A friend would like to play around creating technical drawings and would
like some recommendations of software to use. I was asked but have no
knowledge of these things at all!

He'd like to be able to knock up a plan, and view it from different
elevations without preparing the different elevations seperately. Apart from
that, feature-wise he isn't bothered.. But would prefer something that isn't
complete overkill, for financial and ease-of-use reasons.

Any software suggestions or pointers to more appropriate groups appreciated,
thanks!

"Alec Storey" wrote in message
...
A friend would like to play around creating technical drawings and would
like some recommendations of software to use. I was asked but have no
knowledge of these things at all!

He'd like to be able to knock up a plan, and view it from different
elevations without preparing the different elevations seperately. Apart
from
that, feature-wise he isn't bothered.. But would prefer something that
isn't
complete overkill, for financial and ease-of-use reasons.

Any software suggestions or pointers to more appropriate groups
appreciated,
thanks!



I would suggest you mess around with Google Sketchup. It isn't fully
technical, but will allow you to do plans in 3D which will give you the
elevations pretty easily. It is very easy to use.

http://sketchup.google.com/

It is very intuitive and quick to learn, fun, and best of all its free for
non-commercial use.

Otherwise, what you are asking for (knock out plans and have the elevations
come out automagically) is stuff for highly technical and highly expensive
software.

Now if your talking about those floor plan programs you can buy at Best Buy
or Circuit City, that proclaims "Anyone can do this stuff", nobody is here
is going to recommend that to you. They are all junk...and worthless junk
at that.

--
Edgar



--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com

Google SketchUp? No way, free is not always better because its free.
SketchUp is too abstract and requires understanding complex concepts. For
architectural drawings there are no tools to draw floorplans, insert windows
and doors and so on, they have to be created from scratch.

A better suggestion IMO would be one of the off the shelf 3D home design
software programs that can be bought for peanuts from CompUSA. A child can
learn how to use these programs without any reading of manuals or help files
and 3D or 2D elevations are generated with a single click of a button. They
also dimension an entire plan with a click of a button.

I suggest a shopping trip to CompUSA if the drawings have anything to do
with residential or light commerical design. For machines and other types of
technical drawings this suggestion will not do. In that case I would
recommend something like TurboCAD which can be purchased for as low as $9.95
or thereabouts.

%= Clinton Gallagher
NET csgallagher AT metromilwaukee.com
URL http://clintongallagher.metromilwaukee.com/
MAP 43°2'17"N 88°2'37"W : 43°2'17"N 88°2'37"W



"Edgar" wrote in message
.. .
"Alec Storey" wrote in message
...
A friend would like to play around creating technical drawings and would
like some recommendations of software to use. I was asked but have no
knowledge of these things at all!

He'd like to be able to knock up a plan, and view it from different
elevations without preparing the different elevations seperately. Apart
from
that, feature-wise he isn't bothered.. But would prefer something that
isn't
complete overkill, for financial and ease-of-use reasons.

Any software suggestions or pointers to more appropriate groups
appreciated,
thanks!



I would suggest you mess around with Google Sketchup. It isn't fully
technical, but will allow you to do plans in 3D which will give you the
elevations pretty easily. It is very easy to use.

http://sketchup.google.com/

It is very intuitive and quick to learn, fun, and best of all its free for
non-commercial use.

Otherwise, what you are asking for (knock out plans and have the
elevations come out automagically) is stuff for highly technical and
highly expensive software.

Now if your talking about those floor plan programs you can buy at Best
Buy or Circuit City, that proclaims "Anyone can do this stuff", nobody is
here is going to recommend that to you. They are all junk...and worthless
junk at that.

--
Edgar


--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com

I second Edgar's suggestion of SketchUp. I've used it to prepare a
complete set of drawings for a building control submission. The free
version has 2 limitations, it can only do printouts at the screen
resolution and it cannot translate files to output to other packages
(e.g. the industry standard .dxf or .dwg) - the commercial version can
of course do both - and the printout quality is then superb.

It's taken me about 2 weeks to get competant with SketchUp, and it has
never software-glitched once. It really is one of the best drawing/cad
packages I've used. I'm that impressed that I'm teetering on finding
the £300 for the full commercial version - and that's from someone
that has only ever bought one £80 set of software development tools
and kicked and spat at that prospect.

Have a look at floorplan 3d. http://www.imsisoft.com/ You can download a
trial version.
Only £28 from http://www.floorplan.tv/floorplan3Dv10.php There's a basic or
a pro version.
I found an older, free copy on a cover disk a couple of years back so check
the computer magazines too.
WM

"Alec Storey" wrote in message
...
A friend would like to play around creating technical drawings and would
like some recommendations of software to use. I was asked but have no
knowledge of these things at all!

