Author: john lewis Date: CC: hampshire Subject: [Hampshire] Basic drawing programme to design roof extension
On Wed, 14 Apr 2010 11:11:38 +0100
Roger Munford <rogermunford@???> wrote:
> Thanks for all your replies. Qcad did indeed fill the bill. I
> couldn't actually work it out without reading practically the whole
> manual and some online help. A major hurdle was the concept that the
> drawing is infinitely scaleable on the computer and only becomes
> concrete when you print it on paper. I was looking for a "set scale"
> function which didn't exist.
the Cad packages I have used work in 'full size' so you draw a line 25
feet long and don't worry about scale.
I was drawing up floor layouts for an 8 story office block that was
roughly 150' long x 50' wide so showing plan as a whole on a 17"
monitor meant it was actually quite small on screen and zooming into
specific parts was the only way to work with any accuracy.
I had an a3 plotter at work so could get reasonable sized prints.
Plotters are great fun to watch all the black lines were drawn first,
the black pen is then parked, the head selects the next colour, say
red, then all the lines in that colour are drawn and so on.
> I eventually stumbled on the method of drawing the longest line and
> pressing "Zoom In" until it filled the screen. I could get on with
> the drawing but dimensions didn't work. They were in fact there, just
> extremely tiny and so the correct sizes had to be set.
You use the zoom facility so you can, for example, accurately pick
the end point of a line then use one of the 'snap' functions to
accurately attach a vertical line.
It is probably possible to draw 2 parallel lines that are 30 feet long
and 15 feet apart so making it easy. I could do this sort of thing in
GenericCAD easily. >
> Finally "Print Preview" didn't work. Again it was there but not on
> the paper. Pressing "Auto Zoom" put it right on the paper and it
> printed nicely.
Perhaps the print preview is something you only get in the 'Pro'
version but it sound like you didn't need it anyway.
> Well worth the few hours required to learn it.
Pleased you managed to get your design done with QCad, it is the first
simple and usable Cad package I have come across for Linux that has a
reasonable set of functions. Lots of jobs don't need 3D capability so
QCad looks like it could become a very useful app.
> John, you will be pleased to know that the command line is there and
> you do use it a lot when entering exact measurements.
I have played briefly with some Cad packages that don't have a 'command
line' and rely on using a mouse for everything. I found that a hopeless
way of inputting anything accurately. Probably needs a tablet to do
anything that sort of app.
> If you need an interesting project to get stuck into, think about
>putting solar PV panels on you roof. > It looks like a good investment
The Cad package or Solar panels?
The economics of solar panels are beginning to make it look like a good
investment in some circumstances from things I have read recently but
we are pretty well using up all our 'spare' capital for now replacing
an old and rotting timber conservatory with a more modern one and doing
some 'landscaping' type work in the garden to improve its usability.
