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Looking to remodel your own little castle in Spain? Perhaps just design a modest little country cottage or addition to your current abode? As in many areas, software tools and expertise up until relatively recently accessible only to professionals are now available to just about anyone that cares to invest a little time and money acquiring and learning how to use them. Architectural design and building construction -- for good reason -- remains a highly specialized field of endeavor that holds on tightly to traditional methods of acquiring the knowledge necessary to be a professional.
In further review of the suggestions, the whole article just misses completely. The IMSI Turbo Floor Plan is Windows only. They do have a general purpose CAD application which runs on MacOS which is junk when it comes to architecture and junk when it comes to anything else. The other recommendations are just as if not more useless.
Sketchup (basic) is about the only suggestion in the whole lot which is of any utility for the presumed target audience. It is useful and it is fun to use. But it's a concept application, not a drafting or blueprint application.
HighDesign is an excellent new general purpose drafting application.
Live Interior 3D is most likely the closest to the target audience available.
MacDraft is an excellent drafting cad design application which has a consumer and pro version.
Lastly, Cheetah3D is one of the best bargains out there for a general purpose 3D cad.
There is a huge gap in price / performance and learning curve between any of these and Vectorworks.
There used to be one in the middle which ran on Classic, now gone.
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Sketchup (basic) is about the only suggestion in the whole lot which is of any utility for the presumed target audience. It is useful and it is fun to use. But it's a concept application, not a drafting or blueprint application.
HighDesign is an excellent new general purpose drafting application.
Live Interior 3D is most likely the closest to the target audience available.
MacDraft is an excellent drafting cad design application which has a consumer and pro version.
Lastly, Cheetah3D is one of the best bargains out there for a general purpose 3D cad.
There is a huge gap in price / performance and learning curve between any of these and Vectorworks.
There used to be one in the middle which ran on Classic, now gone.
.
I am a little surprised with the reference to IMSI/TurboCAD in an article on O/S and Linux. TC is not, never has been and probably never will be O/S and the only version of TC that can be made to run on Linux is the ancient Turbocad LE (learning edition) which is no longer supported by Turbocad and must be obtained from an independent source. That said, it will run under wine and, even though it is more than 10 years old, it is vastly superior to the open source alternative QCad and is IMHO the best choice for a Linux CAD user.
quote: "One of the most useful programs for 3-D visualization is Google's (Nasdaq: GOOG) Latest News about Google SketchUp -- it takes only a few days to master, Stitt said. For drafting, he recommends VectorWorks as the cheapest and easiest to learn.
"There are some very simple programs for home design that are quite adequate for small-scale work," he said."
I have and use both. At 500 + and 1600+ neither are cheap. Far from it. While Sketchup Pro is a bang to use and learn, it's really not for the casual user. Vectorworks is FAR FAR away from anything a casual user would want to get involved in. While it may be slicker and easier to use than AutoCAD, that is due to AC clunkiness, not VW's simplicity. VW is just as much as a professional level application.
There is a basic level version of Sketchup, but no such equivalent for VW. I suggest and ask you edit your story a bit for clarity lest someone get in over their head.
There are several 3D and 2D CAD applications geared to drafting and the more casual user far more suitable than either.
There is a pretty comprehensive list here:
http://www.pure-mac.com/cad.html
"There are some very simple programs for home design that are quite adequate for small-scale work," he said."
I have and use both. At 500 + and 1600+ neither are cheap. Far from it. While Sketchup Pro is a bang to use and learn, it's really not for the casual user. Vectorworks is FAR FAR away from anything a casual user would want to get involved in. While it may be slicker and easier to use than AutoCAD, that is due to AC clunkiness, not VW's simplicity. VW is just as much as a professional level application.
There is a basic level version of Sketchup, but no such equivalent for VW. I suggest and ask you edit your story a bit for clarity lest someone get in over their head.
There are several 3D and 2D CAD applications geared to drafting and the more casual user far more suitable than either.
There is a pretty comprehensive list here:
http://www.pure-mac.com/cad.html
