Woodworking Software

[luckyGoose]

Fellow woodworkers,

I'm a software engineer and weekend woodworker, and I thought I'd combine my two interests and work on software that woodworkers would find easy to use. I was thinking of software that would be more intuitive than sketchup, so something that would allow the user to work in terms of boards and panels and dado cuts instead of lines and layers.

Another useful feature I thought of was a translation of a rought hand drawn sketch into an engineering drawing, that derives a cut list.

Do any of you experienced woodworkers have any features that you'd like to see in this software?

Thanks!
Yogi

 

[KenOfCary]

Sounds like an ambitious project. I wish you luck with it. You should be able to find some beta testers here on the site.

 

[CDPeters]

To make it intuitive to a woodworker, think in terms of the operations we do regularly in our shops - i.e. make a cut, drill a hole, etc.

After years of piddling with the free version of Sketchup, I still don't know how to cut a component along a cut plane!

I also struggle with carrying an edge profile like an ogee into a 45 degree miter.

 

[luckyGoose]

Thanks Chris, that was my line of thinking as well. I will work on a preliminary design this weekend and share for feedback.

 

[Pop Golden]

Lucky, An idea: a page making program just might be a good spot to take-off. I use both Borderbund "Print Shop" & Serif "PagePlus X8". The Serif program is far newer and better than my old "Print Shop". Serif has now gone to a different and non-compatible system so X8 can probably be used without a problem and purchased for a song.

Pop