Questions answered
Straight answers to what people actually ask about turning photos and sketches into technical drawings. No fluff.
What is a cut list for furniture?
A cut list is the parts table that goes with a furniture shop drawing: every component the piece is built from, with its quantity, material, thickness, width and length. Where the shop drawing shows how the piece goes together, the cut list is the shopping-and-cutting reference a maker works from at the saw. The two have to agree exactly, since a dimension that exists in one place and contradicts the other is the most common source of wasted material.
Branislav HrivnákCo-Founder, TechDraw AIWhat are orthographic views in a technical drawing?
Orthographic views are the flat, straight-on views of a part — most commonly the front, top and side — each drawn as if you were looking at that face dead-on, with no perspective. Because each view is to scale and undistorted, you can take real measurements directly off it, and together two or three views describe a 3D part completely on a flat sheet. This is the standard way technical drawings show shape, and it is why a machinist can read sizes and feature positions straight from the page.
Matúš KolejákCo-Founder, TechDraw AIWhat is a title block on a technical drawing?
A title block is the boxed panel, usually in the bottom-right corner of a technical drawing, that holds the information a workshop needs to identify and make the part: the part name and number, the scale, the units, the material and finish, the revision, and who drew it and when. It turns a sheet of geometry into a controlled document, so anyone picking it up knows exactly what they are looking at and which version it is. A drawing without a title block is hard to trust, because there is no record of scale, units or revision.
Matúš KolejákCo-Founder, TechDraw AIHow do I make a laser cut file from a photo?
Take a straight-on, high-contrast photo of the shape, trace or generate the outline into clean vector paths, set one real measurement so it is to scale, and export a DXF or SVG your laser software can read. The key is that a laser cuts vector paths, not pixels, so the photo always has to become vector geometry first, and the cut file has to be at the correct real-world size.
Matúš KolejákCo-Founder, TechDraw AIHow do I make a technical drawing without CAD?
You photograph or sketch the part and let an AI tool generate the dimensioned drawing for you. With TechDraw AI you upload a photo, enter one real measurement to set the scale, and export a technical drawing as DXF, DWG, SVG or PDF, with no CAD software to install and no drafting skills required.
Matúš KolejákCo-Founder, TechDraw AIHow do I convert a STEP file to DXF for laser cutting?
A STEP file is 3D and a laser needs a flat 2D path, so you cannot simply rename or save it as DXF and get a usable cut file. Open the STEP in any CAD tool, pick the flat face or create a 2D view of the profile you want to cut, then export that single face or view as a DXF. Online STEP-to-DXF converters do the same by flattening one face. Remove duplicate lines before you cut.
Matúš KolejákCo-Founder, TechDraw AICan you get dimensions from a photo?
Yes, but only with a scale reference. A photo alone cannot reveal a part's true size, because a small object up close and a large one far away produce the same pixels. Once you give one known measurement (a reference object or a caliper reading), software scales everything else. With a square-on shot, accuracy is typically within 1 to 4%.
Matúš KolejákCo-Founder, TechDraw AIHow much does a technical drawing cost?
A single 2D technical drawing typically costs $45 to $600 or more from a freelancer or drafting service, depending on complexity. Simple parts run $150 to $300; drawings with full GD&T and tolerances cost more. Freelance drafters charge $50 to $150 per hour, and rush jobs add roughly 50%. AI tools that draft from a photo cut this to minutes.
Matúš KolejákCo-Founder, TechDraw AIIs there a free AI technical drawing tool?
Yes. You can start creating technical drawings with TechDraw AI for free, with no credit card and no CAD license required. Free tools are great for getting a clean, dimensioned drawing quickly, as long as you set the real measurements so the result is to scale.
Branislav HrivnákCo-Founder, TechDraw AI