CAD drawing

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I am not the original OP but thank You..I have downloaded proge and it seems to be simple enough..I have also downloaded goggle sketch up and it is kind of cool on the 3d side..Yet I am going to continue to learn auto cad since I have it..I would again like to Thank You all for your input..When I am finished I will be much more verse ( yet I learn everyday so when I finish learning should be when I die and that will only be in this body) So I shall strive on..:grin: :D
 
I use Microsoft Visio 2007 Pro. It can open CAD files and save to PDF file format. It's very, very easy to use and for doing electrical drawings, it can't be beat. It also imports Excel files so your panel schedules are automatically inserted into your drawings. I also use it for Fire Alarm drawings and network topology drawings.

It's been my experience that architects don't distribute CAD files, every plan I've ever received was a PDF. YMMV. And the estimating programs that recognize CAD symbols and do take offs are so expensive you'd have to be a very big EC to need that ability.
 
mayanees said:
I would recommend AutoCAD LT, or better known as AutoCAD Light.
I just looked around to check pricing, and it looks like it costs around $800.
And, there's a free 30 day trial package available.

The LT version is all you'd ever need from a drawing standpoint.

And as far as learning the package, the best way is to get some drawings and start playing around with them.

I think that's what frenchi is asking for - a drawing to mess with. If so, send me an email frenchi, and I'd be happy to send you some drawings to get started with.

JM
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IMO For simple use and basic or even medium sized electrical contracting anything beyond TurboCAD is a waste of money. If you need to work with other trades drawings you can always ask them to send a *.dxf copy so you don't have to scale and redraw the architectual backgrounds. You can have the manufacturers drawings also in dxf format so you can have drawings with lots of useful information all in one place. Like schematics on the layout, etc.
 
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Marc,

Daltacad, we were working for a large engineering company, and they were feeding up change orders, we asked the engineer, what they used to draw the plans, he said we all have a copy of deltacad, http://deltacad.com the price is right for the power it has.

We have thousands of plans, and customer projects on deltacad. The learning curve was 30 to an hour, rather they the months, it took to learn parts of the cad systems.
 
mkgrady said:
Are the autocad drawings often in dxf format? Is it a big deal to ask someone to provide it in that format?
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You can uasually select the format with autocad, but always check the software, before you make a buying decision.

I just reviewed a job made in autocad, and sent to me in .dxf format. I do know there is some autocad software, that does not support dxf.
 
DFX is pain it the butt.

It is basically is a DWG, with all the layers and blocks stripped out and everything put on one layer.

A good analogy would be comparing a generic TXT file with MSWord DOC file, only if you wanted to format it in layers you would have to do it one letter at a time.
 
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