Can anyone suggest a simple (preferably free) drawing program for the
PC, where I can import a jpeg of some floor plans and then add to them.

Alternatively, is it easy to scan drawings into a format that a line
drawing program will understand.

I'm not very good with CAD or drawing programs. I've tried to import a
jpeg into LibreCad, but it doesn't seem to appear. I'm struggling with
LibreOffice Draw, which does import.

I need urgently to be able to liaise between an on-site electrician and
a son who is the other side of the world, and may have to communicate
via email or texting pictures (which we haven't yet got working).
--
Bill

Bill Wrote in message:
Can anyone suggest a simple (preferably free) drawing program for the
PC, where I can import a jpeg of some floor plans and then add to them.

Alternatively, is it easy to scan drawings into a format that a line
drawing program will understand.

I'm not very good with CAD or drawing programs. I've tried to import a
jpeg into LibreCad, but it doesn't seem to appear. I'm struggling with
LibreOffice Draw, which does import.

I need urgently to be able to liaise between an on-site electrician and
a son who is the other side of the world, and may have to communicate
via email or texting pictures (which we haven't yet got working).
--
Bill


One of the best free 2d drawing tools is Draftsight from Dassault
Systems.
It would take a bit of effort to get to grips with, but
wouldprobably accept the inserted JPEG.

Plenty of help files available and it is so close to AutoCAD LT
that those could also be used.

Phil
--


----Android NewsGroup Reader----
http://usenet.sinaapp.com/

TheChief wrote:
Bill Wrote in message:
Can anyone suggest a simple (preferably free) drawing program for the
PC, where I can import a jpeg of some floor plans and then add to them.

Inkscape. You can draw lines, rectangles, curves, etc easily. It will also
maintain scaling, which is handy when you want to measure things or print
them out to scale.

(Though save as a format other than SVG if you want to send scaled drawings
to another program - EPS or PDF are fine).

One of the best free 2d drawing tools is Draftsight from Dassault
Systems.
It would take a bit of effort to get to grips with, but
would^Mprobably accept the inserted JPEG.

Plenty of help files available and it is so close to AutoCAD LT
that those could also be used.

Being anything like AutoCAD would be a reason not to touch it in my book...

Theo

On Thursday, 2 March 2017 21:09:08 UTC, Bill wrote:
Can anyone suggest a simple (preferably free) drawing program for the
PC, where I can import a jpeg of some floor plans and then add to them.

Alternatively, is it easy to scan drawings into a format that a line
drawing program will understand.

I'm not very good with CAD or drawing programs. I've tried to import a
jpeg into LibreCad, but it doesn't seem to appear. I'm struggling with
LibreOffice Draw, which does import.

I need urgently to be able to liaise between an on-site electrician and
a son who is the other side of the world, and may have to communicate
via email or texting pictures (which we haven't yet got working).

Gimp is the one.


NT

On Thu, 02 Mar 2017 21:07:17 +0000, Bill wrote:

Can anyone suggest a simple (preferably free) drawing program for the
PC, where I can import a jpeg of some floor plans and then add to them.

Alternatively, is it easy to scan drawings into a format that a line
drawing program will understand.

I'm not very good with CAD or drawing programs. I've tried to import a
jpeg into LibreCad, but it doesn't seem to appear. I'm struggling with
LibreOffice Draw, which does import.

I need urgently to be able to liaise between an on-site electrician and
a son who is the other side of the world, and may have to communicate
via email or texting pictures (which we haven't yet got working).

If you need simple stuff, and quick learning, try PowerPoint!



--
My posts are my copyright and if @diy_forums or Home Owners' Hub
wish to copy them they can pay me £1 a message.
Use the BIG mirror service in the UK: http://www.mirrorservice.org
*lightning surge protection* - a w_tom conductor

On Thu, 2 Mar 2017 21:07:17 +0000, Bill wrote:

Can anyone suggest a simple (preferably free) drawing program for the
PC, where I can import a jpeg of some floor plans and then add to them.

