CAD software

19ninety · 23 Oct 2007 at 11:48

does anyone recommend any easy/beginner software thats free?
just playing with some ideas atm for home, which require some creativeness and would like to show the missus something in colour and 3D rather then my lines and arrows on paper which dont really express my ideas to well out side of my mind.

Cheers!

Jono · 23 Oct 2007 at 11:50

Google Sketchup?

19ninety · 23 Oct 2007 at 11:55

ah good old google, one day those buggers are gonna rule the world, its like a silent invasion..... like that film The Stuff HAHA

D/ling now, will give it a try, looks perfect so far!!

Thanks, oh, other ideas also still welcome =)

MTA99 · 23 Oct 2007 at 12:04

KALIB'R said:
Thanks, oh, other ideas also still welcome =)

There are no other ideas sketchup is all you'll need

Have a sniff around here:
http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse
Loads of models that you can drop straight into your designs to pad them out a bit.

A bit of a tip on presentation.........stay away from the textures - they generally look messy. Use solid flat colours, subtle tones for unimportant items, bold colours to draw attention to features.

DB_SamX · 23 Oct 2007 at 13:06

Meh...not bad. I have modelled part of Southampton in Sketchup.

ic1male · 23 Oct 2007 at 13:17

Cripes. How many of these gems does Google have. I've never heard of it before this thread.

eightiescrooner · 23 Oct 2007 at 13:28

GOOGLE IS BETTER THAN YOUR MUM

Gaijin · 23 Oct 2007 at 13:32

eightiescrooner said:
GOOGLE IS BETTER THAN YOUR MUM

How can you state this as fact? You have never met his mum - she might be particularly awesome?

MTA99 · 23 Oct 2007 at 13:32

DB_SamX said:
Meh...not bad. I have modelled part of Southampton in Sketchup.

I demand a screenie!!

MTA99 · 23 Oct 2007 at 13:33

Gaijin said:
How can you state this as fact? You have never met his mum - she might be particularly awesome?

Surely the only way to settle this is for him to model his mum in sketchup :confused:

19ninety · 23 Oct 2007 at 13:53

Gaijin said:
How can you state this as fact? You have never met his mum - she might be particularly awesome?

MTA99 said:
I demand a screenie!!

i hear that!

DB_SamX · 23 Oct 2007 at 13:58

MTA99 said:
I demand a screenie!!

Apologise for the quality but some layers (vehicles, people, urban furniture, details) had to be turned off so that it would take me actually less than 30 mins to mover around and get a good viewpoint. It was a small part of a Southampton urban design/architecture/engineering masterplanning group project, complete with new cruise terminal but premade ships and sailboats. Note the tunnel, which is genuine and can be "explored". Could have been a lot more polished had I had more time and a more powerful computer!

I whoe heartedly agree with using plain pastel colours though and you cannot beat SketchUp for ease of use.

MTA99 · 23 Oct 2007 at 14:26

DB_SamX said:

Awesome!

Did you do any "sandbox'ing"? Looks flat in that screenie. How long did that take? Most the stuff i model is details like the one above that take a couple of hours max

DB_SamX said:
Apologise for the quality but some layers (vehicles, people, urban furniture, details) had to be turned off so that it would take me actually less than 30 mins to mover around and get a good viewpoint. It was a small part of a Southampton urban design/architecture/engineering masterplanning group project, complete with new cruise terminal but premade ships and sailboats. Note the tunnel, which is genuine and can be "explored". Could have been a lot more polished had I had more time and a more powerful computer!

I know that feeling. One of the guys here modelled a massive development and you had to pare it back to almost wire-frame to get in position then turn everything back on and "render"

DB_SamX said:
I whoe heartedly agree with using plain pastel colours though and you cannot beat SketchUp for ease of use.

Flat colours suit the default sketchup style much better

19ninety · 23 Oct 2007 at 15:08

DB_SamX said:
Apologise for the quality but some layers (vehicles, people, urban furniture, details) had to be turned off so that it would take me actually less than 30 mins to mover around and get a good viewpoint. It was a small part of a Southampton urban design/architecture/engineering masterplanning group project, complete with new cruise terminal but premade ships and sailboats. Note the tunnel, which is genuine and can be "explored". Could have been a lot more polished had I had more time and a more powerful computer!

I whoe heartedly agree with using plain pastel colours though and you cannot beat SketchUp for ease of use.

WOW!

DB_SamX · 23 Oct 2007 at 15:17

I'll sneak this post during work.

Took 1-2 hours each day for a couple of months but varied as I had many amendments based on engineering changes.

Did not use sandboxing but could have though. Tha area is more or less flat there according to uploaded contours.

We probably mean the same by plain/flat colours - no textures basically.

It's by no means amazing, even for a student. Looking at architects' website (or 3D Warehouse) makes you realise its true potential. I presume you work for one MTA?

MTA99 · 23 Oct 2007 at 16:29

DB_SamX said:
We probably mean the same by plain/flat colours - no textures basically.

Yeah i was agreeing and further emphasising the point

DB_SamX said:
It's by no means amazing, even for a student. Looking at architects' website (or 3D Warehouse) makes you realise its true potential. I presume you work for one MTA?

Yeah do a lot of litigation work and remedials so often there are no drawings available.

^^That burnt down so there was very little to go on :rolleyes: