[RE-wrenches] Autocad

Jason Szumlanski jason at fafcosolar.com
Fri Mar 14 13:31:59 PDT 2014


I'll go toe-to-toe with Layout against anyone using AutoCAD for 1-line
drawings.

Layout only comes with Sketchup Pro.

1-line drawings (2D) also translate pretty seamlessly with AutoCAD, but I
agree that if you need heavy interfacing with other trades and engineers,
you may want to go the AutoCAD LT route.

Jason Szumlanski




On Wed, Mar 12, 2014 at 10:37 PM, August Goers <august at luminalt.com> wrote:

> 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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