Plan drawing software

Jeeper · 30 Mar 2020

Is there any decent plan drawing software available, at a reasonable cost,
I’ve looked at some apps but they seem fairly basic.

DevilDamo · 30 Mar 2020

It depends what you want to do or achieve? At the end of the day, you pay (or not) for what you get.

oldbutnotdead · 31 Mar 2020

Sketchup is OK for basic block stuff, if you want detail you have to pay (Autocad). Plus to really be useful you need to be able to print the plans at a scale you can read them (so looking at large format printers)

mrrusty · 31 Mar 2020

Turbocad @£49 for 2D and £149 for 2D/3D https://www.turbocad.co.uk/windows-range is extremely powerful and will do absolutely everything you would need. However the learning curve is fairly steep if you have never used CAD before. (I've been using Turbocad since V1 for DOS circa 1990)

tony1851 · 31 Mar 2020

...

£3/17/6

Jeeper · 31 Mar 2020

I’d just like to be able to draw some, plans for basic planning for a Porch project, I have plenty of time to learn
2D would be fine the turbo cad for Mac looks good.

Notch7 · 31 Mar 2020

Jeeper said:
I’d just like to be able to draw some, plans for basic planning for a Porch project, I have plenty of time to learn
2D would be fine the turbo cad for Mac looks good.

Turbocad is well supported, there are quite a few online tutorials and there is a turbocad forum.

nickjb · 1 Apr 2020

Draftsight is very good for 2d plans. Its a simplified autocad. A lot of the functions are the same and there is plenty of online support. Best of all, its free

mrrusty · 1 Apr 2020

unless I'm missing something on their website, draftsight is not free...

^woody^ · 1 Apr 2020

tony1851 said:
...View attachment 187358

£3/17/6

Rip off. I'd want at least a parallel motion for £3

^woody^ · 1 Apr 2020

Use the free Sketchup in 2d mode (take off perspective). Its quite good at letting you input actual dimensions easily and keeping things square.

mrrusty · 2 Apr 2020

Rip off. I'd want at least a parallel motion for £3

sadly a quick look at 'bay completed listings shows £5-£10 is the going rate for ordinary kit...

nickjb · 3 Apr 2020

"draftsight is not free..."

Sorry, my mistake. Looks like they have changed their model. Was free last year.

LibreCAD is free. Not as good but still OK. Works in quite a different way to AutoCAD so a bit of a learning curve but easy enough to use

garyo · 3 Apr 2020

I use sketchup for PP and regs but without the Layout module it's too hard to export annotated pdf sets at scale. That puts you in the 'pro' licence model which is £700 odd, but fortunately I don't have to pay because I use it at work.

mrrusty · 3 Apr 2020

garyo said:
it's too hard to export annotated pdf sets at scale

I think this is one of the key considerations. In Turbocad it's easy once you've figured out where everything is. You draw in model space at real dimensions, then take a snapshot "view" of whole or part, create a paper space in A4, A3 or whatever, insert a viewport for that view and there's a box to set the scale. As Planning Departments want actual scaled drawings, this is an important part of the process. You print to PDF straight from paperspace.

As has already been said, TCad is mature software with a good forum and lots of help out there. For a casual user who needs proper CAD software, you could certainly do a lot worse.

You may not think you want 3D, but if you can get your head around it, it's a real time saver - draw it once and then take your plan and elevations from the different views. 3D is also really handy if you are e.g. fitting out a kitchen. You can draw units and then drop and move them around to see how they fit and look. It can really help to avoid planning mistakes. I've only ever been a casual user both at home and work.

here's my current project - bricks and blocks drawn to scale which will help me with quants.

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Plan drawing software

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