Hi Everyone.  I'm new.I am having some problems managing some DXF and DWG files.I'll give a quick professional background, so you know where to aim the replies. Professional Background:  Former C++ developer, physicist and NASA employee turned yacht charter captain.  At this very moment, I'm working on building our new charter boat. I have a master DWG and DXF file for the bulkheads for the boat (bulkheads are like walls inside boats that follow the curve of the hull).I am trying to simply do the following:1)  Open File2)  Turn off all but one layer3)  Zoom and Crop to show a small part of the single layer4)  Save the cropped drawing as DXF of DWGEasy, right?  WRONG.I'm on a 2.1GHz MacBook running OSX.5.8 with a Gig of RAMI tried installing AutoCAD for Mac but after a nice 4 hour download, it says, "your graphics card is not supported, aborting install."I tried Solid Works eDrawings.  It opens the file beautifully and allows me to turn layers on and off and zoom.  It doesn't allow me to crop or save the files.I tried DraftSight.  It shows a blank drawing when I open any of the files.  I'm trying to get these files plotted 1:1 on a 3' wide plotter, but the printing company refuses to do the zooming and cropping, even with an offer of extra pay.  Here's the thing:  I'm working 10 hours a day, 7 days a week on a project that will take me between 4000 and 6000 hours to complete (2 or 3 years).  I cannot afford losing another 10 hours to something so stupid. Can anyone help me understand how I can simply open, fiddle with layers, crop and save a DWG or DXF file on a Mac with the specifications listed above? I'd even settle for going to some kind of FedEX Office/Kinko's that has CAD workstations available.  Any ideas??Thank you in advance for any help or advice.  
TheRealSully2011-05-07 23:26:03

I'm not a Mac user but if I had a laptop PC with those specs I'd throw it overboard and buy something with a little more oomph.Can you post the drawing so someone here can take a look at it?

[QUOTE=John Connor]I'm not a Mac user but if I had a laptop PC with those specs I'd throw it overboard and buy something with a little more oomph.Can you post the drawing so someone here can take a look at it?
[/QUOTE]
Thanks, John.  I know it's an older computer, but there isn't any real reason to update it at this point, considering I don't work in offices anymore.  It's used for web development for our charter company, Quickbooks, email, browsing, etc...  Nothing too intense.  It's only used a couple hours a day, max.  I did get it after about the 8th download though.  Here is the program I used, which is quit an excellent little CAD utility for what it is:http://sourceforge.net/projects/librecad/CADuntuFigured I'd follow up here even though I finally found a solution, for those who might be stuck with a similar problem.  Thanks for the offer of help.

And just what does this cad utility do?By the way, what happens when the design gets so complex and the file size gets so large that your computer starts crashing on you?  A serious crash could negate a large portion of your time and effort and leave you thoroughly mad.John Connor2011-05-08 18:42:48

Here is a link to the developer's site:http://www.librecad.org/It's open source software.  It does everything I was trying to do and quite a bit more, actually.  Try it out.  It's open source, so it costs nothing.I co-wrote the following CAD/CAM software when I was a C++ Developer:http://www.itochu-takaya.co.uk/pdf/unicamfx.pdfhttp://www.plm.automation.siemens.co.../hte/pcb.shtmlI wrote Unicam, which became a Tecnomatix, then a Siemens product.  So, I'm not in any need of computer tips, thanks.  Just needed an answer to what product would open the file, toggle layers, crop and save on OSX.  Found it myself and posted a follow up, like a good net citizen.  

Thanks for the info.  Will do.