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Thread ID: 86555	2008-01-20 21:51:00	Any one use floorplan/map software?	rob_on_guitar (4196)	PC World Chat

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
632298	2008-01-23 02:09:00	Cool looks like I have a few choices. Basically Im doing building lay outs, camera placements, card reader placements, diagrams for showing control panels/inputs etc. Work gave me visio but its horrible. Down with Visio! :p Great stuff. Like what I used to do before completely retiring. Having retired I realised I missed drafting too much - and hate either golf or fishing. Since then I have made 120 + offers to people who needed drafting work - and I charge nothing. Believe it or not I have never ever had a reply from any of them. Not one. Anyway getting off that. In the days when I worked bent over a double elephant drawing board pushing heavy pencils up steep slopes I realised that many fitters, builders etc hate coping with monster drawings flapping around - so I always made my drawing so that they could cut out, or fold, the bit they wanted into a small (foolscap size) and work from that. Computers make it easy. I have done quite a few drawing of houses etc where I presented the drawings in a A4 file arrangement. The builder engineer etc just looked up the page wanted ie the drains in a house and the A4 sheet was easily read and no bother with wind etc. Tom	Thomas01 (317)
632299	2008-01-23 02:24:00	Ho Thomas. Have you had a lookj at Google's free SketchUp? Probaly like a toy to the professionals but it quite like it.	Scouse (83)
632300	2008-01-23 03:03:00	Ho Thomas. Have you had a lookj at Google's free SketchUp? Probaly like a toy to the professionals but it quite like it. Yep! Didn't like it. But it is a "SKETCHUP" so it may be OK some places. Long time since I tried it so I may give it another go. I must admit that I have been trying for ages to find something to replace my DCWIN because it is no longer supported. But having no luck - nothing I have tried so far touches it. By the way are there any poor souls out there who tried (as I did once) to live with Dancad3D And in those DOS days I had NO mouse - just keyboard. Dancad was a clever program too difficult for most of us to cope with, but I did manage to turn out a fair number of drawings with it until one of my 14 year old pupils introduced me to Draft Choice. Bless her cotton socks. Tom	Thomas01 (317)
632301	2008-01-23 20:12:00	Well as I promised I have looked into CAD Std some more. And don't like what I have found. The help files are not much help unless you are determined to spend time looking. But the information is there somewhere for most problems and quite well written. I tried dimensioning and was amazed. What on earth caused the programmers to provide such out dated and poor dimensioning systems. Dimensions should have the main dimension line with an arrow at each end and should NOT be a broken line (they went out in the 1950s and on 3 continents working for firms like British Aircraft, Boeing, Mattels, Fletchers etc ) I have never used or would allow my students to use a broken line. The actual dimension quoted should be above this line. A further difficulty I found was in not being able to "lock" my lines so that they were either horizontal or vertical only. DCWIN does this by pressing the f8 key. Other faults I have found may be due to me not knowing the program well enough but certainly so far it strikes me as most unsuitable for use professionally. But then it has a professional version so I may try to look at that. (Do they allow temporary use?) On the other hand if I were a 20 year old and wanted to make a drawing of my new workshop and didn't envisage using a drafting program too much then I may find CAD Std easy to use for this and forgive its other lack of functions. DCWIN learning curve is harder and as we all now know is no longer supported. Goodness knows why! Tom	Thomas01 (317)
632302	2008-01-24 09:48:00	Hi Thomas, You can change the dimension look by clicking on Dimension settings in the Settings area. Can then place dimensions automatically above the line. I did have a go at finding an alternative program a while back and downloaded JustCAD. Couldn't figure it out (in 3 seconds flat) so stayed with CAD Std and haven't looked for other alternatives. There are no doubt problems with the program that those more experienced with CAD can spot at a glance - like no symbols library. But is this a case of getting what you pay for? For me it was a quick and cheap way of getting into CAD drawings - and an improvement on fishing out the drawing board, tee square etc for odd drawings - and finding all the pens had dried up through lack of use. Can you suggest any better alternative programs within the price bracket of $US0 to $US50?	Mercury (1316)
632303	2008-01-24 18:51:00	DraftChoice for Windows, smaller, faster, free. More powerful and easier to use too :)	R2x1 (4628)
