Simple app for scale drawings

SabrinaLeech

I have a sketch with sizes on that I need to turn in to a scale drawing on (garden cabin / glorified shed with a couple of dormers stuck on the front to create space in the roof!). I've never used CAD before so can anyone point me in the right direction?

ST1991

Depends how detailed you need it. I use Roomstyler to get an idea of floorplans/furniture layouts. Not sure if it was do what you need it to for more detail though...

TheCyclingProgrammer

I have used SketchUp for this before. Its better suited to 3D drawings but it can be used for 2D work. It has a separate dedicated app made precisely for this called LayOut but its only part of the commercial package unfortunately.

Gloomendoom

Most CAD software has a pretty steep learning curve if you want to create anything othee than simple shapes.

You may be better (quicker) just using paper and pencil. That's what I did.

Davesnave

Gloomendoom wrote: »

Most CAD software has a pretty steep learning curve if you want to create anything othee than simple shapes.

You may be better (quicker) just using paper and pencil. That's what I did.

And don't forget the cardboard shapes for the furniture! :rotfl:

leveller2911

As above pencil and ruler..........You always buy a scale ruler which could make it easier depending on what scale they want.

Doozergirl

I use a scale ruler and pencil

malc_b

For 3D I would suggest Sweet Home 3D. That is fairly simple to learn and you get 3D views so you get a good feel as to what the end design will be like. Downside that you need pre-made models, it comes with some but not a lot. Upside to that is that SH3D uses a standard 3D format that you can export from sketchup so you can either create your own models in sketchup (very steep learning curve!) or just final a model on Sketchup warehouse then convert using sketchup is it isn't already on warehouse in the right format (many are).

For 2D I would suggest Draftsight which is a free CAD package like AutoCAD. Not too difficult to learn for simple stuff. Tip for that is watch what comes up in the text window, so if you click box on the side menu you'll see it asks start point (click or specify, e.g. 0,0) and then second point or dimensions (hit d key, then enter box dimensions as asked). It's pretty each to build up shapes that way. Another useful feature is import image so you can trace over it to get a shape.

Note I don't know if Sketch up Make (the free version) can still save as .dae files which you need for SH3D to import. This was available in Sketchup 8 so if make can't do this maybe you can save from make as sketchup 8 format and find an old version of 8 to install.

Update: Just found a differences matrix and the free sketchup make can still import/export .dae files.