<div dir="ltr">Hi William,<div><br></div><div>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. </div>
<div><br></div><div>Best,</div><div><br></div><div>August</div><div>Luminalt</div></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br clear="all"><div><div dir="ltr"><p><b><span style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Century Gothic","sans-serif"">August Goers</span></b></p>
<p><span style="font-size:8.0pt;font-family:"Century Gothic","sans-serif"">Principal</span></p><p><span style="font-size:8.0pt;font-family:"Century Gothic","sans-serif"">Luminalt Energy Corporation</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:8.0pt;font-family:"Century Gothic","sans-serif"">o: 415.641.4000</span></p><p><span style="font-size:8.0pt;font-family:"Century Gothic","sans-serif"">m: 415.559.1525</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:8.0pt;font-family:"Century Gothic","sans-serif""><a href="http://www.luminalt.com" target="_blank">www.luminalt.com</a></span></p>
<p> </p></div></div>
<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Wed, Mar 12, 2014 at 6:46 PM, Exeltech <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:exeltech@yahoo.com" target="_blank">exeltech@yahoo.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
For line drawings and other 2D illustrations, Libre CAD reads and writes DXF files. There are versions for Windows, Apple OSX, and Linux.<br>
<br>
It's also F-R-E-E. Simply download and install.<br>
<br>
<a href="http://librecad.org/cms/home.html" target="_blank">http://librecad.org/cms/home.html</a><br>
<br>
<br>
Dan<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
--------------------------------------------<br>
On Wed, 3/12/14, Bill Hoffer <<a href="mailto:sunengser@gmail.com">sunengser@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br>
<br>
Subject: Re: [RE-wrenches] Autocad<br>
To: "RE-wrenches" <<a href="mailto:re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org">re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org</a>><br>
Date: Wednesday, March 12, 2014, 7:43 PM<br>
<div class="im HOEnZb"><br>
William <br>
<br>
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<br>
version.<br>
<br>
Bill<br>
<br>
<br>
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