Alternatively, is it easy to scan drawings into a format that a line
drawing program will understand.

I'm not very good with CAD or drawing programs. I've tried to import a
jpeg into LibreCad, but it doesn't seem to appear. I'm struggling with
LibreOffice Draw, which does import.

I need urgently to be able to liaise between an on-site electrician and
a son who is the other side of the world, and may have to communicate
via email or texting pictures (which we haven't yet got working).

Ignoring what might be a tricky import in any case, Sketchup is pretty
good and being free you can all easily share and modify whatever gets
drawn.

https://www.sketchup.com/

Cheers, T i m

On Fri, 03 Mar 2017 00:42:58 +0000, T i m wrote:

On Thu, 2 Mar 2017 21:07:17 +0000, Bill wrote:

Can anyone suggest a simple (preferably free) drawing program for the
PC, where I can import a jpeg of some floor plans and then add to them.

Alternatively, is it easy to scan drawings into a format that a line
drawing program will understand.

I'm not very good with CAD or drawing programs. I've tried to import a
jpeg into LibreCad, but it doesn't seem to appear. I'm struggling with
LibreOffice Draw, which does import.

I need urgently to be able to liaise between an on-site electrician and
a son who is the other side of the world, and may have to communicate
via email or texting pictures (which we haven't yet got working).

Ignoring what might be a tricky import in any case, Sketchup is pretty
good and being free you can all easily share and modify whatever gets
drawn.

https://www.sketchup.com/

I meant to add Sketchup is my 'Goto' drawing package for anything I
need to visualise or actually plan re joints and intersecting objects
etc (unless you actually want an M.C. Escher object). ;-)

Cheers, T i m

In article ,
Bill wrote:
Can anyone suggest a simple (preferably free) drawing program for the
PC, where I can import a jpeg of some floor plans and then add to them.

Basically, you can't - or rather not like it would be good to do.

Vector based files - that you'd use to make a technical drawing rather
than art - define a line as running between two points (etc) and its
thickness. So you can move one of those points (say) and the line then
changes to running between that and the other one. You could scale the
drawing without altering line widths if you chose to, unlike enlarging a
JPEG where everything changes together.

You can produce a working drawing from a mixture of both, though. But not
an absolutely accurate drawing that you could scale from.

You'd normally have the JPEG or TIFF etc of the plan on one layer of your
drawing. Size it to the scale you want to use for the drawing. May be
impossible to get it absolutely correct, though.

You can then (on another layer is best) blank out say a line you wish to
change using a wider white one, and draw in the new over the top of that.

If it is a fairly simple plan, it would be better to re-draw the entire
thing over the JPEG, using that as a guide. But working from the true
dimensions of the room or whatever.

As others have said, the free 2D DraftSite is worth looking at, as it's
quite a good prog for this sort of drawing. And can use industry standard
files.

--
*A chicken crossing the road is poultry in motion.*

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

On 03/03/2017 00:47, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article ,
Bill wrote:
Can anyone suggest a simple (preferably free) drawing program for the
PC, where I can import a jpeg of some floor plans and then add to them.

Basically, you can't - or rather not like it would be good to do.

Any CorelDraw after v4 will do this. But v5 is a dog.

It's essential to get the bitmap rotationally aligned exactly right. I
usually fine tune this in CorelDraw by rotating the bitmap by 0.1deg at
a time.

Also the bitmap has to have no distortion. Check a sample vertical
distance against a horizontal one.

Lock the bmp layer when satisfied.


Vector based files - that you'd use to make a technical drawing rather
than art - define a line as running between two points (etc) and its
thickness. So you can move one of those points (say) and the line then
changes to running between that and the other one. You could scale the
drawing without altering line widths if you chose to, unlike enlarging a
JPEG where everything changes together.

You can produce a working drawing from a mixture of both, though. But not
an absolutely accurate drawing that you could scale from.

