[RE-wrenches] Autocad

[August Goers]

Hi William,

We use AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT in our office. Although Sketchup is pretty
awesome for the reasons others have already mentioned, it really doesn't
compare to AutoCAD for heavy duty design drawings - especially single line
electrical drawings. We're about 50%+ commercial at this point so we need
to interface with architects and other trades so need AutoCAD. That said,
AutoCAD LT is probably sufficient for you unless you want to do 3D and it
costs about $1,200. You can download it right from the Autodesk website. I
like Bill Brooks' idea of leasing it too! I haven't tried TurboCAD but I've
heard that there can be compatibility issues between it and AutoCAD if
you're sharing files back and forth. It is quite a bit cheaper. We used to
use MS Visio and it took about a year to get up to speed with AutoCAD. But
once you get used to all the shortcuts in AutoCAD is is quite fast.

Best,

August
Luminalt

*August Goers*

Principal

Luminalt Energy Corporation

o: 415.641.4000

m: 415.559.1525

www.luminalt.com




On Wed, Mar 12, 2014 at 6:46 PM, Exeltech <exeltech at yahoo.com> wrote:

> For line drawings and other 2D illustrations, Libre CAD reads and writes
> DXF files.  There are versions for Windows, Apple OSX, and Linux.
>
> It's also F-R-E-E.  Simply download and install.
>
> http://librecad.org/cms/home.html
>
>
> Dan
>
>
>
> --------------------------------------------
> On Wed, 3/12/14, Bill Hoffer <sunengser at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Subject: Re: [RE-wrenches] Autocad
> To: "RE-wrenches" <re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org>
> Date: Wednesday, March 12, 2014, 7:43 PM
>
> William
>
> I second using Sketchup and Layout for $500 .  I have seen the add on Roof
> Pro Plug in and Skelion ( $199) demo  that lays out the array  and links to
> PVwatts for power analysis.  Plus Combined with google earth , does great
> shading analysis I.  I think you can do a quick design in an hour and
> Autocad would be days!  Stay away from Autocad unless you really need it
> for large commercial jobs and like Jason said it is required to interact
> with other trades! Plus Solar Energy Engineering is starting a web based
> training for using it for solar projects.  It really is pretty cool and a
> lot more flexible than overpriced and overly complicated Autocad.  Autocad
> light woudl be my first choice, no way you need the full blown
> version.
>
>  Bill
>
>
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