Thread: Library ladder
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[email protected] nailshooter41@aol.com is offline
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Default Library ladder

On Thursday, April 20, 2017 at 5:32:17 PM UTC-5, OFWW wrote:

The guy is so used to 2d drawings that he might be better off with a
2d Cad type program. It would be more familiar to his style and once
he got used to the commands, and just redoing his basic prints for
mods, and finds how simple it is then He might feel better moving to a
3D program.


He needs 3d, and he needs it now. There aren't that many remodeling companies here in town, but they all have a draftsman, usually a man/woman in their early 20s that took a lot of drafting in college and are working part time. His competition can get out great drawings fast, and in many cases they can generate some simple drawings at their first meeting. Some of today's programs are so easy to use that the sales guys use them on a laptop when they go on site. If they do a rendered drawing with dimensions somewhere along the line, they watermark the drawing and charge the client for their time.

Check this out and click the play button on the small screen that is NEXT TO the button that says "get started":

http://www.roomsketcher.com/home-design-software/

This is his competition. This is what the other companies are armed with. He needs a program like this to show his clients he is in the same century as his competition, and he needs to build his fluency to make sure he can whiz through it on site. BTW... that's just the first one I clicked on when I GSed "free 2d remodeling software". There are dozens other, most giving a free working edition for a short time, or a free version stripped of some handy or necessary tools.

He needs that so the clients can visualize. But, for his own use he needs Sketchup. Leon and Swing have both showed me drawings that are killer when you are the one building from them, and better yet, if you find a job discrepancy when using their drawings, you call and say "hey... don't know what happened, but we have 174 3/4" across that wall, not 186 3/8" Could you send me drawings that reflect that overall measurement? Leave the drawer banks and the kitchen base the same, and take it out over the span of the other carcasses". Then they say, give me some time to get to the computer. You will have your drawings tonight." And you know that all the door sizes will be changed, the base units will be correctly dimensioned, etc.

I carry my laptop 99% of the time, and so should he. I regularly pull into McDonald's to get a cup of joe, and modify my reports, annotate pictures, edit pictures and text (some are several legal pages long) add commentary etc., then resend to my clients. I also write change orders, final bills, progress draws, opinions, estimates for work and anything else I need to right on the spot. Depending on the job and how involved I am on a given day, I am known to set up on a job, work on my paperwork, save it all, then at lunch/dinner/home, somewhere with wireless, and send it all out in multiple emails I have written as drafts.

The competition is fierce, and now rapid, quality service for a client is more important than ever before. You can bet your butt if I was doing full time remodeling I would bring my traveling office and software suites wherever I needed it, and would probably buy a big screen laptop for presentations.

Honestly, I can't figure what is holding him back. He is a smart guy, he isn't some Luddite, he just can't get out of his rut. If he doesn't, he will fail and that will be a shame.

Robert