Hi I am a newcomer to the breaktime. Nov 26, 2008
I am looking for software that will help me draw Floor Plans/house plans, that has a quick learning curve.
I plan to be building in May 2008- an ICF house with Arctic trusses in Alaska.
Any suggestion would surely be helpful.
Thanks,
Fredak
Replies
Welcome,
Attached is one proven design for your locale. Why reinvent the wheel?
Google Sketchup will take a couple of hours to get up to speed but it's nice for the price (free).
What's an arctic truss?
Good luck with your project.
So you plan to join next November?
What experience do you have with computers? How big is your budget?
"Put your creed in your deed." Emerson
"When asked if you can do something, tell'em "Why certainly I can", then get busy and find a way to do it." T. Roosevelt
Your best bet for a quick learning curve will be pencil and paper.
Welcome aboard. Where in Alaska are you planning to build?
FKA Blue (eyeddevil)
I use Softplan
There have been half a dozen disccussions on this topic in the past year, If you use the advanced search button in that left collumn for trems like CAD you can find them.
Hard to give you a clue without knowing your experience and budget. CAD that is worth learning is worth paying well for, but might be hard to learn or pay for when you are only doing one house.
but then since you seem to have mastered time travel, you can probably do OK, LOL
Welcome to the
Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime.
where ...
Excellence is its own reward!
A little off of your initial Q but what is your intent for the use of this software? Do you want to create conceptual drawings for a architect or designer to work from? Or, do you want to actually design the whole house and produce the working drawings?
If you want to do the former, there are a number of inexpensive software packages like the aforementioned Google Sketchup (free) or another called 3D home architect.
If you want to do the latter (full design) you need real design software and some real time to learn it. Just based on the fact that you asked the question, I wouldn't advise you doing this. Besides the learning curve associated with real design software, there are a number things that home designers know that the average person doesn't.
For example, currently we have someone who wants us to build him a house. He gave us a drawing - you know - one of those floor plans and front elevation things out of a those books or magazines that are available at any home improvement center or magazine rack. We gave him a ballpark price, and he gave us his budget which was tight but do-able and said he wants us to build him the house. OK - great! Life is good! Then yesterday, Boss man calls me up and says Mr. XYZ wants to make a few changes to the house layout and has sent us a drawing he made - "you know he designs office furniture layouts for a living"... :-) So I take a close look at the drawing - first of all the guy wasn't aware that the local zoning restrictions dictated a max house width of 40' - he had "designed" the house layout to 42'. More to the point though he had other stuff like a garage that was 18' deep (not deep enough to park a full sized car and walk around it). Walk in closet that is 3' deep - not enough room to hang cloths and actually enter the closet. Master bedroom walk in closet 4'x6' - OK big enough to hang cloths and walk in but for 2 people? This guy is married, and although people vary, 4'x6' is big enough for 1/2 of my wife's cloths - much less two people's cloths. At first he told us he wanted a shower only in the master - his drawing shows a garden tub with a full sized window above - now there is no shower?? drawing shows a 3' wide hallway - do-able - but not really appropriate for other than the smallest of starter homes.... The list goes on and on. Not to mention the fact that he added ~500 heated square feet - remember I mentioned the tight budget....
So, my advice is make a conceptual drawing of what you want (or find one in a magazine etc) and then give it to a real designer...