Computer-Aided Drafting

[Oki_Man5]

Anyone familiar with CAD programs?

I have need to draw some house plans for the houses I plan to build in my subdivisions, and if I buy a plan, due to copyright laws, I must buy a plan for each house I want to build; the math says this will become a great deal of money by the time I get all the plans.

The question is about a program I ran onto last night while searching for plans or CAD software. The program is "Home Plan Pro." For the price, I cannot see how it might be a good program, but reading the features and the entire website, it appears it will do what I need. The website is

http://www.homeplanpro.com/index.html

Has anyone used this program or d/l it and played with it? It sounds like there is no way to lose (except a bit of time playing with it and the frustration it might cause), but I am looking for comments if anyone is familiar with CAD programs.

Thanks, Pete

[ibda12u]

Hmm... I've heard of it but never played with it.
I'll ask a friend of mine who does some CAD what he thinks, and I'll post back.

In the meantime though, nothing would hurt dl'ng a copy and diving right in.

[okcpulse]

Take a look at TurboCAD Delux. It may be a bit more complicated than Home Plan Pro, however it has more features. AutoCAD is just way too complicated for the average user, and unless you've had some training, you'll often find yourself lost. However, AutoCAD delivers everything you need and more. Unfortunately, it wasn't designed for the average user. Plus, a license is $699.

[upisgr8]

You might give this a try, it's Open Source http://www.arthis.jyu.fi/ida/iintro.php
I am going to check it out and give some feed back and post any results I might have.