Why not? I regularly do CorelDraw jobs and scale from them, in fact for
small components I use them as a template.


You'd normally have the JPEG or TIFF etc of the plan on one layer of your
drawing. Size it to the scale you want to use for the drawing. May be
impossible to get it absolutely correct, though.

You can get it correct to 0.05mm in a drawing a metre wide on CorelDraw.


You can then (on another layer is best) blank out say a line you wish to
change using a wider white one, and draw in the new over the top of that.

But then the white line would blank out anything on lower layers. Unless
you mean blank out something on the background layer, in which case if
it's vector you delete it and if it's bitmap you pre-edit it in Photoshop.

With a floorplan that has a lot of irrelevant detail I usually give it a
good scrubbing in Photoshop before importing it into CorelDraw.


If it is a fairly simple plan, it would be better to re-draw the entire
thing over the JPEG, using that as a guide. But working from the true
dimensions of the room or whatever.

Agreed for a really simple background drawing. Especially if there are
lots of repetitive elements.

Bill

In message ,
writes
On Thursday, 2 March 2017 21:09:08 UTC, Bill wrote:
Can anyone suggest a simple (preferably free) drawing program for the
PC, where I can import a jpeg of some floor plans and then add to them.

Alternatively, is it easy to scan drawings into a format that a line
drawing program will understand.

I'm not very good with CAD or drawing programs. I've tried to import a
jpeg into LibreCad, but it doesn't seem to appear. I'm struggling with
LibreOffice Draw, which does import.

I need urgently to be able to liaise between an on-site electrician and
a son who is the other side of the world, and may have to communicate
via email or texting pictures (which we haven't yet got working).

Gimp is the one.

I'll research the others asap, but Gimp is what I've tried for now, and
have managed to send a jpeg to Japan, and got his comments back.

Next step is to work out how to draw a non-wobbly line between two
points or to move to something else (pencil and paper?). At the moment,
I don't need more than just a sketch so the electrician knows roughly
where to put the sockets, lights etc. tomorrow morning.

Thanks to all for the help.
--
Bill

On Thursday, 2 March 2017 21:09:08 UTC, Bill wrote:
Can anyone suggest a simple (preferably free) drawing program for the
PC, where I can import a jpeg of some floor plans and then add to them.

Alternatively, is it easy to scan drawings into a format that a line
drawing program will understand.

I'm not very good with CAD or drawing programs. I've tried to import a
jpeg into LibreCad, but it doesn't seem to appear. I'm struggling with
LibreOffice Draw, which does import.

I need urgently to be able to liaise between an on-site electrician and
a son who is the other side of the world, and may have to communicate
via email or texting pictures (which we haven't yet got working).
--
Bill

You can do simple stuff on LibreOffice Impress or Draw.

On 2017-03-03, Bill wrote:

In message ,
writes

Gimp is the one.

(As others have said, inkscape might be a good choice too, but if
you've started with Gimp, you might as well keep going.)

I'll research the others asap, but Gimp is what I've tried for now, and
have managed to send a jpeg to Japan, and got his comments back.

Next step is to work out how to draw a non-wobbly line between two
points or to move to something else (pencil and paper?). At the moment,
I don't need more than just a sketch so the electrician knows roughly
where to put the sockets, lights etc. tomorrow morning.

If you're using the "pencil" or "paintbrush" tool to mark the lines,
click on the image to make a point, then hold Shift down to draw a
straight line from that point. Hold Shift and then Ctrl down to
constrain it to a straight line at a multiple of 15° from
horizontal/vertical.

I hope that makes sense --- try it & you'll figure out what I mean.

On Friday, 3 March 2017 01:21:40 UTC, Bill wrote:
In message ,
tabbypurr writes
On Thursday, 2 March 2017 21:09:08 UTC, Bill wrote:
Can anyone suggest a simple (preferably free) drawing program for the
PC, where I can import a jpeg of some floor plans and then add to them.

