CADD questions

[Dario]

I want to learn and practice CAD since it can be very useful for my line of work.

Anyone knows a good but reasonably priced CADD software that doesn't require too much additional/extra peripherals?

What self help book can you recommend?

I am computer literate and believe that I can learn from a book pretty quickly especially if there are good hands-on practice projects.

Any related input and recommendations are welcome.

Thank you.

 

[Nolan]

Dario PM sent

 

[MesquiteMan]

Dario,

CAD is too general of a term. What do you want to do with it? The application will depend on what you plan to do with it. IF you want to do house or building plans then you are better off with a parametric CAD program specifically for Architectural design that will create a 3-D of the building as you go. That is the area of my expertise in CAD. As you know, I am a home builder. You may not know, however, that I design and do the drafting myself on 98% of the custom homes that I build. I use a program called Cheif Architect. I have been using it for 10 years or so and it is now one of the top rated Architectural CAD programs out there. Not cheap, though at $2,195 but then again, nothing that makes you money by increasing your productivity is!

Here is a couple of interior renderings I did on a recent job. These were real quick without spending much time tryng to really make it realistic.

 

[Dario]

Nolan, PM sent.

Curtis, You are right (shows I don't know anything about it [:I]). My target is for architectural/engineering plan purposes. $2,195.00 is definitely out of my range right now though.

Thanks guys!

 

[Nolan]

Originally posted by MesquiteMan

Dario,

CAD is too general of a term. What do you want to do with it? The application will depend on what you plan to do with it. IF you want to do house or building plans then you are better off with a parametric CAD program specifically for Architectural design that will create a 3-D of the building as you go. That is the area of my expertise in CAD. As you know, I am a home builder. You may not know, however, that I design and do the drafting myself on 98% of the custom homes that I build. I use a program called Cheif Architect. I have been using it for 10 years or so and it is now one of the top rated Architectural CAD programs out there. Not cheap, though at $2,195 but then again, nothing that makes you money by increasing your productivity is!

Here is a couple of interior renderings I did on a recent job. These were real quick without spending much time tryng to really make it realistic.

Yah but if you used Architecture 2008 or even Autodesk Architectural desktop 2007 then I can used your DWG and design trusses off of it Just kidding you Chief is a top line product.

 

[DozerMite]

I have AutoCad 2007/Inventer. It is capable of rendering anything you desire. If purchased, I think it is around $4,000. A little pricey, but very powerful.

If you just want to try it out... try SketchUp. It's FREE.

 

[DCBluesman]

Dario - I'm no expert, but there are a bunch of choices and price ranges here. http://www.cadsoftware.com/

 

[MesquiteMan]

Nolan,

I can export to .DWG or .DXF! I have a 7,000 sf house I will be starting in a couple of months and it calls for 24" deep floor trusses. If shipping from CA was not so high I would order them from you!

 

[arioux]

Dario,

Google has a CAD project, a free version and a $495. version. Only difference is mostly in support and export feature. Good intro package, even in the free version. You can search for open source CAD in google, wou will find few ones too. You can lear at a very low price and then, invest in a more complete package later if you want.

http://www.sketchup.com/

If you search scetchup tutorial in google, you will find many sites and forum on this product too, even video tutorial, all free.


Alfred

 

[gatornick]

Deltacad.com might be worth a try. You can try it free for 45 days, and its only $40 if you like it. I haven't used it much, but a superintendent I work with who was too overwhelmed with Autocad has been using this one for awhile. He pretty much redrew a $7mil building we were working on, and his drawings were really good from it.

 

[Dario]

Received the "package" today and all I can say is THANK YOU very much NOLAN!!!! [^]

 

[Nolan]

Originally posted by MesquiteMan

Nolan,

I can export to .DWG or .DXF! I have a 7,000 sf house I will be starting in a couple of months and it calls for 24" deep floor trusses. If shipping from CA was not so high I would order them from you!

I was kidding on the DWG thing, I can use Chief drawings they just loss a little fluff so to speak when brought up by CAD. My layout program is actually based on a different CAD structure than AutoCAD. Same stuff just different name although I also have the new Arch. 2008 by AutoCAD. If you want shot me a DG and let me see if I can get close to the price you need. I just shipped a project to Utah and another to Vegas for a customer.