Making your own plans/blueprints - Help with finding a CAD software

[willone]

Hi - this question might sound a little bit daft. I am looking for a CAD program to help me make plans/blueprints for scale building. I have had a look at the ModelCad 12, but I am looking for something a little bit diferent. I would like to find a program (might be that some allready suport this) that alows me to load a picture, and then create my plan over it! Puting out dots, conecting lines etc. Do any one know if there is a userfriendly alternative out ther for this?

[willone]

Well I feel I might

Well I feel I might have to claryfy my question somewhat. The thing is, if I have like an old or smal blueorint in a book. It would be very convinient to just scan it, and then open it up in the CAD software. Dott the lines around the picture (might be time consuming) and then after much work get a CAD blueprint that I could "scale" acordingly to my wiches.

[mike byers]

If you can afford it,

If you can afford it, AutoCAD is the way to go. you can import bmp's and "trace" over them.

You may be able to find a student version that is not too expensive, but be careful, some of these versions will not allow you to plot.

[elec_tech]

Willone,

For designing and drafting

Willone,

For designing and drafting with a computer program, AutoCAD is the best way to go as far as I am concerned. However, that being said, a full version of AutoCAD can run you a lot of scratch..and for the average guy, is not worth the money. The full version should only be purchased if you are really getting into some extensive 3D modeling or heavy 2D plans. From what you are describing, you just want to trace and plot at different scales. There are a few other different programs you can use that will do the same thing as AutoCAD. AutoCAD is just one brand... let me list a few

AutoCAD - http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk....2704278
CADopia/intelliCAD - http://www.cadopia.com/products/inte...intellicad.asp
Rhino - http://www.cadopia.com/products/rhino/rhino.asp
TurboCAD - http://www.turbocad.com/

There are a few more but these seem to be good programs for what you want to do. They should allow importing of images of whatever file type and then it's up to your drafting skills as to how you trace out your plans.

Your description is quite clear and makes perfect sense willone, keep looking for something that fits what you want to do. if you need help, just ask!

Dan

[raalst]

and of course, do not

and of course, do not forget to check the open source
for CAD stuff.
A quick google shows a lot of stuff showing up.

[liftmys10]

Rhino 3.0 has a very

Rhino 3.0 has a very friendly to use interface. I've been drafting on AutoCAD for sometime and i feel that the same drafting can be done on rhino which is easier to use and less expensive than autoCAD.

gluck and start draftinn!

[willone]

Thank you all. Very informative.

Thank you all. Very informative. The ide I had vas to outline, trace some swedish submarine models. Pretty siple dseign, but I like to get the ratio and scale right. As I figure it, such a method I talked about earlier ought to work for basic modeling and plans building. I am gonna follow up on all of these tips during the weekend. If I ever procude something that isn´t half bad, I´ll post it here somehow.
Thanks again.