Alternatively, is it easy to scan drawings into a format that a line
drawing program will understand.

I'm not very good with CAD or drawing programs. I've tried to import a
jpeg into LibreCad, but it doesn't seem to appear. I'm struggling with
LibreOffice Draw, which does import.

I need urgently to be able to liaise between an on-site electrician and
a son who is the other side of the world, and may have to communicate
via email or texting pictures (which we haven't yet got working).

Gimp is the one.

I'll research the others asap, but Gimp is what I've tried for now, and
have managed to send a jpeg to Japan, and got his comments back.

Next step is to work out how to draw a non-wobbly line between two
points or to move to something else (pencil and paper?). At the moment,
I don't need more than just a sketch so the electrician knows roughly
where to put the sockets, lights etc. tomorrow morning.

Thanks to all for the help.

Press N to activate the pencil. Click on the pic at one end of your wished line. Move to the other end and shift click - you have a perfect line. Control shift click adds alignment control.


NT

In article ,
Bill Wright wrote:
Basically, you can't - or rather not like it would be good to do.

Any CorelDraw after v4 will do this. But v5 is a dog.

It's essential to get the bitmap rotationally aligned exactly right. I
usually fine tune this in CorelDraw by rotating the bitmap by 0.1deg at
a time.

Also the bitmap has to have no distortion. Check a sample vertical
distance against a horizontal one.

Lock the bmp layer when satisfied.

Yes. But you can't then alter parts of that bitmap in the same way as you
can a vector drawing. With a vector drawing, you could for example select
just one line and delete or alter it.

--
*I'm really easy to get along with once people learn to worship me

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

In message ,
writes
Press N to activate the pencil. Click on the pic at one end of your
wished line. Move to the other end and shift click - you have a perfect
line. Control shift click adds alignment control.

Thanks (and to AdamF). Got it!
--
Bill

In article ,
Bill wrote:
Next step is to work out how to draw a non-wobbly line between two
points or to move to something else (pencil and paper?). At the moment,
I don't need more than just a sketch so the electrician knows roughly
where to put the sockets, lights etc. tomorrow morning.

That's one of the reasons to use a vector based prog. You use a suitable
sized grid and lock to that.

Download DraftSight and have a play.

I'm absolutely hopeless at freehand drawing. Which includes using a mouse
as a paintbrush or whatever. But can produced superb technical drawings,
and enjoy making them.

--
*I'm reading a book about anti-gravity. I just can't put it down.*

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

In message ,
harry writes
You can do simple stuff on LibreOffice Impress or Draw.

When I tried Draw, in certain areas of the picture it kept changing my
pencil to a reposition the whole picture tool.

No doubt it was my haste - the 9 hour time difference was stressing me.
--
Bill

On 03/03/2017 00:27, Bob Eager wrote:
On Thu, 02 Mar 2017 21:07:17 +0000, Bill wrote:

Can anyone suggest a simple (preferably free) drawing program for the
PC, where I can import a jpeg of some floor plans and then add to them.

Alternatively, is it easy to scan drawings into a format that a line
drawing program will understand.

I'm not very good with CAD or drawing programs. I've tried to import a
jpeg into LibreCad, but it doesn't seem to appear. I'm struggling with
LibreOffice Draw, which does import.

I need urgently to be able to liaise between an on-site electrician and
a son who is the other side of the world, and may have to communicate
via email or texting pictures (which we haven't yet got working).

If you need simple stuff, and quick learning, try PowerPoint!




My daughter draws all sorts of stuff in powerpoint for some reason.
I am learning 123D ATM.
Probably not what the OP wants though.

On 2017-03-02 21:07, Bill wrote:
Can anyone suggest a simple (preferably free) drawing program for the
PC, where I can import a jpeg of some floor plans and then add to them.

Alternatively, is it easy to scan drawings into a format that a line
drawing program will understand.

