Looking for a wood working sim

[Drak0rex]

Trying to find a building game or program that translates well to real life and is easy to use. Something like Scrap Mechanic, but less voxely. Needs to be able to measure and cut material to different dimensions and allow use of hinges.

 

[FAST6191]

I like woodwork, I like to think I keep reasonably on top of the many and weird sim games and similar have done a fair bit of CAD (not necessarily by choice) and I am not sure I have ever really seen anything like that*. Closest to anything being a I saw something build a log cabin once but it was scarcely more involved than any of a dozen mainstream survival sims.

Most woodworkers doing CAD plans (and there are a few) tend to go with general engineering stuff, and being wood you can get away with a bit less than that; sketchup remains rather popular as most don't tend to do FEA and such analysis or anything too fun there, which also means any dowels/biscuits/whatever options don't have to be anything more than a label. Assemblies (which would be what the hinges fall under) then are often a feature of any vaguely modern CAD program. Assuming you stay away from the crazy Japanese joints (generally best to as they are mostly there to look pretty, no respect at all for grain direction) then you also don't need anything too drastic, though even then the Japanese stuff is usually not so bad (basic boolean unions, cuts, and fun with sketches on whatever planes/faces you need getting you there in seconds for what takes longer in wood).

If you do want more than that then you will probably want to look either at said CAD and making what you need to deal more with woodwork, or maybe looking at what those doing truss analysis for wood frame buildings are doing.

You could even go properly old school and go all 2d for the approach. Does make it a bit easier when you send off a CNC machine to build it for you as well, or need to tweak it for another build/customer.

*would an accurate rephrasing of this be "like mechanic simulator but"?
Mechanic simulator for the uninitiated