Question on compufoil3D ?

[jim gilmore]

I'm wondering if anybody here uses this program and has figured out how to work with it ?
It looks like it should make it easy if I could figure out how to work it ?

[John Miller]

Yes Jim, I use it all the time. I started out with Compufoil several versions ago. It seems to work rather simply now, but, I can only imagine how it may look to someone just picking it up.

The tips window that comes up when you first start the program has helpful information in it. The tips are available within the program for you to peruse on demand. You can even download them all to a file, where you can look at them at your leisure.

The help file in the drop down menues, ( the last one, going left to right) Has many ways to get help, including one titled "How do I?"

After checking out these helps, get your hands dirty by playing with the various aspects of the program. Open an airfoil, and make a goal to loft a set of ribs, or a foam wing cutting guide. learn how to blend from one airfoil at the root, to a different one at the tip. Create .dxf files of the ribs, and the planview of the wing. Take a look at your wing in 3D, and learn how to bring it into your drawing.

Getting used to working within a program, any program, (Remember trying to become proficient in a CAD program?) often takes some lead time.

I'll give you an example from one my own current projects.

I decided I wanted to update my web site at cadclassics.net , there were features I wanted, and it was difficult relaying my desires to the Web Master who created the current site.

So, enter a new to me software dedicated to the design and development of Web Sites. Well, at first it was, as they say, "All Greek to me." After a few hours of bad experiences, time spent reading, and trying out things, things started to come together. I'm at the point right now that the new site is about 90% ready. I'm about to open the help file and try to learn how to add a shopping cart. It's taken about a week of 8 hour days to get here from a dead start. I'll bet the next one I do won't take but a fraction of the time.

Compufoil 3D and likely severral other lofting programs are pretty much the same way. I experienced the same learning curve, when I first got the program about 10 years ago, back when it was simply Compufoil. 

[jim gilmore]

I gve up trying cad. it's beyond me.

[Bob Reeves]

This stuff isn't beyond anyone it's just a matter of priorities. If you really wanted to you could figure it out. I taught myself C then C++ simply because I was determined to write a particular computer program. What you are really saying is "I don't want to take the time".

[jim gilmore]

Trust meI tried....Yes I gave up..... some things azre beyond us... There are things I'm sure I can do otheres cannot but cad, as was as tryin to keep too many values in your own head was beyond me.

[don Burke]

CAD can be extremely frustrating.  IMO the only way to get it is to keep trying but making a drawing you need.  I first used CAD with a proprietary program at work, way before anything was available to the consumer.  When products became available I jumped right in but it took quite a while to "unlearn" what I had used at work.  I have stayed with one particular product since the beginning, but the vendor has decided to discontinue support and upgrades.  Since I can't afford AUTOCAD, I've had to start using another program, TURBOCAD.  Learning curve all over again.  Things that were extremely easy and almost second nature with the original program don't work the same.  I'm making progress but it is frustrating.  Fortunately I can import drawings to TURBOCAD from the other program so all is not lost.

As I said before keep at it, when you have to have the use of it it will come.