I'm not very good with CAD or drawing programs. I've tried to import a
jpeg into LibreCad, but it doesn't seem to appear. I'm struggling with
LibreOffice Draw, which does import.

I need urgently to be able to liaise between an on-site electrician and
a son who is the other side of the world, and may have to communicate
via email or texting pictures (which we haven't yet got working).

Inkscape?

www.inkscape.org

GNU licence. Vector based drawing.

YMMV

Alternately, print the jpeg, draw on it, rescan then email the result.

On Fri, 03 Mar 2017 11:24:07 +0000, dennis@home wrote:

On 03/03/2017 00:27, Bob Eager wrote:
On Thu, 02 Mar 2017 21:07:17 +0000, Bill wrote:

Can anyone suggest a simple (preferably free) drawing program for the
PC, where I can import a jpeg of some floor plans and then add to
them.

Alternatively, is it easy to scan drawings into a format that a line
drawing program will understand.

I'm not very good with CAD or drawing programs. I've tried to import a
jpeg into LibreCad, but it doesn't seem to appear. I'm struggling with
LibreOffice Draw, which does import.

I need urgently to be able to liaise between an on-site electrician
and a son who is the other side of the world, and may have to
communicate via email or texting pictures (which we haven't yet got
working).

If you need simple stuff, and quick learning, try PowerPoint!




My daughter draws all sorts of stuff in powerpoint for some reason.
I am learning 123D ATM.
Probably not what the OP wants though.

I wouldn't use it except for a quick and dirty job.

But if all you want to do is take an image and overlay it with some
drawing, it works well.



--
My posts are my copyright and if @diy_forums or Home Owners' Hub
wish to copy them they can pay me £1 a message.
Use the BIG mirror service in the UK: http://www.mirrorservice.org
*lightning surge protection* - a w_tom conductor

On 03/03/2017 11:31, WeeBob wrote:

Alternately, print the jpeg, draw on it, rescan then email the result.

Or use onenote.

In article ,
Bob Eager wrote:
My daughter draws all sorts of stuff in powerpoint for some reason.
I am learning 123D ATM.
Probably not what the OP wants though.

I wouldn't use it except for a quick and dirty job.

But if all you want to do is take an image and overlay it with some
drawing, it works well.

You can produce drawings of a sort using ASCII too.

Any number of progs can do one after a fashion - depending on the skill
and ingenuity of the user.

But if you want to produce plans, why not use a prog designed for just
that? And one that uses files which are standard for that sort of thing?

--
*There's two theories to arguing with a woman. Neither one works *

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

On 03/03/2017 11:06, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:

Lock the bmp layer when satisfied.

Yes. But you can't then alter parts of that bitmap in the same way as you
can a vector drawing. With a vector drawing, you could for example select
just one line and delete or alter it.


Yes. the best thing is to fully edit the bmp before you import it. But
if you forget, Corel will allow you to edit the bmp while it is embedded
in CorelDraw by using Corel's own bmp editor. Personally I don't like
doing that. It seems fiddly.

Incidentally if you put a layer between the background bmp and the main
drawing layers, fill that layer with white, then set it to a
transparency value, you can fade the bitmap. Alternatively you can fade
it by making it, itself, transparent, and putting a white layer behind
it. I notice that the HS2 detailed maps are done that way.

Bill

On 03/03/2017 00:42, T i m wrote:
On Thu, 2 Mar 2017 21:07:17 +0000, Bill wrote:

Can anyone suggest a simple (preferably free) drawing program for the
PC, where I can import a jpeg of some floor plans and then add to them.

Alternatively, is it easy to scan drawings into a format that a line
drawing program will understand.

I'm not very good with CAD or drawing programs. I've tried to import a
jpeg into LibreCad, but it doesn't seem to appear. I'm struggling with
LibreOffice Draw, which does import.

I need urgently to be able to liaise between an on-site electrician and
a son who is the other side of the world, and may have to communicate
via email or texting pictures (which we haven't yet got working).

