Re: software to do drawings of houses, gardens, etc.

[Doug <dmcgarrett@optonline.net>]

On 11/23/2017 05:06 PM, Emanuel Berg wrote:
> Joe wrote:
>
> > What you won't be given is a dialog box with
> > X and Y size and coordinates, and invited to
> > edit them, it doesn't work that way.
> > That's how an object-oriented drawing program
> > would work.
> Well, this is certainly a first that I'm an
> OO guy by intuition, because yes, that is how
> I would expect it to work. But that is drawing,
> not CAD?
>
> I wonder if I should get an OO drawing
> application instead, and what would that be -
> Dia?
>
> Or perhaps learn CAD as that's more powerful in
> the long run?
Learning CAD is a hard road, but a worthwhile one, I think, because it 
is so versatile.
Which one you learn will make some difference, depending on what you wind up
wanting to do with it. I learned some AutoCad 25 years ago, and I got 
pretty good
(but not expert) at it, and the advantages are that many other software and
hardware packages work with it. If you need to make PC boards, you can make
a negative directly (or almost directly) but you can also convert to 
professional
pcb manufacture with available software, you can input the files to 
several other
programs, and some other programs can produce files that AutoCad can 
directly
import, so you can add to the images. AutoCad is priced out of the consumer
market altogether, but DraftSight uses all (or almost?) all the same 
commands,
and will import and export in the same file protocols as AutoCad, so all the
advantages of AutoCad are there for you free for home use, or for a very 
reasonable
price if you need to use it professionally.  Then if for some reason you 
really need
AutoCAd, you will have the skills to do so. Any CAD program has a steep 
learning
curve, and I don't think the skills from one transfer all that easily to 
a different
one with different commands and methods of entry of parameters, so whatever
you pick out and learn is going to be the one you stick with. If you 
need interfacing
with other software, then something compatible with AutoCad is what you 
need.
If you can live with ONLY the CAD routine you learned, then it will not 
matter
whether you use a Linux-specific program or not.  I do not disparage the 
hard
work some devs have put into Linux CAD routines, but I don't think 
that's the
way to go if you're going to do some serious CAD work over the course of 
time.
Just my 2¢ worth.
--doug