# Inexpensive CAD using Visio for a small project (photos)



## Pete Thornton (Jan 2, 2008)

Way back in the dark ages, when I designed networks, the company gave me Visio to use for the drawings. [It was 1994, and I still have the CD-ROM.] I've been using it for years, but it wouldn't load on my new Vista 64-bit laptop, so I bought the latest version, Visio Professional, for about $350.

If you ever investigated CAD software, you probably learned that AutoCAD has a very long learning curve. I have a copy of the Student edition bought by my son - the full version is over $1K. Mine doesn't have 3D, etc, but I never got may arms around it as I find that Visio can do everything I want.

Visio I found easy to learn, as it was intended for windows and works much like other Microsoft Office software. Microsoft bought Visio a few years ago probably for that reason, and it is now part of the Office product line. If you can cut and paste, re-size an object, use Powerpoint to place objects, and edit text then Visio will not be strange to you. When you get into it, there are lots of great features that make my modelling job very easy. For example, you can set up the page at 1:1 and work on a model or part in exact size, or you can set up the page as (e.g.) 1:20.3 then do all your drawing in feet and inches. You can duplicate parts (like rivets) and align/distribute them.

I don't sell Visio and I have no interest in it other than using it, but as I was doing a small project this afternoon, I figured you folk might appreciate hearing that there is a computer program that can help. 
My new hopper needs some corner brackets. Here's the final product - I needed 16 of these, 8 with 4 rivets and 8 with only 2. I decided to do the rivets by punching from behind, instead of drilling and fitting a rivet.










So let's go back to the beginning... Here's a screen shot of the drawing I did to make the parts.












The page is scaled 1:1. Visio has elements that do the dimensioning for you, and I duplicated the first plate to make 8 of them. I also aligned them about their center, and distributed them equally, adjusting as needed to make it 1.57". [Visio lets you set a dimension as a fraction, e.g. "1 3/4 in" which is neat.]

Then I printed this, cut it out and taped it to some 1/64th brass:










The punch was a nail with the tip filed so it wasn't sharp, and the punch was my small vertical drill. I used a block of nylon to support the brass:










The punching was easy - a firm push on the handle . . 










And I had a nice row of rivets! The printed sheet made it easy to put them in the right place.










Then scissors were all I needed for separating them:









And here's a little pile of corner braces on my workbench.











Last week I tried another experiment. I drew a beam that I was about to cut from styrene, and printed it on a 10 thou Evergreen sheet. It would rub off, of course, but I was able to cut it accurately. (Of course, my printer has a straight-through paper path for this very reason.) 










This is a mess because I decided not to use it - after gluing it to the base!

Finally, I should mention that Visio can output .DX files for AutoCad. I've actually opened one in my AutoCAD program just to check. So I can make drawings of parts and send them to be cut, cast or lasered.


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## Torby (Jan 2, 2008)

If you haven't tried CAD, you don't know what you're missing. I use "Deltacad" http://www.deltacad.com


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## DTI356 (Jan 3, 2008)

Pete,

I'm a VISIOholic....just ask my wife.

I started my working career as a draftsman and got trained on CAD in 1982 on Computervision CADDS4
Went on to CATIA before I left the design world.
Where I am now they gave me Visio to do some diagrams and things.....As I learned on it I began appreciating the graphics and scaling. It's not the best CAD tool but it is easy to learn and because it's vector graphics you can scale the items to any and every size. I had to buy it for home.

Because I'm from a drafting background it seems I have to layout everything I build.

Below is a sample of screen dumps of things I've drawn on Visio.


This is the drawing I made for the door project I cast in resin.











Here's the Railgon drawing I made for my gondola....it's great for laying out decals too!











Here's a GP7 winterization hatch, a spark arrestor, and the pilot rework for my GP38-2












And for my Boss's retirement I even tried my hand at a little artistic work....yes, he owns a Viper











Yes, I really like my Visio........I have AutoCAD at home and I hate it, I never use it......one of my friends worked on AutoCAD for 20 years.....poor guy.


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## lincoln pin (Feb 24, 2009)

I would second that for Delta CAD Fairly easy to learn and use. Powerful tool at a low cost.


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## Mike Reilley (Jan 2, 2008)

VISIOaholic....I like that. I'm one too. I've used VISIO as my sole drawing program since it was first produced...even before Microsoft bought them out. It is the Cadallac...Mercedes....Lexus of 2D drawing programs...that's the good news. The bad news is that it isn't cheap...$259 is a lot of money to spend. But, I'll tell ya, if you like doing drawings of stuff before you build...THIS is the drawing program. It's exceptionally easy to get started with, because it's a drag and drop drawing program. It comes with template files that hold pre-drawn objects that you can just drag onto your drawing page...and resize and turn and stretch. That saves an incredible amount of time and improves the look of the drawings.

