I’m a remodeling contractor specializing in kitchens and baths and don’t often need full architectural drawings. Can anyone recommend a simple drawing program that will simply produce a floor pland and 2 dimensional elevations? If it does electrical and plumbing plans all the better, but I have little need for rendering, 3D views, and all the other bells and whistles, just something to produce working drawings that I can submit to the city and use on the job.
Edited 2/14/2005 4:17 am ET by matt
Replies
I was recently faced with the same need. I have Chief Architect, which does 3d well, but I wanted a basic 2d program. I bought AutoSketch 9 from Autodesk/Autocad, and it works well. Very similar to Autocad LT, but not exacty. It will export to Autocad. They claim it has some 3d capabilities, but I have not tried that cuz that's not why I bought it.
It has a nice library of parts like cabinets and electgrical fixtures etc that you drag n drop.
If you really only want a basic program, give it a chance. About $125.
I'm sorry, I thought you wanted it done the right way.
Edited 2/14/2005 9:45 am ET by Ed Hilton
Thanks for the information, Ed. I took a look at the Autodesk site and it looks good. I've just got one question, though: will it automatically generate elevations from the floor plan? That was one thing I didn't much like about Autocad, though admitedly I'd used a very old version and it may be different now.
Autosketch will NOT automatically generate elevations from floorplans, nor will most other 2D drawing packages. That's why they're "2D"- they don't think in the 3rd dimension, and therefore can't extrapolate an elevation from a floorplan.
Bob
Nope, Bob is right. For $125 you get an electronic drafting table. If you can draw something on paper, you can do the same with Autosketch, the difference being accuracy, layering, making changes, etc. Chief and Softplan are examples of programs that automatically do elevations from floorplans. Well, automatically to a point, but you don't have to manually draw them.
I'm sorry, I thought you wanted it done the right way.
Thanks for the replies everyone. That's kind of what I figured. When I said I wasn't interested in 3D, I just meant that I didn't need all the virtual walk through and rendering and such. I think of the elevations on a blueprint as 2D, because it's only in one plane, but point taken. I have a 3D program that generates elevations, but it won't do dimensioned elevation line drawing suitable for working prints, which I think is ridiculous, but whatever. Any other input would be great, but at this point I it's looking like I'll just save up for Chief Architect or Softplan and dust off my college drafting table and T-square.