CAD Drawings of scenes, making metal wall decor
July 13th, 2010 | 
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Jenn:
Hi There! My BF has a sheet metal shop & a plasma table to cut metal. Does anyone know where I can find FREE CAD drawings to make different cut outs for the yard, wall art, etc. . . ??? I am particularliy looking for a mountain scape or outdoor scene for my loft railing. . . . & walls HELP PLEASE!!! Hugs, Jenn
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Most of the free CAD drawings you are going to find are insertable blocks. CAD programs were originally intended for the engineering sect. However it is easy to create your own. Find a jpg or tif of a scene you like.
The following assumes you would be using AutoCAD…
Use the “image manager” on the insert menu to select and insert your picture.
Another dialog box will pop up for insertion point, scale, and rotation with the following settings:
Insertion point: Specify on-screen
Scale: X Y & Z all are 1
Rotation: Angle = 0
…and click “OK”.
Now you should have your picture on the screen in AutoCAD.
Make another layer & call it whatever you like. For the color use one that constrasts with the image.
Now…all you do is start tracing it with lines and arcs.
I’ve had to do this before when a client refused to provide the needed CAD files to complete the project. I had to send the drawing set out to Kinko’s to get it scanned in tiff format. …then traced over these to get the necessary scale drawings. It worked quite well.
Good Luck!
There are raster to vector programs out there that you can change the pic. to line drawing. the one I use is Draftman by Arbor and their is allot more out there. You will need to be careful on the copy right laws.