Deck Design Software

Wabbit

Does anybody know of any good software for deck design. I want to be able to use it to produce plans suitable for submission to Building and Planning departments for permits (although it'll be nice for the clients too).

I need to be able to produce plan and elevation, and to scale. I need to be able to produce custom designs, including stairs.

I initially got this one for $115: http://www.nwbuildnet.com/stores/ss/pa/pa_deck.html

…but it's not much good. It doesn't produce an elevation nor does it show where the stairs are. And it's not to scale – just shows a plan view with the length and breadth dimensions marked.

I googled and found these two:

http://www.cad-quest.com/products/de...ult.aspx?sm=pd

http://www.chiefarch.com/

I tried downloading the free trial versions and neither will execute! I'll have to contact their support desks next week (when I get some spare time – haha), but so far can't try them out.

I have also found these people: http://www.decktools.com/ - but no free trial that I can see.

What do you use? Any help will be appreciated.

Wabbit

Well, I managed to download the demo to this one http://www.cad-quest.com/products/de...ult.aspx?sm=pd - it doesn't do elevations and doesn't print to 1/4 inch scale. And so for $1,295 I think I'll decline.

This one costs $3,295 A SEAT! And no free trial. Seems excessive just to draw some plans.

I'll see if I can try the third package later this week.

S.W.C.

Try AutoCad Lite, you can get a free trial (a fully fuctioning version that works for 15 days) at www.autodesk.com

You can get a trial version for both AutoCad lite, and the full 3-D version of AutoCad as well.