I've been using PTC Creo for most of my design work in the past, but I'm trying to create a floor plan, and Creo Layout isn't designed for things like walls and doors or has support for standardized design sheet labels (at least it doesn't have a template or anything). I'm looking for a free program that is 2D and will let me sketch out floor plans with thickness and doors as well as an info box in the bottom right that's properly formatted. I need something that will let me make a building, not an engine block.
3 Answers
There is librecad:
- Free (Gratis & OSS)
- Cross Platform
- Internationalisation to 20+ languges
- Lua scripting
- Active user community
Offline & open source
- Sweet Home 3D (my recommendation).
- Dia
Web apps
Before you start using one, make sure it exports to a format you use, and at the "right" price.
Mobile apps
Plenty in the the play store.
Indices
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If you are planning to use SweetHome 3D, you should also get the Advanced Editing plugin (available on the forum). It is pretty much a necessity to draw anything slightly more complex (odd angles, walls of different thickness)—unless you just want a visual impression that diesn’t need to be exactly to scale. Nov 10, 2020 at 9:45
I found this page as I had a similar question; SketchUp Make 2017 (which is the free version, as contrasted with SketchUp Pro) turned out perfect for my needs. Gratis but not libre.
Not exactly self-explanatory, but I got a floor plan done okay by following a blog post explaining exactly that.
The key steps:
- Start the line tool action by clicking once.
- Drag the mouse toward the general direction you want to go.
- Type in the length of the wall like this
18' 5"
and pressENTER
.
I then found this official tutorial video playlist for more in depth learning.