessed “rather scewed view of Generic CADD” |
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Potted History of Generic CADD with the suggestion that you try Visual CADD. Well this would appear to be the UK and
European main dealers web site |
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TanCADEM: http://www.tancadem.com/default.htm |
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Visual CADD Support Sites |
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TriTools
Partners ( The current owners of Visual CADD ) offer a 30-day demo of Visual
CADD 4.0.3 This link takes you to the Demo Page, the one on the left takes you to the Home Page. |
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VisualCadd.com from the folks that brought you
GenericCadd.com ( then there all
all the other related sites, most that are listed here!) Ties back into the
CaddVillage Site for the purpose of selling Visual CADD around the globe.
Within 2 – 3 Business days (So the site says) |
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Shareware /Freeware |
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CADalog.com is a site has a huge collection of shareware and freeware for you to check out It’s a must visit site. The link takes you to the home page
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The CAD Depot site states on it’s home page, that it’s has the “Best CAD Shareware/Freeware. The link takes you to the home page.
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Best for AutoCAD Blocks |
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Arrows – Miscellaneous North Arrows and Scale Bars, Cars – Domestic and Commercial Vehicles on Plan, Side Front and Rear Doors – on Elevation Landscape – Trees on Elevation & Plan, Trees are drawn at 1m high or diameter, allowing you to scale when you place. Men – Women – Groups – Family – Couples – Children – Sports on Plan and Elevation
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This site has a huge collection of shareware and freeware including lots of blocks for you to check out, It’s a must visit site |
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IMHO this site is just not as good as it use to be. I’m sure the information is still there somewhere but you now have to dig for it
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US Canada Mexico Central / South America
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Thomas Register and Autodesk have partnered to produce and publish Three FREE CD-ROM libraries of CAD drawings and technical data, for users in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Central or South America.
PartSpec contains millions of parts and is an essential tool for Mechanical and Electrical Engineers and Designers.
PlantSpec contains CAD drawings of parts and technical information for use by Plant Designers, Engineers, and Facilities Management.
CADBlocks provides drawings and technical data for thousands of building products from top manufacturers, for Architects of Facilities Engineers
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UK & European
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In the UK manufactures have been providing free blocks for some years now. Originally via the RIBA service RIBACAD , then the manufacturers provided them themselves.
This link takes you to a Links Page dedicated to manufactures who provide free blocks.
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Spanish |
Spanish FREE BLOCKS http://www.bibliocad.com Courtesy Claude
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Italian French English |
Italian, French, FREE BLOCKS English http://space.tin.it/edicola/lwcon Courtesy Claude
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French |
French, English FREE BLOCKS http://acadplus.free.fr Courtesy Claude
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Hatch Patterns |
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Charles Sweeney of Scotland has created 64 freeware hatch patterns for you to enjoy. If you want some serious stone and timber Hatch Patterns Charles currently sells 39 of them for $25 or $17.
They are well worth the minimal cost. His site is worth visiting for the freeware alone. All he asks in return is that you link to his site so others can find and download his freeware ( and I suspect see his shareware !).
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I was looking at Hatch Patterns at the request of my Architectural users. I’ve downloaded a number for various sources, the freeware and software will make it to my download pages.
Coming Soon, Freeware and shareware hatch patterns with reviews and example files.
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Learning Curve – Strengthening your knowledge of AutoCAD commands
There is a tutorial called Customize AutoCAD crosshatch patterns Hatch a plan by understanding how to create custom patterns. by Bill Fane
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Lisp Routines |
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Cadalot has found useful freeware AutoLISP routines from various sources on the internet and added them to his site.
Command Line Routines, Drawing Routines, Edition Routines, Block Routines and Layer Routines.
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Raster to Vector |
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Scan2Cad by Softcover International Ltd. In England. Professional vectorisation for around £83 ($149 approx). IMHO It handles larger A0 scans above 400 dpi better than WinTopo.
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WinTopo Pro is a low cost Raster to Vector conversion program, but you can also download its baby sister that’s Freeware. Worth trying but IMHO the free version is not as good as Scan2CAD.
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RasterVect Software were established in 1997. Their Web Page states “RasterVect is a professional tools for converting raster images into vector format.”