I've used VISIO extensively in my personal life...even though I used it first for engineering and program management work when I worked for the Navy. In my personal life, Ive developed MANY drawings for:

a. My layout design...a multi-layered drawing with the track plan, electrical laydown, plumbing, drainage, retaining wall, building location, etc - http://1stclass.mylargescale.com/mi...0GRR-2.pdf


b. GRR building design...which I scaled to full size and printed on an E sized printer plotter - http://1stclass.mylargescale.com/mi...tation.pdf


c. Yard design of my whole yard..showing all plant locations - http://1stclass.mylargescale.com/mi...unnels.jpg

d. Engine bash designs...where I take a photo of the side of a locomotive and add bash layers till I get the effect I'm after - http://1stclass.mylargescale.com/mi...20Bash.pdf


e. A scale card I carry in my wallet - http://1stclass.mylargescale.com/mi...20card.pdf


I could go on and on...and you can see that it will save/print a drawing in pdf format...which makes the drawings easy to move around...but that's just the tip of iceberg. It handles most file formats. 


My last VISIO effort was to design parts for a large bridge I have designed for layout...and use those designs to have parts cut on laser cutter by Bronson-Tate. Talk about easy...make the part drawing...email it to Doug...he quotes you a price...you say yes...and it arrives in a few days. That experience has opened up all kinds of ideas for me to make parts for engine bashes and buildings.


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## Semper Vaporo (Jan 2, 2008)

Visio is one of those "sleeper" programs that is so much more than it was intended or advertised to be. I have used it to do CAD work and liked it very much. 

But now-a-days I use the FREE version of Google SketchUp. And it will do 3-D quite easily. I found it very easy to learn and the drawings can be surface rendered easily (just like painting a box in MS Paint!). Being in 3-D it is nice to be able to rotate the image around to help "understand" the actual shape of what was drawn, rather than trying to visualize it in my head form the usual 3-view Mechanical Drawing. 

Here are three drawings of connecting two cylinder ports (at the bottom) to one steam inlet, using elbows and nipples (foreground), street els (middle), and a custom length of pipe (left most).











You can't do it in this 2-D image, but with the full file, you can rotate that image in any direction to look in the pipes or from any other angle above, below or any angle around the sides.


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## Jack - Freshwater Models (Feb 17, 2008)

CT, 

I have to agree with you about SketchUp. Though I don't use it, it is the best of the cheap or free CAD. I use Rhinoceros4 which has a pretty hefty price tag but if I weren't using this I would opt for SketchUp. I wanted to have .stl file ability. I also use AutoCAD LT which wasn't too bad to learn and is a lot cheaper than full blown AutoCAD. I started with AutoCAD LT and used it for laser cutting but now I use Rhino for everything. CAD is such a useful tool for modeling!!!!!!!! 

Jack


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## stanman (Jan 4, 2008)

I have to admit that I'm a charter member of the VISOholic club. My entire layout was designed on Visio, using a stencil for LGB track that I created.


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## Mr Ron (Sep 23, 2009)

I'm a diehard Autocad© user. I use version 2004. It took me quite some time to master and I'm still learning all there is to know. It is a very powerful CAD program and very expensive. I started using it at work, and when I retired, kept using it for my personal use. All my projects are done in CAD; from trains to home improvement. I didn't know about Visio, but what I am hearing, I would have gone to that instead of Autocad (if I had the choice). One feature I like about Autocad is I can draw my train projects full scale; then change the scale ratio in the dimension style to any scale I wish and the dimensions on the drawing will switch to scale dimensions. I don't know if you have this feature in Visio. Right now, I'm trying to learn how to create blocks.
I'm especially thankful to you for describing the process of making rivets. One of my locomotive projects involves lots and lots of rivets; a model of a DD-1 boxcab electric as used by the Pennsylvania RR. The model is basically made from wood at 1 1/2" to the foot scale. There was no way I could replicate rivets in wood. I can make the rivets on long strips of brass as you have and attach them to the wood model. The model will be powered by an electric motor from a Razor scooter and onboard storage batteries.


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## DTI356 (Jan 3, 2008)

Mike, 

Nice drawings! I too could go on and on about the uses I've found. 

Here's a 1/29 scale that I print and carry with me at shows and to craft stores. I have a few prints laying around the house too....great for checking scale sizes. The other piece in the drawing is a template for a Kadee mounting adapter/spacer. 










Stanman......nice Stencils


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## Torby (Jan 2, 2008)

Played with Sketchup for a while today. Kindof cool.

Hmm. I should try VISIO. I have license to everything MS makes, but not time to play with it all.


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## jnic (Jan 2, 2008)

Sketchup, baby ...


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