I am interested in recomendations on design software that would be useful for me as a small remodeler. I’m tired of waiting for (and paying) a draftsperson. My requirements are as follows in order of priority.
1-overall quality and completeness of software.
2-ease of use and short learning curve. (I have no prior experience with cad programs)
3- Cost
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One of the most common questions here, I'd suggest you do a search in the archives under "CAD" etc and see what's already been said. Unfortunately I think your requirements are mutually exclusive but...having said that, I use Chief Architect, like it a lot. But not cheap or very easy to use. Google "Sketchup" (now owned by Google), the basic version is free (yuppp...free) or Google "TurboCAD", I bought a discontinued version from a website called something like "nothingbutsoftware.com" for about 10 bucks...
Good Luck!
PaulB
Sketchup is all you need, and it is free. Here is what I did withing a week of downloading my copy. Go also to my posts about kitchen design, titled "another kitchen for comment."
Exteriors, interiors, decks, framing, staircases, etc. Google Sketchup can do it all for me.
Edited 7/14/2006 5:39 pm ET by Gene_Davis