Looking For A Program Please Help

[Thor]

Basically what I'm doing is building a new MAME cabinet. The last one I made I've given away to a friend of mine and I'm wanting to build a new one. I've come up with the basic design and want to get it down on paper with out having to use a ruler so I can do all the measurments right on the computer. Like I said kind of like a CAD program but hopfully better than the CAD I used back in highschool because I know that one had to have been dated running on either a Win 3.1 or Win95 I can't remember.

Any suggestions?

[Hidinger]

Basically what I'm doing is building a new MAME cabinet. The last one I made I've given away to a friend of mine and I'm wanting to build a new one. I've come up with the basic design and want to get it down on paper with out having to use a ruler so I can do all the measurments right on the computer. Like I said kind of like a CAD program but hopfully better than the CAD I used back in highschool because I know that one had to have been dated running on either a Win 3.1 or Win95 I can't remember.

Any suggestions?

I have actually built quite a few Arcade Cabinets in my day (My wife cringes everytime she goes into the basement to find me playing NBA JAM or Ghouls and Ghosts, etc. But I find the best way to get a physical cabinet is to check the old telnet message boards for arcade machine collectors. I have since switched computers so I don't know the exact bulitin board for it. If you need me to find it let me know and I will try to pick it up next time I am at my mother's house. There is always someone in your area that will sell you the cabinet you need (normally with the glass) for like $20. Then you just replace the guts and you are good to go.

BUT

If you are stuck on the idea of going it all on your own, THIS is the program. It is a 30 day free trial and it alters the registry so you can't just uninstall and reinstall it...but it does everything

http://www.download.com/AutoCAD/3000-6677_4-10573933.html

That will let you design something as small scale as a computer processor or as big as a city (It costs like 4k to buy it).

Hope that helps.

[Thor]

Yikes! 4K... well that's not much I should just buy it

No seriously I will have to check out the demo. The last cab I made from someone elses design this one is going to be totally my design so that is why I want to be able to build it virtually before making it for real. I suppose I can go old school and just build a model of it. Thanks for the idea but what I'm doing is making a cab that can double as a "entertainment center" and removable controls so that it looks like it fits with the decor of my appartment with out looking like a huge arcade machine. And I've not seen anyone do this yet so I have no plans to go off of.

[triverse]

Yikes! 4K... well that's not much I should just buy it

No seriously I will have to check out the demo. The last cab I made from someone elses design this one is going to be totally my design so that is why I want to be able to build it virtually before making it for real. I suppose I can go old school and just build a model of it. Thanks for the idea but what I'm doing is making a cab that can double as a "entertainment center" and removable controls so that it looks like it fits with the decor of my appartment with out looking like a huge arcade machine. And I've not seen anyone do this yet so I have no plans to go off of.

How are you going to pull that one off? I like the sound of it but it is more than likely going to be a beast to work out austhetically. Are the controls going to be wireless arcade type controls or are you going with console style controllers?

[Thor]

How are you going to pull that one off? I like the sound of it but it is more than likely going to be a beast to work out austhetically. Are the controls going to be wireless arcade type controls or are you going with console style controllers?

It's quite simple actually. After I work out the design a bit more and get a better model I'll share it with retromags. I'm a ways off from actually builing it though. I don't want to do it till I move to Texas in the Summer.

[Anime-niac]

Have you tried Google SketchUp? I've been told that it works fairly well, though I've yet to try it myself. There's a free and a pro version. A couple of alternatives are EasyCAD (what I currently use) and FastCAD. A 30 day demo can be found at http://fastcad.com/.

[Thor]

Wow Anime-niac Google SketchUp might just be exactly what I'm looking for thank you. If not I may just to back to CAD since that is actually something that I'm sure I should be able to grasp rather easily since I've used it in the past. But SketchUp looks amazing... and free!!!

[perudon]

I don't think it would necessarily be the best program to use for CAD, but a great, free 3D program for 3D images, animation, and even game design is Blender. The learning curve is a bit steep at first, but it is a darn powerful application with an active community that is absolutely free. You can check it out at www.blender.org

Just thought I would give a little shout out to one of my favorite programs.