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Hi all,

Hope there's somebody that could offer some advice. I work for an environmental consulting firm and we're looking at branching out a bit into some designs for clients. This would typically involve designing overlays for maps showing infrastructure etc. The designs wouldn't be hectic (i.e. massive building structures).

We are looking at the latest version of AutoCad lite. Any other recommendations?

And then, one of us would need to go on a course to learn to use this software properly. Any suggestions in this regard?

Thanks in advance,
J

Have a look at Tekla Structures. Might be a bit over the top though.

Okay, so we quite like the functionality offered by Google Sketchup Pro 7. Have seen examples where people have designed models and incorporated them into GIS packages like ArcGIS, which is more or less what we are looking for. Has anybody here dabbled in Sketchup? We would have to teach ourselves due to the lack training courses in this country.

YES! I was going to suggest SketchUp. It is just so awesome. So easy to use, it's really just point and click. The built in tutorials are also very useful and there are TONS of guides online. You can also export it into Kerkythea which is a very good (and free) rendering application.

I don't know what GIS is though.

SU7 also has a cool feature called style builder that will draw your image in whatever you want it (from the options available) like, CAD drawing, Blackboard Drawing, Blueprints, Freehand, whatever. Here's something I did when I was bored in class the other day:

WiK1d wrote:YES! I was going to suggest SketchUp. It is just so awesome. So easy to use, it's really just point and click. The built in tutorials are also very useful and there are TONS of guides online. You can also export it into Kerkythea which is a very good (and free) rendering application.

I don't know what GIS is though...

GIS is Global Information Systems, the simplest and most well known program of which is Google Earth. What we wish to do is say develop a simple 2D / 3D design and georeference it so that we can put it onto a map with the right scale and dimensions for our clients. I have found some tutorials online to show that this is possible. We're also leaning towards this package because it looks simple enough to learn while there is also tons of info on the web.

Oh yeah! You can easily export SU models into Google Earth.

There is also solid works and solid edge, though I can't really motivate you on either because I only used solid works for a limited time in first year.

Sketchup might be a good option given that there is a free version and lots of ready made stuff you can import.


The most frustrating thing with any CAD program is learning to manipulate the program to draw what you want from the available tools, and this applies more to 3d objects than anything else.