Introduction: Free CAD Program Using ExpressPCB

About: I like to tinker and experiment with electronics, robotics, programming, and photography. Along with my latest interest in Steampunk.

The people at ExpressPCB give you a PC board layout program for doing schematics and PC board work. Its intended purpose is for PCB layout. I found that the Layout Program also is useful for CAD work when making drawings of a mechanical nature when drawings need to be printed out in actual size for templates. The program will print out very accurately scaled.
Website: http://www.expresspcb.com/

Step 1: Examples of ExpressPCB Drawings

These are some examples of drawings I made during the process of designing a wind harp for Makers Faire 2008. This is the drawing for the "neck" with the tuners. The lines drawn are using the yellow lines for the silkscreen layer. When printing, just print the silk screen layer with "print in color" and "enlarge to fit" un-clicked, If you are doing actual size printing. If you are doing something much larger, you can still print scaled drawings by selecting "enlarge to fit".

Step 2: Photo of Part

This is a photo of the neck piece that was made after I made a drawing. So you can see how helpful it was to make a scaled drawing with ExpressPCB before I made the piece.

Step 3: Schematic Part , Useful for CAD

The schematic making part of the program can also be used to make mechanical drawings. I used it to make this drawing for one of my instrucables, "Make a Wind Harp".