Free or cheap lot/house/shop 2D planning software?

[Lu-Max]

I will be closing on a house soon that is situated on a ~20,000 SQFT lot. I plan to put an addition of a master bedroom suite onto the front of the house, and also a shop and in ground pool plus hot tub in the back yard. The lot has plenty of room for this and more.

This house was built in the 50s and modified in the 60s, but back then this town had no building permit or planning office so there is no record of the house plans or drawings on file anywhere. So I went over to the lot and carefully measured the lot and house dimensions as well as took a million photos. I then attempted to draw this all out carefully (2D) to scale on large graph paper but I am not at all happy with what I produced. I want to bring something a bit more professional looking down to the city building department for an initial consultation to see if there are any issues with my plans prior to investing any significant money into the design process.

What I am looking for is some software (PC) that I can input all of my measurements into and create an accurate drawing of the lot and how the house structure sits on it currently. This way I can show the city how my preliminary plans will improve and modify the layout. I know that an architect could do this for me easily, but as I said I am not ready to invest much into my plans yet. An architect would probably charge me hundreds just for this.

Can anyone recommend some free or fairly cheap software that I can create my lot/house layout with? I plan to then add my shop and pool plan dimensions to it as an overlay to show the city and eventually my architect, pool installer, and concrete guys. I plan to build most of the shop myself.

I think being able to present my preliminary plans to the city in this way might help to grease the skids during the approval process.

 

[tinmanwpk]

Not sure, but I think Google has a program called something like "Sketchup".

 

[TS3g]

For 2D, Draftsight is hard to beat. It's free and has all the same functions/operations as the older AutoCAD versions (circa early 2000s).

 

[kazlx]

Sketchup or Fusion360

 

[pmiranda]

If you've ever used a real cad program, I recommend draftsight. You can bring in an aerial picture of your property from google maps as a reference image once you get the lot lines drawn to have something to line up to. Nice, accurate way of knowing which trees might have to go.

If not, sketchup (now owned by Trimble) is pretty popular, although it's one of those cases where something is supposed to be easy-to-use, but completely baffles me for trying to do anything precise. If nothing else the pro version (free trial for a month) can import a .dwg from another program so you can see how your plans will fit into the terrain.

A great middle-of-the-road choice that I actually use most of the time for drawing floorplans (because I have a library of furniture and shop shapes in it) is Visio (now owned by Microsoft). It's pay, but if you can get a student discount (like if you're taking community college classes or even if you have an alumni email address from a university) it's worth the cost for the amount of time it saves compared to a "real" CAD program and can export .dwg so it's the best of both worlds for me.

 

[Gizmosity]

+1 on Draftsight. I use it all the time at work if I just need to make small adjustments for toolpaths (on machines that only accept .DXF files) that won't effect the 3D solid model (nesting, etc.)

If you want to jump into 3D try FreeCAD. Open Source parametric modeling software. I use Solidworks and haven't tried FreeCAD yet, but I've been looking for time to download/install/learn it enough to monkey with it for my own personal use.

 

[Playwme]

Sketchup. Watch a few of the basic tutorial videos to get the gist. If you can't use Sketchup then you will be best to stick to paper and pencil.
Once you get the hang of how it works then precise shapes and angles are fast and easy. It will mark all measurements in a precise and professional way as well. If you're in the middle of something and start thinking " I wish Sketchup had such and such a feature", so a search. It probably does have that feature.

 

[Lu-Max]

Thanks. I have 0 CAD experience, so will try Sketchup.

 

[rsnip988]

If not, sketchup (now owned by Trimble) is pretty popular, although it's one of those cases where something is supposed to be easy-to-use, but completely baffles me for trying to do anything precise.

I'm glad I'm not the only one that had trouble using it! Everyone was telling me how easy it is to use and I'm extremely techie. Maybe I just didn't stick with it long enough to figure it out...

 

[Playwme]

I'm glad I'm not the only one that had trouble using it! Everyone was telling me how easy it is to use and I'm extremely techie. Maybe I just didn't stick with it long enough to figure it out...

Watch the tutorial videos. I wasn't convinced after my first little go and thought it was going to be too much to handle. Then I watched an hours worth of the videos and they really explain the principals of operating the software. Once you realise a few key elements, things happen quickly and easily.

 

[elefan]

I tried sketchup.. And a few others. Both 2d and 3d..

Suddenly i had spent the better part of an afternoon and realised i had used more time finding and learning programs than i would if i had just gone out there and mentally envisioned where stuff should be.

Granted, im not done moving in yet, so things may change. I do feel though that in my case i quickly would spend more time designing the garage using software than just moving stuff in. Both of which would result in the same. Rearanging everything to fit in not just theory but also in practice.

Sometimes i overcomplicate stuff.. Try and not follow gentlemen.

 

[1949 caddyman]

Graph paper, pencil & ruler.

 

[rsnip988]

Watch the tutorial videos. I wasn't convinced after my first little go and thought it was going to be too much to handle. Then I watched an hours worth of the videos and they really explain the principals of operating the software. Once you realise a few key elements, things happen quickly and easily.

I'll give it another go, I had to watch a couple tip & trick videos on the Adobe Creative Suite (photoshop, flash, lightroom etc) before all of their buttoms made sense, now I can whip up pretty much any images & video I want in short order!

 

[MushCreek]

I'm old (62) and not very computer savvy, but I designed my entire house and every detail in Sketch-Up. Even the Building Dept. was impressed by my drawings when I submitted them. Like anything else, there is a learning curve, but now I can do all but the simplest sketch faster on the computer than pencil and paper, which I've been using my entire life. That, and it's easier to make changes.

 

[KELLHAMMER]

Sketchup is pleasure to work with. Considering it can produce the whatever level of detail someone is willing to put into the drawing. I work with several cad programs. For me, none can produce decent renderings as quickly. Sketchup has a free version "make" . I currently work with the Pro version since there are some additional features that I need for my business. Sketchup has a wide variety of users who can assist giving help on how to learn the program. One the best space planners for the money.

 

[Lu-Max]

Thanks for all of the help.

 

[rayra]

sketchup also has a large user community and a wealth of uploaded object models that you can readily import into your own designs. People have already drawn accurate models of various structural features, tools, cars, tractors, compressors etc, which you can import and use in your own designs. And as mentioned above you can make the designs as crude or as accurate as you care to, from rough blocking diagrams to highly detailed design drawings with individual elements like working drawers etc.
And it's Free.

Bit of a cumbersome learning curve though, if you don't have some CAD deisgn background already, but finding a decent tutorial video and sticking with it thru your first simple design will get you enough basic skill with it to make everything doable.