Room plans/drawing

[forkies]

Hi all,

 

I have been using smartdraw to do room plans and the school map for example. I now have to draw up multiple designs for 5 rooms in the next few months and want to look at something different then smartdraw, what do you use for this?

 

-I want something that I can draw out the layout of the room accurately, entering actual measurements of the room, including and recesses and locations of windows.

-Either draw or place furniture such as desks or benching, we have a few odd shaped pieces that would need custom drawing.

-Not needed but would be nice to draw up 3D plans, but switch between 2D/3D on same documents, so I can show 3D view of finished space.

 

I did some good 2d designs of our last media suite using smart draw but found sometimes editing little things such as placement of a window or breaking a wall connection threw the whole design off everywhere and cost hours of time correcting, at one point I actually started a fresh because it wouldn't make a really small line go straight, it was always at an angle!

 

Info on any software you use would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks,

Tom

[FN-GM]

I use Visio, really good for things like this.

[forkies]

Thanks, after some searching I found Autodesk Autocad is now available free for education! So signed up and got a free 3 year 3,000 user license. Will see what this can do.

[Andrew_C]

There's a gotcha on Autocad "free" versions. You can't use it for the School's "business", only for teaching.

 

I use Visio, and am currently trying to find where the hell they've moved all the tools between whatever I had before a re-image and 13. I do wish it would export proper .dwg files though!

[bwestlake]

we use visio here

[RobFuller]

Viso is my choice but sketchup layout is another option.

[Sephiroth]

I tend to use Sketchup for this. Perhaps not the simplest method, but gives nice and accurate designs.

[sparkeh]

Visio- perfect for this

[forkies]

Visio seems to be a winner amongst you. Will try this if licensing stops Autodesk, although I could get a student to do it for their lesson????

[p858snake]

There's a gotcha on Autocad "free" versions. You can't use it for the School's "business", only for teaching.

 

I use Visio, and am currently trying to find where the hell they've moved all the tools between whatever I had before a re-image and 13. I do wish it would export proper .dwg files though!

 

For building design, Try Autodesk Revit!

[Ketlane]

When I went on a school lab design course they recommended IKEA's online kitchen designer software.....

[sparkeh]

When I went on a school lab design course they recommended IKEA's online kitchen designer software.....

*choke* that's the worse piece of ever, even the IKEA planners hate it.

[kennysarmy]

AutoCAD here...reminds me of my roots (7 years as a highway engineer)

[forkies]

So based on no time to learn and try other bits (although I would like to) I ended up just updating my smartdraw subs and using that. At least I can copy some old room layouts and just change the walls windows I guess.

[mb2k01]

I've given up doing 2D drawings now unless absolutely required - I just use Sketchup and do 3D instead.

Same amount of effort but far better results which always 'wow' those who request them.