autocad for homeowners?

MLMIB

so I moved into a house built in 1959 and I was lucky enough to have the original owners son give us the original plans this past weekend. I'd like to get them into something like autocad so that I have them longer then the paper will last me. Autocad is crazy expensive, but is there any alternative that will be good enough for a home owner? I'd primarily like to use the plans for planning additions/room changes such as tearing down walls and getting accurate measurements before hand.

Thanks

Just Bill

Try Better Homes Home Designer. It is a scaled down version of Chief Architect, fairly powerful but not expensive.

baum

google sketch-up

GB Greg

There are a lot of options for viewing and manipulating CADD drawings. There are free viewers and inexpensive CADD software options.

IMHO- If you're just looking to store the files for reference later, simply take it to a printing company, prefferably one who deals with blueprints, have them scan it for .pdf and .dwg. The .pdf means you'll be able to view it in Adobe Reader or Acrobat. The .dwg is one of the standard file extension for Autocad and others. Make sure that it is scanned in proper scale. If your physical print is 48x30, it needs to be scanned at that dimension to preserve the scale in the drawings.

In either event, unless you recreate the entire drawing in Autocad or another program, you're not going to be able to manipulate the drawings anyway, as far as I know. It will be like using Photoshop on a photo.

-Greg


Edit: Baum has an excellent idea with Google Sketch-up. It's a free and easy tool for novice drawing. You can make 3-d models of your rooms and then walk-through them to see the changes before getting out any tools. I use it in my business frequently!

alarmemaison

Yes, Google Sketch-up is fine but I don't know if we can import Autocad files in it ?

ENGINEER10

Use progeCAD 2009 Smart! from Progesoft

It is free and saves everything in Autocad format, importing/exporting too.

acerunner

not the free version. but the paid pro version can.

forresth

lets see here.....

paper has lasted since 58 and is still readable and understandable, but you want a piece of CAD software so it will last much longer?
there are computer databasses that may go back that far, but it is hardly easy or cheap to read and work with them these days.

ps. good luck reading computer media from the early 90s, much less further back. I tried hooking up my 5 1/4" floppy and my old 120mb HD from my first PC to a more recent one and couldn't get anything. now even IDE drives and 3.5" floppies are going extinct.

1910NE

i use Chief Architect to plan layout (footprints) and Sketchup to model in 3D.

SPS-1

Here is another free "autocad" package -- Draftsight. Its pretty good

http://www.3ds.com/products/draftsig...ight-overview/

Georgepag

If you have a college student in the family you can get auto cad kith pretty cheaply. That's what I did but now use sketchup. It is MUCH easier to master.

Georgepag

Got to improve my typing! That last reply should have said Autocad Lite.

anyscale

Have a look at www.anyscale.co.uk. If you scan the drawings and save them as a pdf, you can use QuickScale to take off measurements and areas. You will also be able to print the drawings to scale on A3 and A4 even if the original was created in A0. There is a 30 day free trail available and after that it costs £199 plus VAT - much cheaper than CAD. You wont be able to add to the drawing like CAD does, QuickScale is just a measuring tool and allows you to print to scale.

pyper

If you have a scanner, you can scan the document in random pieces and use the free software, hugin, to assemble them.

As far as future work goes, bear in mind that plans are just that, and more often than not things don't go according to plan. So you'll need to do an "as-built" drawing anyway.

forresth

Cheaper than CAD? ha. Draftsight is free and does everything I've done with AutoCAD lt, and loads quite a bit quicker.