Ignoring what might be a tricky import in any case, Sketchup is pretty
good and being free you can all easily share and modify whatever gets
drawn.

https://www.sketchup.com/

Cheers, T i m

I've been doing a Sketchup floor plan of my house.

I'm going to put down some laminate. Do you know how to get a
laminate/title pattern into Sketchup? Just outlines to help with laying out.

In article ,
Bill Wright wrote:
On 03/03/2017 11:06, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:

Lock the bmp layer when satisfied.

Yes. But you can't then alter parts of that bitmap in the same way as you
can a vector drawing. With a vector drawing, you could for example select
just one line and delete or alter it.


Yes. the best thing is to fully edit the bmp before you import it. But
if you forget, Corel will allow you to edit the bmp while it is embedded
in CorelDraw by using Corel's own bmp editor. Personally I don't like
doing that. It seems fiddly.

You can convert bitmap to vector. But the result isn't really practical.

Incidentally if you put a layer between the background bmp and the main
drawing layers, fill that layer with white, then set it to a
transparency value, you can fade the bitmap. Alternatively you can fade
it by making it, itself, transparent, and putting a white layer behind
it. I notice that the HS2 detailed maps are done that way.

Bill

If it were say a simple B&W plan or circuit diagram etc, I use a histogram
to filter it to pure B&W. You can then just 'white out' a wrong part and
correct it.

Here's a bit of a schematic that started out as a TIFF with a yellow
background and has had a volume control added. You can see how nasty
bitmaps can be when enlarged by the ragged line on the IC sides.

http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q...psexfucx8t.jpg

--
*Born free...Taxed to death.

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

On 2017-03-03, Bill wrote:

In message ,
writes
Press N to activate the pencil. Click on the pic at one end of your
wished line. Move to the other end and shift click - you have a perfect
line. Control shift click adds alignment control.

Thanks (and to AdamF). Got it!

It's worthwhile to learn the basics of layers & get into the habit of
using a lot of them to make it easy to switch bits of your work on &
off.

Nick wrote:

I'm going to put down some laminate. Do you know how to get a
laminate/title pattern into Sketchup? Just outlines to help with laying out.

Just get it as a jpeg/png file, create a new material using your image
as the texture, set the size of the texture to match your image to
whatever units you're using, then paint the floor with the material, you
can then right click the floor and choose texture/position and you can
"slip" the tiles around to see where edges and joins will fall and
adjust to suit.

Be careful with the red/green/yellow/blue pushpins which let you rotate,
scale and shear the texture - you probably want to avoid that in this case.

Theo Wrote in message:
TheChief wrote:
Bill Wrote in message:
Can anyone suggest a simple (preferably free) drawing program for the
PC, where I can import a jpeg of some floor plans and then add to them.

Inkscape. You can draw lines, rectangles, curves, etc easily. It will also
maintain scaling, which is handy when you want to measure things or print
them out to scale.

(Though save as a format other than SVG if you want to send scaled drawings
to another program - EPS or PDF are fine).

One of the best free 2d drawing tools is Draftsight from Dassault
Systems.
It would take a bit of effort to get to grips with, but
would^Mprobably accept the inserted JPEG.

Plenty of help files available and it is so close to AutoCAD LT
that those could also be used.

Being anything like AutoCAD would be a reason not to touch it in my book...

Theo


The reason I liken it to AutoCAD is because that is the industry
standard drawing software.
Draftsight will create dwg files pretty compatible with AutoCAD
and most other vector software.

Using this allows for direct measurement of clearances, walkways
etc. rather than guesswork from image files.

As Dave P says, layers can be used to separate different aspects
of the drawing such as electrics, services, furniture and the
like. Different layers can then be shown using the building plan
as the base so that one file covers a multitude of drawing
permutations.

Having worked in engineering design for over thirty years and now
managing a small design team I am certainly qualified to advise
on this topic.