He'd like to be able to knock up a plan, and view it from different
elevations without preparing the different elevations seperately. Apart
from
that, feature-wise he isn't bothered.. But would prefer something that
isn't
complete overkill, for financial and ease-of-use reasons.

Any software suggestions or pointers to more appropriate groups
appreciated,
thanks!

Alec Storey wrote:
A friend would like to play around creating technical drawings and would
like some recommendations of software to use. I was asked but have no
knowledge of these things at all!

He'd like to be able to knock up a plan, and view it from different
elevations without preparing the different elevations seperately. Apart from
that, feature-wise he isn't bothered.. But would prefer something that isn't
complete overkill, for financial and ease-of-use reasons.

Any software suggestions or pointers to more appropriate groups appreciated,
thanks!


Home Architect 3D is pretty simple and it's not badly priced.

"Alec Storey" wrote in message
...
A friend would like to play around creating technical drawings and would
like some recommendations of software to use. I was asked but have no
knowledge of these things at all!

He'd like to be able to knock up a plan, and view it from different
elevations without preparing the different elevations seperately. Apart
from
that, feature-wise he isn't bothered.. But would prefer something that
isn't
complete overkill, for financial and ease-of-use reasons.

Any software suggestions or pointers to more appropriate groups
appreciated,
thanks!


Look for CAD computer added drawing At the top end expensive but there are
some for around £30. Some like Floorplan have pretty wood patters to
decorate with

"clintonG" wrote in message
...
Google SketchUp? No way, free is not always better because its free.
SketchUp is too abstract and requires understanding complex concepts. For
architectural drawings there are no tools to draw floorplans, insert
windows and doors and so on, they have to be created from scratch.

A better suggestion IMO would be one of the off the shelf 3D home design
software programs that can be bought for peanuts from CompUSA. A child can
learn how to use these programs without any reading of manuals or help
files and 3D or 2D elevations are generated with a single click of a
button. They also dimension an entire plan with a click of a button.

I suggest a shopping trip to CompUSA if the drawings have anything to do
with residential or light commerical design. For machines and other types
of technical drawings this suggestion will not do. In that case I would
recommend something like TurboCAD which can be purchased for as low as
$9.95 or thereabouts.

%= Clinton Gallagher
NET csgallagher AT metromilwaukee.com
URL http://clintongallagher.metromilwaukee.com/
MAP 43°2'17"N 88°2'37"W : 43°2'17"N 88°2'37"W

Like I said, IMO they are all junk. And Sketchup can be as abstract as you
want it to be. I would never recommend any of those 3D home design POS
programs. But that's just me.

--
Edgar



--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com

"clintonG" wrote in message
...
Google SketchUp? No way, free is not always better because its free.
SketchUp is too abstract and requires understanding complex concepts. For
architectural drawings there are no tools to draw floorplans, insert
windows and doors and so on, they have to be created from scratch.

A better suggestion IMO would be one of the off the shelf 3D home design
software programs that can be bought for peanuts from CompUSA. A child can
learn how to use these programs without any reading of manuals or help
files and 3D or 2D elevations are generated with a single click of a
button. They also dimension an entire plan with a click of a button.

I suggest a shopping trip to CompUSA if the drawings have anything to do
with residential or light commerical design. For machines and other types
of technical drawings this suggestion will not do. In that case I would
recommend something like TurboCAD which can be purchased for as low as
$9.95 or thereabouts.

I'll add that I didn't realize this thread was crossposted, so I don't speak
for all the groups represented.

--
Edgar



--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com

"Alec Storey" wrote in message
...
Any software suggestions or pointers to more appropriate groups
appreciated,
thanks!

Have a look at Room Arranger: http://www.roomarranger.com/index.html

It's cheap ($20) and is very easy to use.

Ash

I would suggest you mess around with Google Sketchup. It isn't fully
technical, but will allow you to do plans in 3D which will give you the
elevations pretty easily. It is very easy to use.

http://sketchup.google.com/


Just downloaded this, so I can give a newbie's view shortly. I am very well
versed in the general ways of software but know nothing about CAD packages,
design etc.

Suz

The message
from "Suz" contains these words:

http://sketchup.google.com/


Just downloaded this, so I can give a newbie's view shortly. I am very well
versed in the general ways of software but know nothing about CAD packages,
design etc.

It's great fun, but I've never been able to get circular arrays to work
properly.

--
Skipweasel
Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.

Alec Storey wrote:
A friend would like to play around creating technical drawings and would
like some recommendations of software to use. I was asked but have no
knowledge of these things at all!

He'd like to be able to knock up a plan, and view it from different
elevations without preparing the different elevations seperately. Apart from
that, feature-wise he isn't bothered.. But would prefer something that isn't
complete overkill, for financial and ease-of-use reasons.

Any software suggestions or pointers to more appropriate groups appreciated,
thanks!

I'd recommend looking into Cycas (free for non-commercial use last I
looked), and the Sourceforge open source software repository.