Framesmith CAD / Frame, fork and wheel
Drawn at the diameters you will actually cut.
A parametric drawing board for people who build bicycle frames. Set the geometry the way you already think about it, hang real Reynolds and Columbus tubing on every segment, and watch the frame redraw at true outside diameter instead of as a stick figure.
Specification
Six headings- Tubing
- Reynolds and Columbus, in chromoly, stainless and titanium, carried at their catalog outside diameters and butting profiles. The running mass estimate moves every time you reassign a segment. Where the catalog stops, you enter the tube yourself: outside diameter, wall, material.
- Geometry
- BB drop or BB height. Chainstay length or rear wheel gap. Saddle measured from the shell or from the clamp. Each pair is interchangeable, so the frame goes in the way you already have it written down, not the way a form wants it.
- The drawing
- A 2D side elevation and a 3D view you can orbit, both drawn at true tube diameter with the tires fitted. Clearance becomes something you look at rather than something you calculate.
- The fork
- Its own drawing board: rake, blade, crown and steerer, working from the same tube catalog and the same two views.
- Wheels
- A spoke length calculator alongside the frame, for J-bend and straight-pull hubs, with the flange and rim figures kept where you can check them.
- Off the screen
- DXF for fabrication, and miter templates you print at actual size, wrap round the tube and scribe. Each sheet carries a 50mm reference so you can catch a printer that scaled the page.
How a frame gets built here
From the panel to the benchMost frames start life as a handful of numbers written on the back of something. The geometry panel takes those numbers directly, in whichever of the interchangeable pairs you happen to have, and the drawing redraws as you type. A seat angle you are unsure about becomes something you can look at rather than imagine.
Tubing comes next. Assign a Reynolds or Columbus spec per segment and the frame takes on that tube's real outside diameter, its butting profile and its material tone. The mass estimate moves with each choice. Where the catalogue stops, a custom diameter, wall and material carries on from the same panel.
Then the fork, on its own board: rake, blade, crown, steerer. Orbit the 3D view with the tires fitted and read the clearances the way you would read a frame standing in the jig, before any of it costs you a tube.
When it all looks right, the DXF and the miter templates go to the bench. Cut outside the scribed line, file down to it, and check the fit with a light behind the joint before anything gets joined.
Terms
Cancel any timeUnlimited builds · Full tube catalog · Mass estimates · DXF and miter export · Fork designer
A frame is a great deal easier to change on screen than in the jig.
Open the designer