Thread: open office DRAW - design software

I know this has come up a bit as I had a good look through search, and some of software brands mentioned but usually had comments like: haven't used it myself; expensive but I got a free version off my mate.
open office Draw seems like an option, it's free, but before I get on the learning curve has anyone else here used it?

• can you draw walls, windows etc easily? it doesn't seem to have prebuilt objects
• can you get it to a standard for council submissions?
• export it for a draftie to update with a real CAD?
• does it have a useful 3D option?

other software I looked into was vague in the tutorials, some american ones looked like they only worked in imperial not metric

Thanks in advance

Originally Posted by toooldforthis

I know this has come up a bit as I had a good look through search, and some of software brands mentioned but usually had comments like: haven't used it myself; expensive but I got a free version off my mate.
open office Draw seems like an option, it's free, but before I get on the learning curve has anyone else here used it? I've used it a few times

• can you draw walls, windows etc easily? it doesn't seem to have prebuilt objects You can draw those objects and save them to re-use
• can you get it to a standard for council submissions? Yes
• export it for a draftie to update with a real CAD? This I don't know
• does it have a useful 3D option? No

other software I looked into was vague in the tutorials, some american ones looked like they only worked in imperial not metric

Thanks in advance

Remember its free, and doesn't have high end gizmos in it. I used it as a substitute for a very old Appleworks program, and went back to Appleworks 6 as it had better features.

Give SketchUp a google....

thanks for the replies.

Originally Posted by TermiMonster

Give SketchUp a google....

other posters weren't that keen, learning curve etc but I am stubborn so that might not bother me
however...
SketchUp seems more suited for concept plans, 3D etc - have started to look thru the tutorials
I had a bit of a look at SweetHome 3d but it says it can't do rooves yet !
and Draw doesn't do 3D

think I might look into Sweet Home a bit more...

have done a bit with SweetHome3D
u draw in 2D but can only view, not draw, in 3D.
which means you can't draw elevations etc so not good enough for council submissions etc

see this thread for a sample:
kitchen layout suggestions please !

Not much use to pass to designer as, don't think it will export to cad (dwg, dxf, dgn or sat files) so only as a pdf

Originally Posted by cherub65

Not much use to pass to designer as, don't think it will export to cad (dwg, dxf, dgn or sat files) so only as a pdf

says u can export to .svg Scalable Vector Graphics
is that a useful option for other CADs?

You would have to convert to a dwg etc, You would really want to test first though, as converting from other formats is always a pain as things don't always do what they should.
Normally would be quicker to redraw in native program than trying to fix up problems.

Draw is a package like Adobe Illustrator - it's more for graphic designers and illustrators than for architectural work.