CAD software for barn designs

[stretch3050]

can anyone recommend a CAD software for general farm building and yard designs,

 

[RWG Contracts]

Are you making the buildings or more just to give customer an idea kind of thing?

 

[stretch3050]

Just for my own use, just to give myself some sort of idea for now,

 

[RWG Contracts]

Get google sketch up, I use that to give customers an idea, you can put your farm onto sketch up and accurately measure what space you have ect and put new buildings in place ect. if you get it, I'll post some screen shots on here of how to do the basics if you want

 

[stretch3050]

Excellent thanks, I'll have a look

 

[RWG Contracts]

There's two, google sketch up and sketch up pro. You don't need pro

 

[stretch3050]

Any tips would be much appreciated

 

[RWG Contracts]

For sketch up, if I get time ill do some screen shots tonight

 

[Jonny B88]

+1 for sketchup! Great wee system

 

[Tinman Steels Ltd]

I've never been able to get on with sketchup, i tend to use Draftsite (Free One) which is a 2D CAD program.

I have got to draw our yard soon but i haven't had time as of yet but there are loads of youtube video's for this aswell if you get stuck.

 

[RWG Contracts]

Thing with sketchup its 3D so I can use it for planning drawings

 

[Tinman Steels Ltd]

We was just discussing the only issue with the free Draftsight is it's only 2D, i'm sure you can buy the pro which i think is 3D but it is really easy to use.

One day i will try sketchup again and hopefully have more luck.

 

[Steevo]

Wish I'd thought to ask on here before about this. Tried to get some planning drawings done before but difficult finding anyone independent locally to do them.

 

[RWG Contracts]

Not had time again tonight to do you some screen shots I promise ill get them done

 

[RWG Contracts]

Right i'll do my best now to teach you

Open sketch up, mine looks like this

to move around you press the scroller wheel down on your mouse and that rotates you around the spot full 360 degree view.

To Move around press Shift+Scroller wheel and the you can move around.

Before you start drawing you need to set what measurements you want to draw in,g

go to "Window" and select "Model Info"

I have mine set to mm but you can set it to feet or metres, and the other good thing, say you wanted to draw a something in feet but your builder needs measurements in mm the simply select mm and measure what you've just drawn

Drawing on sketchup is really easy,

select the pen tool

Then to draw a line simply click and move your mouse and the line with turn the colour of the axis you're following so you know you're running in a straight line

when your drawing your line, you can see in the bottom right corner it tells you how long it is as well, if you click to draw your line then type in the measurement and press enter the program will draw your line the correct length for you.

 

[Steevo]

That looks rather handy. Do you need to put labels on them for planning applications showing measurements, materials etc?

 

[RWG Contracts]

lets say we've started to draw this 5m square

when you join it up the square will turn grey, this tells you its a solid shape and every side is parallel

you can make this shape a group so its harder to accidentally alter it,

to do this, left click and hold the mouse and move your mouse diagonally over the shape

doing this will select the shape,

Right Click
Make Group

that shape is now a group and cannot be altered, you can delete it but not alter it accidentally.

to alter it,

Right Click
Edit Group

when you are in this mode you can only alter that group, to get out of that mode, right click outside the shape and press exit group.

if you wanted to alter this group to make it 3D its very easy,

press the push/pull button at the top of your screen

then press on your shape and push it or pull, you can do this manually or by typing the measurements in

Is this making sense or am I been to basic or to complicated?? I've been using this for years so I'm finding this quite difficult to know what to say

 

[RWG Contracts]

That looks rather handy. Do you need to put labels on them for planning applications showing measurements, materials etc?

These Sketches usually go alongside a proper drawing. planning drawings have to be to a scale, you can't do that on here.

I've just got planning on a job and the planners wanted to see how big the building was in relation to everything else, so by using google earth I can draw it without having to take site measurements

Like wise a customer wanted to know if he could fit a 45'x60' silo in a tight yard, so i can go on this and draw it square and show him

 

[Sheep]

Thanks for that @RWG Contracts; much appreciated! I never knew you could do that with google earth and sketchup!

 

[RWG Contracts]

Thanks for that @RWG Contracts; much appreciated! I never knew you could do that with google earth and sketchup!

no problem.