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MapScan combines several components into one package, graphics tolls for editing & cleaning raster & vector maps, OCR engine for extracting text labels, line vectorization. Distributed Free of Charge to UNFPA-Supported programmes, government agencies and academic institutions.
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VECTORY will convert raster images of large scale drawings up to A0 @ 600dpi, into DXF or DGN vector format. Vectory also provides a DWF drawing format. A demo can be downloaded from the web site.
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CAD Manager \ CAD Standards |
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CAD Standards or the search for the Holy Grail – CAD Standards are a great concept; many have tried to produce the definitive standard.
Having produced your standards you then have to try and get your users to embrace and adopt them !.
The Best Tip I can give you is build your standards into your template and the customisation of your General CADD environment. Make General CADD- EasyCAD or LazyCAD and you might (just might) make it happen. (Build it and they will come !!)
Here are some great resources that I’ve called on….. I hope they help you
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You will find the Cad Manager Column Archive using this link. Lots of good advise from the dynamic duo Mark Middlebrook, & Michael Daken.
In the column the Dynamic Duo discuss strategies for setting CAD standards, finding and keeping good workers, and other topics related to managing a CAD group. There are too many articles to list them all here but those under the CAD Standards heading include:-
CAD Standards: Develop & Document On-Line CAD Manuals The Nitty Gritty Details Should You Adopt the AIA CAD Layer Guidelines? Improve Drawing Exchange Drawing Exchange Revisited.
A must visit area if you are a budding CAD Manager.
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Architectural Standards for AutoCAD
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Electronic Magazines |
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TenLinks.com One of the premiere magazines for the CAD professional. Dealing in the main with AutoCAD, it does however review other CAD software and hardware. There are some great tutorials and articles on this site.
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Cadalyst Magazine On-Line:
One of the premiere magazines for the CAD professional. Dealing in the main with AutoCAD, it does however review other CAD software and hardware. There are some great tutorials and articles on this site.
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CADENCE Magazine On-Line:
Another great magazines for new and power users alike. Dealing mainly with AutoCAD. It also reviews other CAD software and hardware
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CADinfo.Net
An On-Line Magazine with a CAD Reference section with Software, Hardware and Shareware catalogue, User Groups
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CADUser Magazine On-Line
Read CADUser Magazine, the CAD software integration magazine for AutoCAD, Solidworks, Solidedge, Microstation, TurboCAD, Intellicad, Helix, Microcadam etc.
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Cadserver – On Line Magazine
This site has links with MCAD and CADdesk and has News, Features, Reviews, Event Coverage, Careers, Search Tips and Advertisements
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UpFront.ezine – Electronic newsletter for all CAD users
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AEC Vision The Online Magazine for Building Design Technology
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Tips ‘n’ Tricks |
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3rd Party Developers |
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Other Useful Links |
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This Link will take you to a free download for a hp-gl import filter for Microsoft Office. You can then print your drawings to file in a HP7475, 758x Series, 759x Series format. And then load them straight into word. This keeps a high quality for things like arc’s etc. It should be noted that the hp-gl filter was not shipped with Word 97 or later versions of office.
http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q196/5/06.asp
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Wotsit's Format is the complete programmer's resource on the net. This site contains file format information on hundreds of different file types and all sorts of other useful programming information; algorithms, source code, specifications, etc. including different versions of DWG and DGF format.
The search engine on thissite is the simplest way to get to any information that you are looking for.
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IntelliCAD 2001Now Available
CADopia is the home of IntelliCAD, the AutoCAD Clone.
The Standard Edition is FREE to students and for non- commercial users. Commercial users can purchase for $ 129
The Professional Edition cost between $ 189 and $ 249 depending upon if you download or purchase with printed manuals etc.
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Volo View Express 2 Now Available
This Link takes you to the Free Autodesk – DWG, DXF, DWF Viewer Download Page. The download is available in English, French, German and Spanish.
You will need to provide your Name, E-mail address and Country for marketing purposes before downloading.
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The OpenDWG Alliance is an association of CAD customers and vendors committed to promoting Autodesk AutoCAD's DWG drawing file format as an open, industry-standard format for the exchange of CAD drawings.
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All Site Logo’s and images are © by the rightful owners, and I thank them all for allowing me to use them here.
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Last Update 15th August 2002 |
© 2002 cadalot.co.uk |