Phil
--


----Android NewsGroup Reader----
http://usenet.sinaapp.com/

On 03/03/17 11:31, WeeBob wrote:
On 2017-03-02 21:07, Bill wrote:
Can anyone suggest a simple (preferably free) drawing program for the
PC, where I can import a jpeg of some floor plans and then add to them.

Alternatively, is it easy to scan drawings into a format that a line
drawing program will understand.

I'm not very good with CAD or drawing programs. I've tried to import a
jpeg into LibreCad, but it doesn't seem to appear. I'm struggling with
LibreOffice Draw, which does import.

I need urgently to be able to liaise between an on-site electrician and
a son who is the other side of the world, and may have to communicate
via email or texting pictures (which we haven't yet got working).

Inkscape?

www.inkscape.org

GNU licence. Vector based drawing.

YMMV

Alternately, print the jpeg, draw on it, rescan then email the result.

Inkscape is what I am using to draw lines on a jpeg atm. Works okay.
tw

On 3/3/2017 10:57 PM, TimW wrote:
On 03/03/17 11:31, WeeBob wrote:
On 2017-03-02 21:07, Bill wrote:
Can anyone suggest a simple (preferably free) drawing program for the
PC, where I can import a jpeg of some floor plans and then add to them.

Alternatively, is it easy to scan drawings into a format that a line
drawing program will understand.

I'm not very good with CAD or drawing programs. I've tried to import a
jpeg into LibreCad, but it doesn't seem to appear. I'm struggling with
LibreOffice Draw, which does import.

I need urgently to be able to liaise between an on-site electrician and
a son who is the other side of the world, and may have to communicate
via email or texting pictures (which we haven't yet got working).

Inkscape?

www.inkscape.org

GNU licence. Vector based drawing.

YMMV

Alternately, print the jpeg, draw on it, rescan then email the result.

Inkscape is what I am using to draw lines on a jpeg atm. Works okay.
tw

Lots of good stuff above about the various "clever" options if you want
to get into serious CAD stuff. The problem is the steep learning curve,
unless you are going to be using it all the time.

Others have said that GIMP or Inkscape can be used for adding stuff to
JPEGS. I have used both in the past, IIRC I used Inkscape a little while
ago when I wanted to rotate some photos a degree or so at a time, to
make up a sort of composite image, where various close-ups of a bit of
plant were orientated the same way as the "overview" picture.

I think it is worth saying that you can do a surprising amount with Paint.

I sometimes use Paint if I want to annotate a photo, usually of a
knackered piece of plant, with some arrows and simple text captions.

The other thing I use it quite a lot for is for extracting detail from
engineering drawings, usually original "blueprint" GAs which have been
scanned at reasonable resolution into TIFF files. Zoom in on these on a
reasonable quality screen, take a Windows screenshot and save that as PNG.

Open that in Paint, and you can clean up the image to remove folds,
scratches, and other rubbish until you have something suitable for
incorporation into a technical report. The other great thing you can do
is to "fill" areas with solid colour to help identify different parts in
a GA more clearly. Almost certainly, colour will leak into areas you
don't want it to because of missing pixels. But, Paint has an "undo"
botton and you can zoom right in and fix the leaks with the pen tool.

It can be a PITA, but unless you have access to a drawing office and
funding to get an old drawing re-drawn in CAD, I find it the quickest
way to provide illustrations when I am reporting on failure
investigations. You get faster with practice and the advantage of the
relatively limited capability of Paint is that there is not so much to
remember.

I have digressed a bit from your original requirement. But with your
floor plans, presumably drawn in CAD, a lot of the lines may well be
"horizontal" and "vertical". Paint is quite friendly for adding "square"
features (not so good for angles or curves). In a "buildings" context
you might find that is all that you need.

I usually save in PNG format, it is reasonably compact, compatible with
Office, and doesn't introduce the "blur" around curves that you end up
with in JPEG when you go down to the pixel level.