terryc <terryc@???> wrote:

> I need to sketch a plan of a land plot for an erection by a
> contractor. the 'erection' can be described as three to five rectangles
> with ramps between them. Ancillary data to be plotted/drawn is building
> sides, pathway and drive way. placement of shrubbery is optional. I'm
> really after a vector based program.
...
> I come from the world of drafting where first you define your scale,
> then draw up your plan to scale. the problem there is I've spent the
> last three days intermittently looking at eight CAD/sketching programs.
>
> Bummer, as nothing 'sets a scale' any more. Apparently the 'modern'
> approach is to describe it in 'elements' of real world dimensions and
> then scale the result.

It might be worth having a look at http://www.sweethome3d.com/

It's not really designed for 2D work - but it can do a 2D plan view of any floor. It's not too hard to get going with, but it is geared up for building houses etc. You'd define your different levels by creating them as blocks placed on ground level - with their height as whatever you want the elevation of that surface to be. And I'm afraid (unless they've enhanced that since I last did anything with it, or I've missed something important) your ramps will need to be a series of steps as the only things that support sloping tops are roofs.

What is fun is setting your illumination and then going around (and inside) with your viewpoint :D


I think I understand what you are saying about scaling. But really, "setting a scale" was one of those things that was done simply because before things went all computerised, it wasn't possible to work how things do it today. BTW - I trust you've never worked with "scales" then, like a ruler, but marked in scaled units to save having to calculate a scaled length of each measurement ? Working with a scale would be exactly like the modern computer method of working in real world units and scaling the output to (e.g.) fit the drawing on one sheet of paper. The other advantage of working with real units and then scaling the output is that you don't have to pre-define your output drawing size before you start work - so can easily do A4 at home, or get someone to run it off on their A0 plotter if you need a big detailed drawing.

Ask yourself, do you think "that <something> is 4 inches long on the drawing which equates to 16 feet", or do you think "that <something> is 16 feet long" (because you've taken that directly from the printed scale) ? Of course, you should always be reading the numbers that are printed against dimension lines - obeying the "do not scale" instruction on most drawings.

Simon