http://www.autodesk.com/education/free-software/all
Looks like there's lots to choose from autodesk nowadays. Autocad works on Windows, Mac, and some on mobile, and back in the day worked on many flavors of Unix. I don't know about current *nix platform offerings. On Mon, Feb 23, 2015 at 11:51 AM, Lloyd Brown <[email protected]> wrote: > As someone who is married to an architect, I can say pretty confidently > that the tools used for early design stages are usually pencils and > paper. I was surprised. But apparently there's something psychological > going on, where some clients are unwilling to make significant changes > when they're looking at printouts. Something about the clear, precise, > perfect lines, makes it hard to want to change. I don't know why. The > inherent messiness of a hand sketch seems to allow them better freedom, > especially during the early design stages. > > Having said that, that particular industry does seem to be dominated by > AutoCAD and Revit, both of which are very expensive, only run on Windows > (I think), rely heavily on Direct3d (or whatever it's called now), which > makes it hard to virtualize or run in an emulation environment, and both > come from the same company, AutoDesk. > > Outside of that, I suspect your best bet would be something like > Sketchup, as several people have suggested. It seems to be reasonably > powerful, especially for something that has a free version (though there > is a paid version with more features). There seems to be some > resistance among architects to use it, but I suspect that has more to do > with the completely different paradigm for user interaction, relative to > what their used to, than it does with any of the merits of the software > itself. > > Good luck. > > Lloyd Brown > Systems Administrator > Fulton Supercomputing Lab > Brigham Young University > http://marylou.byu.edu > > On 02/22/2015 10:24 PM, Dan Egli wrote: >> With all the various open source software out there, not to mention >> commercial options, I was wondering if anyone had come across a good >> software for laying out a floor plan for a house? I suppose I could even >> use a CAD program or something like that if necessary, but really that's >> getting into more details than I want at the moment. All I'm looking for is >> a program that will let me place rooms as objects on a drawing pad, move >> them, resize them, etc... And since I'm not very familiar with using CAD it >> would have a steep learning curve. Obviously I'd prefer Linux software, but >> failing that, something that runs under Wine would be just fine. And Open >> Source is obviously preferred, although commercial is usable if it's not >> too expensive (i.e. < $75). I remember one program that would fit the bill >> nicely, but I don't recall it's name and I doubt it's even made anymore >> since it was published by Broderbund (I think) around 15-20 years ago. >> >> >> >> Any suggestions are welcome. If you know the program's URL, please mention >> that, too. Thank you, all! >> --- Dan >> >> /* >> PLUG: http://plug.org, #utah on irc.freenode.net >> Unsubscribe: http://plug.org/mailman/options/plug >> Don't fear the penguin. >> */ >> > > /* > PLUG: http://plug.org, #utah on irc.freenode.net > Unsubscribe: http://plug.org/mailman/options/plug > Don't fear the penguin. > */ /* PLUG: http://plug.org, #utah on irc.freenode.net Unsubscribe: http://plug.org/mailman/options/plug Don't fear the penguin. */
