Any free CAD software

[DavidKendall]

Want to draw up some basic ideas for house extension - does anyone know of any free CAD software that I might use to do this please?

[meow2222]

alt.comp.freeware can help

NT

[dom]

I've used QCAD a little, and it can read .DXF (Drawing Excahnge Format) so files can be interchanged with Autocad and others.

new kid on the block is SketchUp - a highly intuitive 3D package - I like.

[jhiker]

try here...

and download 'progeCAD LT 2006' - it's almost identical to AuotCAD and fully compatible if that's a consideration. Has lots of features and is fairly easy to pick up - there are many tutorials knocking around. It really is excellent.

[The Natural Philosopher]

There are some versions of turbocad available on the net.

[sm_jamieson]

I used vectorengineer pro-tools to do my extension plans, which were passed a couple of months ago. I found it easier than the normal auto-CAD style programs. You can download the quick tools version for free, and it may be enough. It can't do hash patterns and dotted lines though. Program has a few quirks. Biggest one - the dotted lines cannot be scaled, so you have to chose a reasonable drawing scale to start off with. I started off with 1:1 and had to convert everything to 1:10 so that the dotted lines came out dotted.

[Guy King]

The message from " [e-mail]" contains these words:

round a centre.

[stuart_noble]

[Guy King]

The message from stuart [e-mail] contains these words:

My 8yo boy has been designing the perfect house. So far the gym and games room have pushed the rest of the house into a shoebox.

[dom]

Yeah, it really is worth a download and a try-out of the very nice tutorials. The basics are really, really intuitive - way better than any other draughting package I've tried.

[Brian Sharrock]

SketchUp looks great for rapid sketching of a building; but how does one generate an aggregation of items into a 'building'? In other words, one can rapidly 'sketch' a bog-standard' house, with hipped roof -even 'paint' tiles- and generate windows with transparency form 'surfaces'; but if one wants to 'construct' a roof using rafters, purlins, and joists of certain sizes at certain spacing .... how does one start?

[Guy King]

The message from "Brian Sharrock" contains these words:

Do one, then copy it all down the roof. Select move/copy, choose the item to be copied, then press and release [Ctrl]. A + will appear beside the cursor. Now, click on the endpoint, and then type /n [Enter] where n is now many repeats you wanted. You can change the number as often as you like until you do something else, then it's locked.

[Brian Sharrock]

Thanks for responding; - I'm interested in SketchUp for 'modelling' my 'intended' single storey rear extension and loft conversion proposal/project/pipedream. I've tried to follow your instructions; but couldn't get it to work ....

I 'constructed' a beam/joist by drawing a rectangle on the red axis/blue axis, then (rotating the eye point) 'extruded' the rectangle into a beam of an arbitrary length- about twice the 'height' of the man. I used the component tool to capture all the surfaces and this became my 'one'.

That happened !

I moved the mouse and the 'move/copy' cursor moved along the red axis to a guesstimated thirty feet .... and clicked ...

..... did that (typed in figure 5) ...

Five 'beams' appeared all cheek by jowl with the original 'one'.

They were not spaced as I interpreted from your message .... should I nudge each individual 'beam' into position?

Thanks for responding.

[Stuart Noble]

Looks every bit as impressive as Picasa. Let's hope Google come up with a free OS next

[Guy King]

The message from "Brian Sharrock" contains these words:

No, if you've done it right they should be all spaced out twixt start and finish.

Rather than try it on your Magnum Opus[1] just play with a rectangle or even the little bloke [2] to see if you can get it to work.

[1] Large Irish cat detective. [2] No, not play with your little man...

[OG]

I thought their aim was that you don't need an OS,- or at most, only enough to support a browser.

[Brian Sharrock]

I played with my little man .... quite quickly I had ranks of twenty odd, in files of three; with mutiple instnaces of 'flights', squadrons and wings! ... It's certainly powerful ....