Building site planning software?

[NutmegCT]

Would anyone know a website or program which allows:

- "drawing" to scale the boundaries of a piece of land, adding trees, buildings, etc. to scale.

- then being able to add a "new" building's dimensions (LxW), and moving it around the plot of land, to see how everything would relate?

I'm planning to build a new garage, but don't have much good land available. Have to consider pesky details like property lines, embedded rock ledges, septic leach field boundaries, trees, etc. Here in rural New England, property isn't usually in the shape of a rectangle.

Thanks.
Tom

 

[coldplugs]

I'd start with a Luddite approach. If you don't already have one, get a plot plan from the town and make a paper template of the proposed new building in the same scale.

 

[aeronca65t]

I like ~DraftSight~, mainly because it's identical to the old AutoCAD Lite (chose the free one on the bottom left of the page)....a nice, fairly simple package with not too many bells and whistles (and doesn't need enormous disk space either).

Of course there are various AutoCAD construction packages too that you can get for trial use. But frankly, the newer versions of AutoCAD have a pretty steep learning curve and are unnecessarily complicated for your application.

There are lots of free CAD blocks that will work in DraftSight (or AutoCAD) so no need to draw stuff if you can find a suitable file. Check ~HERE~ or many similar sites.

 

[PC]

I haven't tried it, but a lot of the woodworking and maker crowds have been using Sketchup (formerly Google Sketchup).

I'm guessing it's mostly because there's a free version available. Google said they intended it to be easy to use, but I can't say since I haven't used it.


pc

 

[PAUL161]

The old AutoCad software is nice for the casual user. You wouldn't want to pay for the pro version, unless you really want to get serious, maybe design a city! Our house was designed on a cad system by an engineer? and one roof was off center by 4 feet! Oh well, things happen when the wife tells them to change this and change that! I guess he was just frustrated a bit. :highly_amused:

 

[mikephillips]

Sheldon Cooper: Engineering - where the semi-skilled workers realize the work of better minds. Hello, Oompah-Loompahs of science.

(just kidding..)