How to prepare plans?

[Anonymous]

We're about to submit our first application to the CO for an alteration to the Grade II property we've just moved into. The application asks for plans and although this isn't too difficult for the immediate issue (putting a Sky dish well out of the view of anyone, on an outbuilding), I was wondering if, in preparation for future applications, anyone can recommend easy to use and fairly basic planning software? I don't want to spend lots of money and am not planning to use it for anything too complicated. Any suggestions?

 

[Anonymous]

Have you asked a local draughtsman or technician, for a quote to prepare the drawings for you ?
They might be able to measure up and produce existing plans for costs similar to that of buying software.
My experience is that the basic affordable packages are quite limited, and can take a while to get used to.

 

[Anonymous]

As PDH has said, it's going to take you a little while to get the hang of drawing software, but it needn't cost you anything remotely approaching the cost of having plans professionally drawn.

I have recently prepared a full set of plans for my house - existing and proposed, elevation and plan views - using a software package called Serif Drawplus. It costs about £50. It's nothing like a professional CAD package, but that makes it much easier to learn.

You can download a free version of this software from the website below, to try it and see how you get on. It's an earlier version the package - version 4.0 - today's is version 7.0 with more bells and whistles. You might find that you can achieve what you want with version 4.0 (in which case it'll cost you nothing!) but if have to upgrade to 7.0, £50 shouldn't break the bank.

The basic principle of this (and other) vector drawing software is that you build up your drawing using a series of shape tools - lines, boxes, circles, curves and so on. As I said, you have to work at it to get the hang of it, but if you can make yourself proficient you could save yourself hundreds or even thousand of pounds.

If you do try it out and you have any problems, post again.


http://www.freeserifsoftware.com/

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the responses - I'll certainly give that software a go. From what you've said, it sounds like exactly what I am looking for!