![]() Further, you are in luck as there was a recent contest comparing several of the common CAD programs and you can find the results via the Diehlgraphsoft web site. In short it is not trivial to learn and use but in discussions with architect friends, I understand it is far simpler than the so called standard Auto CAD. It is superior and there is a PC version now as well. I finally put up another $150 for MiniCAD 7. I was angry as my upgraded computer operating system was then partially incompatible with MiniCAD 6 and they decided not to support patches for the Macintosh OS upgrade. DiehlGraphsoft, the company that designs and sells it didn't mention that they were upgrading (Major Change) in less than a year. Kevin, I'm a retired double E and purchased MiniCAD 6 at a reduced price of $600 and looked forward to playing architect. If you never show them the computer drawings, they think you're a real artist! I sometimes take a perspective printout from the computer, put it on the light table and trace over to do a "hand-drawn" perspective sketch with greater detail. I'm hoping newer versions take this ability further. The drawback to date with Minicad has been the lack of texure and detail you could easily produce without going to third party rendering software. Changing things like windows and doors and rooflines takes only minutes. I can cut sections from the 3D models with a couple of clicks. The client loved them and wants to try a couple more options. I produced 4 different layout variations on a kitchen last week in 3D and printed out about a dozen different perspective views. I rarely ever produce a 2D drawing anymore. I used to just hand-draft my 2D drawings and labor for days over 3D perspective drawings. It takes not much more time than 2D to do in MiniCAD, and once the thing is "built" in the computer, it solves endless communication problems with clients. I think 3D is the greatest thing since sliced bread. For example, there is no Y2K problem with any MAC, the underlying computer coding was originally set up for a 4 digit year. Almost everyone I know acknowledges that the Mac OS is much easier to use, but PC's dominate the market. Autocad has a large market share because it was first, not because it is best or easy or cheap. That is why codes such as Microstation and ArcInfo are used by large firms. There are many things that autocad cannot do (or you have to spend $8,000 plus for add-ons). The minicad courses are do it yourself tutorials at $54. There are tutorials, but they consist of a dozen video tapes at $50 per tape. You have to take two or more community college courses from a person to learn auto cad and the manuals are 1000 plus pages thick (costing $100 to $200). There will be less hassles,and you will be able to do things that you would have to spend $3,000 US plus to get from other codes. For an individual, who uses the program occasionally, I believe minicad/ vectorworks is the best way to go. *It is true that minicad 7.0 does not handle paper space/model space very well, but the new version of minicad (called vector works) is light years beyond autocad light (have you tried vectorworks?) The original question was about drafting codes for an individual user (not a company where there are expert users or those who have 10 plus years of experience). I found Autocad and like programs far too hard for my meager brain matter to master, looked over my architectural technologist's shoulder while he drew a house by Autocad, and it seemed to take far too long. Of course, since I've just started using it, I haven't come up against the limitations more experienced users have found, but Softplan seems like a company committed to putting out a good product, so if there are problems I'm sure they'll be more than happy to adress them in the next version. I'm surprised at the negative comments about Softplan, after many years of keeping my ear to the ground and trying out a few different design programs, I came to the conclusion that Softplan was better than anything else for the price. I'm not absolutely sure why, but I think it's a Canadian company or something so they are giving Canadians a break on the price. the Canadian price is the same as the US price, strangely enough.
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