Deck Design Software

TNTdecks

I see there's been a bit of discussion in the past re deck design software. I've tried the Sierra product as well as the Cad Quest "deck designer" which is the cheap version that several of the distributors provide. Both are inadequate, near as I can tell, for printing out docs for the customer to view. Renderings are really small when printed from both products... Am I doing something wrong or is this the way they work? Has anyone purchased the Cad Quest "deck standard"?

DeckTools looks sweet but I have kids to put thru college someday....

Stone Mountain

I've been looking very carefully at these programs. The cheapies are designed for homeowners, not pros.
Cad Quest is a pretty good program, and seems quite capable. It costs about $1200 U.S.

Deck Tools is an amazing program, with incredible graphics. I actually bought it last year, but it couldn't do a lot of what I wanted, so I returned it under thier 30 day money back guaranty. It was (gulp) $3300 U.S.

Last week at Fence Tech, both suppliers were there. I again looked at them. They are each more powerful, and have lots of new features.
Cad Quest can now accpet a picture of the homowner's house, so you can show the deck in 3-d, attached to the actual house. However, I really don't like the interface. They are more engineering oriented, with better cut lists and material lists, but have inferior graphics. They are also the people that Home Depot uses to do a design in their stores.

Deck Tools has fixed a lot of my concerns, and you can now lease it for $150/month, which is a LOT easier than $3300 at one bite.
You can now do benches, screens and the like, which you couldn't before.


I have an appointment for a demo for each one at Deck Expo at the end of this month.
I am leaning towards Deck Tools. The graphics are mind blowing, and if you install it on your lap top and sit with a customer to design their deck right in front of them, they will be stunned.

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TNTdecks

How'd you schedule an appointment to preview the software at Deck Expo?

RYANINMICHIGAN

I have not found an affordable good software for this. I do every thing on the drafting board.....

magnum

I was at a trade show luncheon on friday and found this www.decktools.com If I specialized in deck and didn't have auto cad this looked like a good product. Down side is the $3200 price tag. They do have a month by month rental of $150.

John Hyatt

Sketchup works well,good support,not bad in price a person can do just about anything they want with this program. John

Stone Mountain

Both suppliers asked me if I was going to Deck Expo, and both offered to sit with me, one on one. They offered, I accepted.

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TNTdecks

Make sure that you ask Cad Quest to print out their designs - I've only been able to print them with microscopic renderings. Nothing a customer could look at and understand.

I'm checking out a program from Luxwood - $995 to purchase and my local lumber yard also uses it.

Good Luck - I hope to hear what you decide after the expo.

RobertCDF

Hey Stone, you should see if they will let you export the designs to .JPG onto a USB key for you to compare side by side. Then maybe you could post them on here for us to see side by side.

Since some of us are not as cool as you are to have suppliers hunt us down to demo thier $3000 programs.

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Colorado Springs Custom Decks
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RYANINMICHIGAN

crayola has some nice stuff

Thewoodman

Hey Stone

Would you mind if I hooked up with you at the Expo when they talk to You. They could kill two birds with one Stone so to speak. No pun intended.

I Have been debating if it is worth it to purchase a nice deck program. I like the idea of leasing it. That would mean you would always be updated.

On thing to ask is can you load the program on your laptop and desktop with out having to pay two licensing fees.

I 've got your cell I will call you when I get into Vegas. I am staying at the Luxor. It is a little ways from the hilton, but I have always wanted to stay in the pyramid, plus it was only $168 for two nights for two people.

Mark

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Stone Mountain

Sure, no problem. I'm also meeting Bone Saw while I'm there, so we can have a good chat session.

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Bone Saw

while we're all meet'n, bring your laptops and you can load up a copy of my AC for free if you'd like

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Thewoodman

Chris

This may sound dumb but, what is "AC"? Is it a deck program? I will have my laptop with me for sure though.

I hear you and I might be attending the same meeting on Wensday of the Deck Expo. That should be cool.

Mark

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RobertCDF

Ok guys... Deck expo is over. You need to fill us in on how you feel about the software you checked out.

I have started playing around with google sketchup more and like that alot but I would love to have something I could take to the bids with me and have it do one quicker than I can do in sketchup. And have it spit out a price (configured by me using unit pricing) would be a huge bonus.

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Colorado Springs Custom Decks
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Custom Composite Decks

BreyerConstruct

Robert! You beat me to the punch man!

I was just getting ready to write this exact question!
What's the word on the new & improved Deck Tools guys?

~Matt

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Stone Mountain

Took a good loooong look at Deck Tools. The graphics are flat out stupendous.
Engineering: not so good. It doesn't always put the structure where you know it's supposed to be.

Learning curve: basic or mid line decks: a couple of hours.
Very detailed decks with benches, trellis, skirt, etc: lots of hours.

Cad Quest: cheaper, very engineering oriented. The graphics cannot compare to Deck Tools

Seljax: useless. I don't know how they find cutomers.

My opinion:
If you are designing your deck in your office, and the structure is imprortant, go Cad Quest.

If you are sitting with the customer and designing right in front of him, Deck Tools is the way to go. It will blow the client away, and you ought to be able to close on the spot.
You can fix up the structure later. After all, you're not going to build the deck on the spot!

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Rollo

How about free software, online?

Check out hXXp://wrcla.org/deck_designer/

Design a multi level deck in minutes, structural analysis, lumber list and 3d views in a couple of minutes more. Best I've seen.

RobertCDF

Well I dont want to spend a couple hours in the customers home before I even get the job. (even though I am sure I could sell it right on the spot... thats a long time to ask them to hang out with someone they dont know.) It looks like I will end up going with cad quest a little later on. I will just continue using google for now and see how good I get with that.

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Colorado Springs Custom Decks
Colorado Custom Decks
Custom Composite Decks

Stone Mountain

I rarely have a deck call go less than 1 1/2 hours. I had a call today that took 2 hours. Intros, discussion, measuring, sketching, look at the album, small talk. I can't see doing it much quicker.
Will I get this one? I don't know. Unfrotunately I couldn't develop any rapport, but still, he says he wants a good job and price isn't important. I will be taking him to look at two or three decks next week.
We'll see. When I mentioned $15,000 for wha he wanted he didn't seem phased at all.

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