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Re: [OM] Wildly off-topic request for the assembled Wise Ones...

Subject: Re: [OM] Wildly off-topic request for the assembled Wise Ones...
From: Moose <olymoose@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Thu, 05 Jun 2003 16:06:14 -0700
I used to use Drafix CAD, first the DOS versions, then the Windows version. When I went looking later for something to do what you are looking to do, I ended up with the same product, but now sold by Autodesk as QuickCAD. Turns out Autodesk, the AutoCAD folks, purchased the Drafix software to bring out as an entry product for AutoCAD, replacing the less competent one they had designed themselves. I don't know if or how it is available now, but I like it pretty well. The program is so small and fast that I think it was probably coded in assembler; the exact opposite of MS and other bloatware. As you would expect, it reads and writes AutoCAD format files, so anything you do is prettey universally accessable.

BTW, you don't create lots of copies, you create multiple layers with the different floors, systems, etc. on them and can make whatever combo you want visible for view/printing at any time. This is how all proper CAD software works. That way, all interrelated revisions are kept coordinated. If you move a wall, you can see where it has gone while working on the electrical layer to reflect the revision, for example.

Many years ago I laid out some remodels of offices in a big old converted warehouse. In the first couple jobs, problems cropped up during construction where lengths of walls would be off a few inches, etc. When I used CAD software on the next one, rather than tracing paper over the official drawings from engineering, I had already done so much changing in prior jobs that I measured out the existing walls, only to find when I entered everything into the program, that the official drawings had the big concrete columns in the wrong places! For years, they had been referrencing everything to these columns, whose spacing was just a couple of inches apiece off and the outer walls, whose distance in one direction from the columns was off about a foot.

Moose

Garth Wood wrote:

Well, forgive me, but this is the only mailing list I belong to that appears to have a greater-than-background-noise proportion of intelligent people lurking on it, so I thought I'd solicit some advice/opinions.

I'm in the midst of preparing to completely re-build two rooms in my partially-developed basement, and I'm looking for a Windows-based CAD program that will allow me, with a minimum of pain, to sketch out what I'm doing (I need the ability to create many copies, variously annotated with electrical, HVAC, etc.). I'd prefer a package that I could buy over the Internet, since physical purchases of software are really hit-and-miss. I've been looking at a couple of contenders, but I'm hesitant to purchase without any idea of what it's like.

Anybody use such beasts? Any recommendations? All input greatly appreciated.




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