[abrogard]

I sometimes have to submit drawings to the local council and I'm not good at drawing. I like computers and I'd like to do the drawings on computer.
But I've tried a number of CAD drafting progs and they all seem incredibly difficult to use.

What I want to do should be baby simple for a drafting prog. Just a site boundary and shape and location of buildings on that site.

But though I can knock up a whole house or something in minutes in Sketchup or something, to actually draw an accurate drawing to predefined lengths and angles is always beyond me.

Can anyone recommend a prog to me?

I've tried, for instance: Autocad, Sketchup,Instacad,Envisioneer,IMSI Design, Smartdraw and Inkscape - and more, those are just the ones I saw then when I looked at my programs listing.

Perhaps the thing I want is amongst them and I've missed the secret of how to use it for such basic tasks. In which case I hope someone will enlighten me.

The kind of thing I want to draw I'll illustrate by attaching an image of the most recent task. Pretty poor scan because of all grid behind it but perhaps you'll be able to see what I mean.

 

[J F]

 

[TimelessQuality]

Site plans for tiling?

 

[Willie T]

It's a couple of hundred bucks, but AUTO Sketch is the easiest program I've ever used.

But SketchUp will do everything you mentioned.

But the trick with any CAD program is that you do not just use it.... you spend some time and learn it. Huge difference.

 

[mics_54]

If you can READ, you can learn to use most programs. NEVER before in the HISTORY of mankind have you had the resources available to learn virtually anything. Your ability to learn to use cad is a matter of you sitting on your butt for a few minutes each day and wtching a freakin video. So stop being a lazy a** whiner and get to work.

Brought you by Tough Love Inc.

 

[fairfaxgc]

Auto Sketch is easy to learn and looks proffesional. It is not as advanced as CAD nor as automated but for simple drawings it is great. We used it for several years to draft our plans prior to spending big bucks on Revit.

 

[Ed the Roofer]

MS Paint and GIMP are both pretty easy and powerful for simple drawings.

Ed

 

[Tinstaafl]

CorelDraw or Xara. They both have stripped down versions vs the full magilla. I did online tech support for Corel for several years, and still use the Draw app for all my layout work. It's incredibly powerful once you climb the learning curve, but for simple stuff like your scan, it's easy-peasy.