632304	2008-01-24 20:29:00	Hi Thomas, You can change the dimension look by clicking on Dimension settings in the Settings area. Can then place dimensions automatically above the line. I did have a go at finding an alternative program a while back and downloaded JustCAD. Couldn't figure it out (in 3 seconds flat) so stayed with CAD Std and haven't looked for other alternatives. There are no doubt problems with the program that those more experienced with CAD can spot at a glance - like no symbols library. But is this a case of getting what you pay for? For me it was a quick and cheap way of getting into CAD drawings - and an improvement on fishing out the drawing board, tee square etc for odd drawings - and finding all the pens had dried up through lack of use. Can you suggest any better alternative programs within the price bracket of $US0 to $US50? Yes I had already discovered the way to change the way dimensions are shown. And what you suggest works but still is incorrect. The dimension should be above the line and between the arrows. I saw some drawings done in the CAD Std way in the early 1950s but they were mainly old ones and the method thankfully died out. I am amazed that you consider using pens for drafting. Pencils are the accepted medium and pens were generally used by tracers when drawing had to be copied and made to last many years of handling. If using tracing paper or cloth I always insisted on minimum H and HB for printing. The use of plastic film and plastic pencils was a big improvement but I haven't seen this medium in NZ. Draft Choice as suggested byR2x1 is the obvious way to go although I don't know what they charge for it now. A small point Draft Choice was in fact the DOS version (very good program it was too) and the windows version is DCWIN - the later program can quite easily handle drawings produced by the DOS version. In fact a strange fault about DCWIN is that occasionally it will save a drg in the DOS mode. Puzzling! I still reckon that any drafting program that does not have access to SYMBOLS is unacceptable. Gosh I seem to be monopolising this thread. Hope you will forgive me but I feel usefully employed doing this - I hate not working. Tom	Thomas01 (317)
632305	2008-01-24 20:46:00	Hi Thomas, Once you click the two ends of the dimension line move the mouse back to where you want the figures to go and click there. The numbers will then be above the line rather than to the right of it. Thirty years ago the firm I worked for (large Auckland one) required pen work - and razor blades to remove the errors. Have also worked in pencil. We'd always thought that Dad, a well known electrical/mechanical engineer, would have sat up in his coffin saying "Hang on, one more amendment to the drawing!" but in the last couple of years of his life we realised that was unlikely due to his illness. At his funeral in October though I did suggest that if we felt any cold drafts then it would have been Dad fiddling with the controls. (Heard later that a pager tied into a building Dad had worked on went off 3 times during the service. First time the pager had gone off in 2 years since the system was installed). Dad hated fishing and golf too. Will look for a copy of DCWIN.	Mercury (1316)
632306	2008-01-24 21:04:00	Hi Thomas, Once you click the two ends of the dimension line move the mouse back to where you want the figures to go and click there . The numbers will then be above the line rather than to the right of it . Thirty years ago the firm I worked for (large Auckland one) required pen work - and razor blades to remove the errors . Have also worked in pencil . Yes you are right . I had missed that point about moving the dimension . One up to CAD Std . Your mention about razor blades tickled me . In the 1950 I was one of the very few draughtsmen allowed by British Aircraft Warton to use ink . (Generally the tracers did the work) . I hated razor blades - it was so easy to muck up and go through the paper (actually linen at BAC) . And the noise was irritating . We also used Sepias and Ozalids where bleach had to be used to remove existing lines etc . The electric eraser, for ink work, was a huge improvement . I had only been in NZ a few weeks when a magazine slammed the fact that lazy engineers etc found it necessary to use an electric eraser - the poor dears . Needless to say I wrote and pointed out that they were not lazy - the electric eraser just simply got rid of lines without ruining the paper - I still have mine somewhere . The magazine did apologise . I think I would have enjoyed meeting your dad . Tom	Thomas01 (317)
632307	2008-01-24 21:22:00	Have found a couple of copies of DCWIN but they won't install. Comes up with a message of corrupted file. Does it work with XP? Will have another go later today. Times ticking by and I have to go out.	Mercury (1316)
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