Design Software for building projects, what do you use?

[dickfoster]

Microsoft Visio - Microsoft Store

Looks like it got pricey indeed. I used it long before Microsoft got their hooks into it when it wasn't nearly as pricey. I think it may have even began as a shareware or something back then. It didn't cost a lot, not even for Visio Technical which was very useful for almost all of what I needed it for. I never could get the hang of Autocad finding it so feature rich it got in the way to the point of being unusable unless you made a full time job of it. Then at those prices there were what some would call better 3D CAD packages out there that were price competitive. One popular one was Solid Works. It was used by a lot of the mechanical engineers that I worked with, in addition to the many Autocad adherents of course.

 

[Raised on a Deere]

Looks like it got pricey indeed. I used it long before Microsoft got their hooks into it when it wasn't nearly as pricey. I think it may have even began as a shareware or something back then. It didn't cost a lot, not even for Visio Technical which was very useful for almost all of what I needed it for. I never could get the hang of Autocad finding it so feature rich it got in the way to the point of being unusable unless you made a full time job of it. Then at those prices there were what some would call better 3D CAD packages out there that were price competitive. One popular one was Solid Works. It was used by a lot of the mechanical engineers that I worked with, in addition to the many Autocad adherents of course.

Thanks for your comments. I am taking a crack at Draftsight, and they are emailing me some tutorials and other helps. Found out they are connected with SolidWorks, may be the same company, don't know, just wound up talking with solidworks people when I was checking on the training for Draftsight. I did not need a lot of training, just some handy dandy command lists etc and some getting started orientation. Finding out that it is a part of solid works was a plus because I had already been learning that solidworks has a pretty loyal following unlike many AutoCAD users who use it because it is the most robust but are looking for a substitute that costs less. Nothing like making a guy feel like he is getting hosed to motivate him to look toward the competition. In my world we call it, funding the competition.

 

[dickfoster]

Thanks for your comments. I am taking a crack at Draftsight, and they are emailing me some tutorials and other helps. Found out they are connected with SolidWorks, may be the same company, don't know, just wound up talking with solidworks people when I was checking on the training for Draftsight. I did not need a lot of training, just some handy dandy command lists etc and some getting started orientation. Finding out that it is a part of solid works was a plus because I had already been learning that solidworks has a pretty loyal following unlike many AutoCAD users who use it because it is the most robust but are looking for a substitute that costs less. Nothing like making a guy feel like he is getting hosed to motivate him to look toward the competition. In my world we call it, funding the competition.

An interesting little aside about Solidworks. It was started by an MIT student who got his funding by being a part of the MIT blackjack team which most people know of.