best programe for drawing house plans?

horsenaughton

Just wondering would anyone know of a good progame for drawing plans for a house that is easy to use. have House Plan Pro ver. 5.2.12.4 but is there anything better out there. Thinking of trying to draw my own set of plans instead of having an architect rob me?

cian1500ww

Em not sure about this one but maybe AutoCAD ?? I used it while studying technical drawing in school. Very good program for drawing but there might be programs better designed toward house design.

Biggins

If you what something uncomplicated look at an application called "Smartdraw"

See here: http://www.smartdraw.com/

Easy to use but has tons of stuff that might be of use to you.

horsenaughton

cian1500ww wrote: »

Em not sure about this one but maybe AutoCAD ?? I used it while studying technical drawing in school. Very good program for drawing but there might be programs better designed toward house design.

Used AutoCAD myself very good program it something like that im looking for but wondering if there anything like it designed for building house plans

Thomas_S_Hunterson

horsenaughton wrote: »

Used AutoCAD myself very good program it something like that im looking for but wondering if there anything like it designed for building house plans

Autocad should be fine for designing houses.

von Neumann

Google sketchup!

Easy to use and free,

If you're serious about house plans I'd skip the architect and get an architect techician.

They know all the in's and out's and have probably drawn more houses than you can shake a stick at!

P.S.

They have a forum under home and garden.

Overheal

Von beat me to it: Google Sketchup.

gman2k

horsenaughton wrote: »

Just wondering would anyone know of a good progame for drawing plans for a house that is easy to use. have House Plan Pro ver. 5.2.12.4 but is there anything better out there. Thinking of trying to draw my own set of plans instead of having an architect rob me?

Sure, cos you will be able to design and draw a house and an architect won't...or if he can, he will have to charge you for the cost of doing it?
What about building regulations - will you know how to apply them to your house design?
What about the local authority? What about fire safety? What about energy?
An architect charges you for these services, and for his expertise. You get nothing for nothing.
Oh, yeah, by the way - AutoCAD is the only programme to use, unfortunately it's very expensive - but then again Architects have to pay for that also.

Donald-Duck

gman2k wrote: »

Sure, cos you will be able to design and draw a house and an architect won't...or if he can, he will have to charge you for the cost of doing it?
What about building regulations - will you know how to apply them to your house design?
What about the local authority? What about fire safety? What about energy?
An architect charges you for these services, and for his expertise. You get nothing for nothing.
Oh, yeah, by the way - AutoCAD is the only programme to use, unfortunately it's very expensive - but then again Architects have to pay for that also.

Aren't we little mr defensive

Thomas_S_Hunterson

Donald-Duck wrote: »

Aren't we little mr defensive

Well it's a pretty legitimate concern. Using something like sketch-up is only useful to get an idea of what something will look like. To do a proper drawing you need to use a more serious package like Autocad.

gman2k

Donald-Duck wrote: »

Aren't we little mr defensive

Well, I consider it fair comment - for example, most architects study for seven years - same length as a doctor.
Would you say - I'm going to fix myself next time I get sick- not going to let that doctor rob me?
Or next time you need a solicitor?....
There is a lot of expertise that goes into producing plans, maybe it's just not apparent to the average Joe!
Anyhow - this is off topic :-) AutoCAD is the only programme to use!

Donald-Duck

gman2k wrote: »

Well, I consider it fair comment - for example, most architects study for seven years - same length as a doctor.
Would you say - I'm going to fix myself next time I get sick- not going to let that doctor rob me?
Or next time you need a solicitor?....
There is a lot of expertise that goes into producing plans, maybe it's just not apparent to the average Joe!
Anyhow - this is off topic :-) AutoCAD is the only programme to use!

You mean the way you can get over the counter medicine without going to the doctor?

von Neumann

gman2k wrote: »

Sure, cos you will be able to design and draw a house and an architect won't...or if he can, he will have to charge you for the cost of doing it?
What about building regulations - will you know how to apply them to your house design?
What about the local authority? What about fire safety? What about energy?
An architect charges you for these services, and for his expertise. You get nothing for nothing.
Oh, yeah, by the way - AutoCAD is the only programme to use, unfortunately it's very expensive - but then again Architects have to pay for that also.

AutoCAD is the industry standard, but there is very little AutoCAD can do that sketchup can't, (you will need Pro version for file formats). Sketchup is catching on with quiet a few Architects I know.
I think it would be a very useful tool for exploring options with.

Tester46

Donald-Duck wrote: »

You mean the way you can get over the counter medicine without going to the doctor?

Ha Ha, try getting bank funding if you say to the bank, "Oh, yeah and here are some plans I drew up myself there earlier. I'm sure they'll be fine"!!!

mjsmyth

Try using ProgeCAd Smart. It is an Intellicad based drafting package. It reads and writes to Autocad DWG natively and uses the same interface (more or less) as Autocad.

If you can use Autocad, you can use Intellicad.

It can be downloaded (link at bottom of page) for free from:

http://www.progesoft.com/?page=smart2008&lang=eng

mj