Looking for scale-drawing software recommendation

jholmesIWG

Member
Hello! I have searched the forums but am struggling to find a good answer:

TLDR;
Other than Vectorworks what are some great software options for design documents?
I'd particularly like something that can draw in scale.

Backstory:
- I work in seasonal attractions, creating haunted houses, projection mapping shows, and Christmas light shows. Very 'non-traditional' theatre.
I'm trying to find a way where I can draw out, in-scale, a layout to visually be able to determine all the cable runs, fixture positions, networking equipment, etc.

Please reply with additional questions if you have them. Thank you :)
 
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What's your budget? Do you need to work in 2D and 3D? What kind of drawings do you need to create, and are they just for your own use to plan things out, or do they need to be shared with others?

I work with Vectorworks, but depending on your needs, there are a number of other products out there. AutoCAD is another professional software package and also has a discount software package that just does 2D. I have heard good things about Sketchup and Drafty, depending on what you're looking to do.
 
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I strongly agree with Benjamin. There are several options available to you both free and pay to play. SketchUp is good for quick 3D renderings but it is NOT a precision drafting software and the free version has had most of it's really great features choked out of it. I began using it when it first came out and was owned by Google. Trimble has gone full capitalist (which is their right) and jacked the Pro price and limited the free features. All that being said it is really cool to design a set then be able to walk through it, there are plug-ins available which make it an even more powerful rendering platform KerkyThea for Lighting and camera/Ray Tracing work and Podium for the same Kerkythea is free <last I checked>, and Podium is pay to play.
FreeCAD is great for smaller scale Manufacturing 3d renderings and creating STL files for 3D printing and CNC work. Tinker Cad is the same way, as is Fusion 360 all three have "Free" un-restricted feature license for amateurs and require you to pay if you are not a hobbyist. .
LibreCad is another open source 2D drafting software and I have not tried it.
AutoCAD LT is a cheaper version of AutoCad. It has some feature restrictions but they are primarily data generation and integration as well as some timesaving feature restrictions. You'd have to check on their site to see about pricing. There are places where you can purchase the software cheaper than the MSRP but be careful and don't buy unless you have vetted the source.
All of these products have a learning curve. None of these is really lighting specific and I have truly hated trying to make LX plots on ACAD in the past. VectorWorks is by far the Industry leader and easiest to use for that purpose.

Hope that helps some.
 
Just to throw another name out: Draftsight is very similar to AutoCAD, but lower in price. Looks like their prices have gone up quite a bit since I started using it for work, but the annual subscription for the lowest tier (2D only) is still about half the AutoCAD LT equivalent.
 
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Thank you! Since multiple replies came in, I'll consolidate into a response now.

- I do need to share these documents with other team members. One day it might be a floor plan, the next its a lighting plot over that floor-plan (particularly common in haunted houses).

- 2D is necessary, 3D is a luxury.

- For me, the software serves as validation and play-testing of concepts I have in my head or sketched on a napkin. Once an idea is flushed out, then I am looking to use it with my team for nitty-gritty affirmations of cable length and prop/wall placements.

- Ultimately, these documents end up in the production bible. Since we work in seasonal events, the docs we make up front are what everyone uses to remember how to rebuild the following year.

I think the manufacturing 3D cad software options are probably not the best fit for my team as I really need to simply say "fancy object goes HERE" rather than actually have the fancy object in the plan ;) but I'll absolutely look at DraftSight and Sketchup.

Thank you!

P.S. In the interim, I made this in Blender for a project proposal. It's a combination of drone-captured images (stitched into a 3D model) and Blender made structures. Blender is tough and the measurement tool does not care for anything other than a straight line :p

1677567177920.png
 
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I used an older version of Sketchup today to make a wall diagram for an up coming project. This version is form 2016 or ther abouts so while not the latest still works on my PC.KateK2.jpg
It works for me. This is a wall I am proposing to build in a house to divide a room into 2.
Regards
Geoff
 
I used an older version of Sketchup today to make a wall diagram for an up coming project. This version is form 2016 or ther abouts so while not the latest still works on my PC.View attachment 24005
It works for me. This is a wall I am proposing to build in a house to divide a room into 2.
Regards
Geoff
I use a copy of 2007 as it was the last free version that allowed for Importing and exporting DWG's. I just redesigned one the bathrooms in one of my moms rental houses. <cause an 83 year old woman needs too have a hobby>
@jholmesIWG For sharing among colleagues just use the export feature of any of these software's and save your work as a PDF. This protects the integrity of the original file yet it's still easy to see what's going on across multiple OS.
 

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