ShopReady Draft 2D · Learn

Coming soon

Learn it a piece at a time.

18 longer films that each take a whole subject, and 64 short lessons, one tool at a time.

The films

Each one takes a whole subject, with chapters you can jump to.

18 videos

Overview · 3:32

ShopReady Draft 2D in three minutes

The short tour, cut from the clips and projects below: snapping, typed sizes, editing, dimensions that follow, lettering, one picture five ways, a CNC job and its simulation, a carved sign, a relief, parts nested on sheets, a laser job previewed, a job sent to a pretend machine, gears that mesh, a trip hammer, a carriage run by switches and rules, a door on a gas strut, and Show me.

Film · 3:36

CNC: from the drawing to the machine

A job from a drawing, a V-carved sign, a picture traced and carved, a photo as shading lines and dots, and a relief, each followed by the simulator cutting it.

Film · 1:58

Controls: switches, rules and motors

A slide turned back at each end by limit switches and rules, a control panel of buttons, lamps and an alarm running a barrier arm, and a beam that counts pegs and steps a dial.

Film · 5:06

Drawing and snapping

How drawing works: click or type a size at any time, shapes, a real part outline, points that wake up and the lines through them, every kind of snap, angles taken from a line, and the small things that save time.

Film · 6:17

Editing: change it without drawing it again

Corners rounded and cut, outlines offset, pieces trimmed and joined, parts moved, copied, turned and mirrored, holes repeated in rows and circles, parts stretched, sizes locked, assemblies, layers, and the room working parts need. Then shapes made from shapes: welded, cut away, kept where they overlap, and tidied for cutting.

Film · 10:31

Every tool, shown

All forty-four tools in the palette, each demonstrated by the program itself on a scratch drawing, with the tool's name, its key and what it does beside it. Chapters for every tool.

Film · 2:04

From a blank drawing to a cut part

One job all the way through: a jig plate drawn from nothing with every size typed, made a CNC job (holes, a pocket, the outline on tabs), its G-code written, and the cut watched in the simulator.

Film · 11:48

How to, and things that move

The program's demonstrations of snapping, typing sizes, angles, editing and notes, then the fourteen on things that move: joints, motors, springs, weight, struts, and parts that stop each other.

Film · 3:31

Laser: cut and engrave

The laser job: layers with their own speed, power and passes, the preview with its clock, a material test grid, only the selected shapes with lead-ins, and a laser project file opened with its layers and settings.

Film · 4:16

Lettering, dimensions and notes

Dimensions that follow the part, callouts that are never cut, lettering in carving fonts, letters along a curve, hatching and the paper sheet, and the shop's materials and parts list.

Film · 2:31

Machines: connect, move, frame and send

The Machine window on a pretend machine, with nothing plugged in: a router added by hand with its bed and corner, connected, homed, moved by click and by hold, zero set, the console, then a job framed, started, paused, resumed and stopped.

Film · 5:46

More from the router

Inlays with their cross-section, dogbones and T-bones, tabs and start points placed by hand, chamfers, grooves, flutes, texture and raised carving, the job sheet, a long part cut in tiles, a part cut from two sides, and the job sent to a pretend machine.

Film · 5:45

Motion and physics: see it work before you build it

Gears that mesh with no sums, trains, racks and belts, a crank and slide, cams and ratchets that work by touching, a lid on a gas strut, grip, rolling and bounce, parts moved by hand, hits found, and a motor's strength.

Film · 3:47

Pictures: one window for every picture

One picture window for all of it: a photo as outlines, shading lines, dots, a relief or a laser engraving; a relief shaped and shown lit; a 3D model opened as a relief; then a traced emblem, a photo and a relief carried through to a CNC job.

Film · 5:28

Shop: sheets, parts, labels and codes

Parts nested on the sheet by their true shape, the selected shapes packed into an offcut, a part moved by hand and the rest nested round it, materials and the parts list, a label for every piece with the sheet maps, QR codes and barcodes, numbered tags, and one tag made into many from a list.

Film · 5:35

The simulator, cutting twelve jobs

The 3D simulator cutting twelve jobs on screen, from a jig plate to a carved relief.

Film · 2:22

The window, and help that shows you

The window light or dark with the tools where you want them, the tip card that follows your steps, Show me, and the Help pages.

Film · 2:14

Work from other programs

A laser project file opened with its layers and settings, an SVG dropped on the drawing with its colors as layers, and a G-code program opened as a drawing and measured.