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[Thunderforge]

I’ve started a new job which involves designing furniture which is then built in wood by guys in a workshop. I’m trying to optimise the process and produce cutting lists for them. Currently we use Autocad Lt, which has ‘dynamic blocks’ so I can stretch the design and auto edits the parts.
BUT I’m sure there must be an easier program for the task, and I wondered if anyone has done anything similar and had any recommendations?

I can use Blender to a certain degree but that doesn’t give me the text, and I could rig up a text based cutting list in Excel, but it doesn’t include the visual. There’s gotta be some other software designed for this very purpose, right?

[wierd]

You need to stay with industrial design software.

This is due to industrial software being volumetric solid based, and Blender and pals being tessellated mesh based.   EG, you can be sure that your material is exactly 1.5 inches wide in the industrial design software, while you cannot be sure of that with Blender and pals.

Personally, I use Dassault Systemes CATIA.  It has "Parameter based design" features, where you can use what are essentially some global variables to define how a part's geometry is derived, so that you can easily adjust the finished product with a few value changes.   It requires you to design with that featureset in mind though.  If your company is already using AutoCad, their tooling is likely already pipelined for that product's output, and you should stick with that software. 

[Vector]

I can use Blender to a certain degree but that doesn’t give me the text, and I could rig up a text based cutting list in Excel, but it doesn’t include the visual. There’s gotta be some other software designed for this very purpose, right?

To the best of my knowledge Autocad IS that software. Like, it's the industry standard.

[wierd]

Dassault catia, and Unigraphics are also leading packages.

[delphonso]

A quick glance at open-source software shows LibreCAD, OpenSCAD, and FreeCAD. wierd, have you used any of those before?

It might be worth installing and trying those out - no clue if they are high quality, but they're all free.

[Urist McScoopbeard]

AutoCAD is the standard. You can check out SolidWorks though, or Rhino 3D

[wierd]

SolidWorks is a Demia product, which is associated with Dassault.

https://www.industrynet.com/listing/3793908/dassault-systemes

Unigraphics produces the NX product line, and AutoDesk produces AutoCad and associated tools.

Usually, these large CAD/CAM packages are sold as complete workflow packages, with known toolchains, and strong support for various third party tools, like VeriCut and pals.

I have only dabbled with the FreeCad and pals.  I have so far found them to be woefully inferior to my Catia seat.  (then again, I can make that catia seat sing and dance. I know how to use the VBA automation backend underneath, in addition to the parameter based design features.)

These days, I mostly just use it to design solids for use with my 3D printer, but I also know how to create subtractive manufacturing CNC programs using the appropriate workbenches in the product line.   It's really very easy to use the dassault software.  I have dabbled with autocad and NX, but find I just like catia better.  Go figure.

[darkhog]

Stay away from LibreCAD - it's 2d only and from the job description (designing furniture) you need 3D. For 3D either FreeCAD or SolveSpace are good open source options. Both seem to have AutoCAD import/export although I don't know how good they are. Currently learning FreeCAD to hopefully do 3d printing designs in it in the future, but both FreeCAD and SolveSpace have great tutorials available online.