Recommendations for architecture software?

going2die_rich

Can anyone recommend any good architecture software for designing house plans etc?

996ducati

Most of the commercial architects we deal with use AutoCAD.

There are lots of variants of this & they arent always backward compatible.

However it is very expensive & takes a bit of training to get used to but it is a really powerful bit of software.

996ducati

xzibit

Yeah, I use AutoCAD. It's pretty much the industry standard. Some workmates use FastCAD32, but I think it's pretty old. Have heard of ArchiCAD but never seen or used it. Think it may be for Apple Macs, but unsure.

AutoCAD is quite pricey though, you can get the light version (AutoCAD LT) for about £1k a pop I think?!?! That's what they quoted work iirc.

going2die_rich

Thanks, think I'll try AutoCAD on your recommendations.

AMO

A friend of mine uses AutoCad, but he also uses TurboCad (I think it is) and also a package called Sketchup (which I think is some kind of fast drawing tool for simple drawings to get the initial point across).

AMO

[Deleted User]

If you are doing it yourself, try google sketchup - it's free and rather easy to use once you get the concepts down. It took me a couple of hours to make a rather good 3D model of my house (with textures and few bits of furniture)

lush_walrus

I would agree with the others, what do you want the software for, you mention architecture but are you wanting to have an image or a scaled plan. Sketch up is very good at producing very fast results but it is very basic and if you want plans for something like a planning application then definately not the programme. If you are looking for 2d plans, sections elevations (ie line drawings) then yes Autocad, you can pick up second hand previous versions of Autocad pretty cheaply as Autodesk drop any form of support after a short period of not upgrading.

If you are looking for something more sophisticated in terms of modelling then Microstation, 3d Studio Max are much much better.

All of them bar sketch up (which is quite intuative) will take a period of learning to know how to draw, but just as a basic tip for you in all of the programmes you will need to choose whether you want to draw in metric or imperial, then whichever you choose you will need to draw everything at 1:1.

hander

I've just had to do some planning sketches (to scale) for a minor planning application. I used the trial version of SmartDraw and got around the limit on printing by doing one drawing and setting the correct scale, then exporting to pdf (via a free downloadable pdf convertor available from the same company) and then printing from there.

So, as long as you keep editing and resaving your original drawing, you have 7 days in which to get your plans done. (after that the software expires).

Watch out for the watermark on the print preview! You just need to make sure you avoid it with your plans and then cover it over when you make a copy to get rid of it.

Worked for me, anyway.

There's a distinct lack of cheap/free planning software which is a pain if you've got to do a one-off drawing to scale.

totalsolutions

AutoCad with 4-5 yrs experence

economiser

Do a google search for free CAD software. I am using APM GraphLite and it does a fair job. Rather limited in line types and thicknesses. OK though for the occasional user.