Floorplan/layout tool

[Skervald]

I may be over thinking this. I have two large spaces we rent out for events between productions. I'm looking for suggestions on how to digitally create and save clean professional looking floor plans I can use to work out layouts with renters. I want to be able to open the floor plan and then drop in things like portable staging, pipe and drape, tables, chairs, etc. before re-saving it or printing it out.

I don't have access to any pro-level CAD programs. SketchUp seems a little clumsy for a project like this but maybe I just need to get better at using it.

Looking forward to hearing your suggestions!

 

[RickR]

Office suite based programs might more your speed. Have a pro draw the spaces, tables, etc. And make them clip art.

For in person discussions have some printed and mounted to card stock.

 

[Dionysus]

You don't need to lay down cash for professional grade CAD, there are several Free or Open Source CAD solutions out there that are almost identical to AutoCAD. One I use is called Draftsight http://www.3ds.com/products-services/draftsight-cad-software/ and it works just fine if you are used to AutoCAD 2004-ish

You can (or get a pro to) draw the room to scale, and make various layouts exported as PDF documents or image documents. As said you can print out to scale and glue to something (card stock, cardboard, or foam core) and cut out for in person "play" without any computer for "visual people". You can also then import images into Office documents such as Word or Spreadsheet (excel) or Visio (Open office Draw).

 

[Skervald]

Thanks for the suggestions! I did actually create one of the spaces to scale in Microsoft Publisher. I then created scale tables, chairs, etc. that could be duplicated and placed around the room. It works okay but using it could be better. I need to find a way to lock the room itself as a layer so walls don't accidentally get bumped when moving objects around. I do like that I can print off a layout and hand it to my set up crew to execute. I wish I could automatically display measurements but adding notes is pretty easy.

I'll have to check out Draftsight. It may be useful for other applications as well.

 

[bobgaggle]

Sketchup can work well for this application. Its a 3D modelling program so a 2D plan view can work, but 3D really lets you get your head into the space and look around. I built a 3D model of our venue at my last job and it helped designers and directors enormously because our space was hard to understand just from looking at a plan view (it was in a basement of an old department store, lots of renovation to make it function like a theater) The 3D warehouse has tons of furniture available for free download that you can move around the virtual space easily. I even found a model of our dimmer rack that happened to get in the way a lot backstage. Theres a little bit of a learning curve with Sketchup but overall its a pretty intuitive program once you understand the basic "rules" of modelling in that space...

 

[RickR]

Publisher uses a 'Master Page' where objects are locked, and show up on most pages. Unfortunately it doesn't do layers.

Another key to this sort of thing is a 'grid background' By having a known 1' or 4' grid in very light lines you can easily estimate distances. It might be something off the page for most work and then dragged over for printing. Nothing is as good as having a trained draftsman with good tools, or as expensive!

 

[llburg]

Microsoft Visio.