Does anyone know of any free or open source CAD software? I am in a situation where I need to investigate the possibility of building an addition to my house, so we need to be able to draw up some plans. Visio would do the job, and I can use it at work, but it’s not free and I do not own a copy for any of my personal computers.
I’d prefer a Windows program, but I can deal with it being on Linux if that’s the only reasonable way to get the job done.
3 responses to “CAD software?”
Just pulling up the list in Ubuntu, it looks like you’ve got two readily accessible Debian/Ubuntu Linux options – Qcad which is a professional level CAD program with all the extra bells, whistles, and complexity that implies, and SagCad, a simpler 2D system out of Japan (with all the language issues that implies).
If you need to interface with an architect for this project, Qcad will output industry standard .dxf files, which they can then haul into their CAD system of choice.
The link is to ribbonsoft.com, so I’m not 100% sure there isn’t a suggested registration donation, et cetera.
Another suggestion that seems a little odd until you really think about it is to use a Quake or Doom level editor. The walls may not look right, but it’s still a 3D room based emulator which is all a house really needs to be represented by.
Actually, I find trying to create plans in 3D to be very difficult and distracting. I’ve found some stuff online for Windows, but if there’s a simple “2D house plan” mode in any of it, I can’t find it. Visio actually offers a very good environment, and because I’ve got it on my work laptop, that’s what we are using at the moment.
Google Sketch-Up. It isn’t great for converting to 2-D, but it does help w/ project visualization.