Your fine magazine (pun intended) has a number of ads for architectural/construction/drawing software. Unfortunately I have purchased one (not advertised as of yet) which turns out to be the one of the best roads to sainthood I’ve encountered in a long time! Has FHB done a comparison of the different packages: what audience might the various levels be tailored to: the benefits and drawbacks of each, etc.? As one who enjoys playing around with house plans I would appreciate any test comparisons you might do. If any other subs have some specific recommendations based on your real-world experience please share. Thanks in advance. Edwin
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CAD
If you are just playing around, anything will do.
A step up from that is to download the free google Shetch-up.
If you are a pro, you want a good object based design package with 3-D, materials listing, etc.
I use and love Softplan
Another good and popular one is Chief Architect., followed by Vectorworks and ....Try the search engine. This is a regular question.
Joe Stoddard at JLC has done comparison articles for both low-end and high cost packages.
CAD
Thanks for the info...I'm on my way to talk to Joe the Cad (info) guy.
software just for drawing
If all you want to do is draw up a design to see if it looks OK, check out Amazon for an old copy of Punch!Pro or one of the other design packages. I picked up a copy for $18 and it's fine to visualize and do a fly-through on-screen. This is a very economical option, but if you actually need to print blueprints then you'll need more industrial software as suggested above.