CAD drawing help request for Layout

[bosshoff]

First off I am very computer illiterate. I do not know all of the lingo/jargon, etc. I am in a pretty tough spot. I need some assistance from someone who can layout a garage in some sort of 3D architecture program. My father is building a garage for his lakehouse, and he is not a man with a lot of foresight. He is going to build the garage too small for our families future needs. We are going to be storing boats, canoes, lawn furniture, Jeeps, Broncos, 4 wheelers, and then he wants to be able to drive up and park his car out of the snow. He is thinking of a garage which will do none of this well. My family (brothers) want him to build a shoe box shaped garage with two garage doors on the end. We are thinking of something approximately 60' long or more, and approx. 25' wide. We want to be able to back in a large boat to the rear wall, and still be able to park a car in front of it. We want a nice high ceiling, and a large loft upstairs with dormers. We want to be able to convert the upstairs to a pool room in the future. The garage is for a log home, and we will be building it out of 1/2 logs, with a shingle roof. If anyone is capable of using a Microsoft or other design program to be able to lay this out in 3-D, please post or PM me. I am not against giving you something for your time. I am sure we are going to want to make changes a few times before we settle on something. Thanks.

 

[MXtras]

I am pretty sure you are not getting any replies because what you are asking for requires a LOT of time even for someone extremely proficient in CAD.

Have you looked at Google Sketch? I have never used it but I know it's free, easy to learn and has some pretty decent capacity. This would let you play without the hassle of involving someone else's schedule.

Just a suggestion.

Scott

 

[Jeepguy]

Agreed, you are asking for a project that can take weeks, and usually costs a few thousand to outsource

 

[crashbumper]

+1 for Google Sketchup

It's very easy to use, and really for a garage all you're making is a bunch of squares and rectangles.

 

[A_Pmech]

What's wrong with a pencil and a pad of graph paper?

 

[ddawg16]

I'll do it....but my going rate is $75/hr and I would esitmate at least 60 hours of work assuming you have a good scope of work. It will also most likely require engineering....and the guy I use charges $2.50/sq foot for the eng calcs....

Not trying to sound like a a$$....but as the guys noted above....your request is far and above a simple sketch.....if you only wanted a simple plot plan....yea, I could knock that out in about an hour and would be glad to help.....

Truth is....after going through what I did with my garage....I can understand why so many architects still do one of a kind drawings on a board with pencil.....autocad only pays off when you start doing a lot of similar designes....

BTW...please check your spelling in your post....for someone who is "very computer illiterate", you have a lot of spelling and grammer mistakes....I know it's only a simple post....but.....

 

[MotoDave]

Are you just looking for help with sizing and layout? Or are you asking for complete plans to be created?

I'd be more than willing to help with a rough sizing or layout model, but can't provide plans for free.

 

[A_Pmech]

Truth is....after going through what I did with my garage....I can understand why so many architects still do one of a kind drawings on a board with pencil.....autocad only pays off when you start doing a lot of similar designes....

Not just Architects.

I'm faster with a drafting machine and a sharp 2H than I could ever be with a CAD system.

 

[bimmer1980]

I drew my garage plans up in ProEngineer and it took a ton of time. This was after I had spent a fair amount of time drawing on paper. I also looked at a lot of predesigned building packages online. If you can find one you like, it makes the process go a lot faster. I thought about just purchasing a modified prepackaged drawing off the web, but I had too many modifications, so I designed it myself. However, for about $250 for a prepackaged design, it was not a bad price. I would highly encourage you to look at www.coolhouseplans.com. Just brouse their garage plans and you should be able to get a fairly close design.

 

[TRC51]

I went through this very recently. If you are on the same page... here is what I did:

I drew up my own rendering of what I want in the Google Sketchup program recommended above. It really is awesome and easy to use. But, my town building department needed real plans to be submitted that sketchup cannot generate.

So... I (like you) originally started looking for someone to do the cad drawing for me. I looked at many different sites (and ended up with some of them now spamming my email address) and found this guy:

www.Custom-Garage-Plan.com

The guys name is Ryan and you can email him at [email protected]

Without a doubt, he was the best priced and most willing to take on my custom design. He was very quick to respond to my request and very professional. No question I would have had him do it for me if I went the CAD way.

However, I was fortunate enough to have another member with a very similar garage send me his sketched plans. Using Ryan's (from the site mentioned above) samples shown on the web page and the other members drawings, I drew up my own set by hand. Save me some money, but not a ton. Ryan really was reasonably priced... Less than $300 and you can see my garage plan on the thread below:

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=40148


I hope this helps. Good luck

Travis

BTW... Sketchup also have "components" that you can down load from their web page to input into your drawings.... boats, lawnmowers, patio furniture, 67 Mustang GT500's (not that I would know ). It's great. You can see my lawnmower in the one pic of my drawing in the link above.

 

[bosshoff]

Everyone, thank you for reading and responding to my post. I apologize for the typos, it was late Friday, and I am a poor hen pecking typist at best. I went back and fixed them. I now understand that CAD is a full program which is probably not what I am looking for at this point. (This was the only program I was aware of.) I will spend some time looking into Google Skettch this evening. This was a great suggestion, thanks. I did not know that this program existed. TRC51, I am going to keep your suggestion in mind.

 

[Kevin54]

One of the members on here did his garage on a program he downloaded and showed the renderings to everyone. You can download the demo for free. The bad thing is I can't remember the name of it. I don't think it was Sketchup although some on here have used that program. The one I was thinking of from the member (man I have a bad case of CRS at the moment...Need some help here people. LOL!!!) showed the cars, workbenches, drill presses, toolboxes, etc in it. I downloaded it for awhile, but removed it when I had some unrelated computer issues. It was very simple to use if you are a little bit computer literate.