Workshop planning software?

[Glen Kenney]

Hello to all. This is my first post, though I've been lurking for a long time. There is a lot of helpful knowledge here.

I am finally moving out of my garage. I managed to "accidentally" track sawdust into the house on enough occasions that my wife told me I needed to build a dedicated shop. Besides, she wanted her garage back. I love it when a plan comes together.

I'm one year away from retirement, so I plan to spend a lot of quality time there. I'm building a 30" wide by 40" long by 10" high building. I know that I must install lots of quality lighting. I seem to recall that I need T8 fixtures and electronic ballasts. I'm open to suggestions here, for I want to do it right the first time.

The layout of the workshop is a prime concern. Do you know of any software to help layout my tools, plan electrical outlets, benches, etc?

I appreciate any suggestions.

Thanks,
Glen Kenney in Nederland, Texas

[Chris Padilla]

Welcome, Glen, to the USS SMC!! :) Glad to have you aboard.

Let me first suggest that you make your ceiling height 10 ' instead of 10"...I hear one's height shrinks as one gets older but I didn't think it was that bad! :D

Further, let me suggest you make your shope 30' wide by 40' long...you deserve some nice area to distribute your equipment, right! :D :D

T8 is the way to go...I have seen the light! :)

Frank Pellow has been using some freebie stuff...hopefully he'll chime in! :)

I'm remodeling my garage and going through a full gut...should be exciting!

[Bob Hovde]

Welcome to the Creek! Since you've been lurking, you may have seen the Frank Pellow series of threads on his workshop design/construction. Those discussions are fairly complete and, if I remember correctly, discuss design software, also. Almost any drawing package can be used, but some are tailored to do the job easily. I use an old Corel Draw package on my Mac, but I've used Visio on PC's and it works fairly easily if you have the right add-in templates. There are cheaper solutions, but someone else will have give you the titles.

Welcome again,

Bob

[Bart Leetch]

What your looking for is Easyshop Designer it can be found here. http://www.inthewoodshop.org/software/software.shtml

[Jim Becker]

Most of my shop planning drawings have "traditionally" been done with VISIO, an application I've used for years for network diagrams, etc, for my work. But I'm challenging myself by redrawing things in 3D using SketchUp. (What I've accomplished so far with limited time is shown below) It's made for a good learning experience for the program as I'm starting to use it for drawing projects out in lieu of CAD, at least some of the time.

But you can use just about any drawing program to do shop planning. While "exact scale" would be nice, as long as you can stay relatively close, you'll be fine.

[Frank Pellow]

See the thread entitled "Looking for free (or, at least inexpensive) shop design software" that was started by me.

[Chris Padilla]

Dang, Jim, you picked up Sketch-up, too, or are you still using the free 8-hour trial? It sure looks way nicer to use than the program I have but then again it costs 3-4x of the program I use. I have had the Sketch-up short cut on my desktop for many moons now but I'm afraid I'll like it too much so I havne't opened it for but a minute or two! :)

[Larry Browning]

I use a program called 3D Home Architect from Borderbund. It is geared a desigining a home, so there are no table saw and dustcollector pieces to use and you can't draw your own, but, it is very good at drawing the walls and room layout. It does have resizable cabinet and appliance drawing tools which can be used to represent tools, workbenches, etc. Plus it draws a 3D view kinda like the one JB posted. It even will calculate a materials list with rough estimates of cost. It has way too many features for me to list here. I used it to design my shop, and even my new house I built 4 years ago. I just gave the drawings to my builder and he took it from there. I have an older version, so I am sure that the newer versions have even more features. I think it costs about $40 or you can get it bundled with the landscape module for about $60.(edit) After a little more research I have found that the price has gone up a little www.broderbund.com (http://www.broderbund.com)
I did a little more research and found another program from Punch Software which looks pretty interesting. I says you can draw you own furniture and it seems to be less expensive. $39.95 for the home design AND the landscape module. the link is www.punchsoftware.com (http://www.punchsoftware.com)

[Jim Becker]

Dang, Jim, you picked up Sketch-up, too, or are you still using the free 8-hour trial?
I bought it a few months ago when they had a little "sale" which knocked of a few bucks. I knew that 8 hours was not going to be enough time to learn, and I was correct. But the capabilities of this program are incredible. The next version will even be better as one thing to be added with be the ability to extrude a cylinder along a curve...something necessary to add DC duct to the above picture. The work-arounds are "cumbersome" to say the least.

[Gary Sutherland]

I bought it a few months ago when they had a little "sale" which knocked of a few bucks. I knew that 8 hours was not going to be enough time to learn, and I was correct. But the capabilities of this program are incredible. The next version will even be better as one thing to be added with be the ability to extrude a cylinder along a curve...something necessary to add DC duct to the above picture. The work-arounds are "cumbersome" to say the least.

Jim...

If you are using the windows version, Ctrl+Shift+D will put the Debug menu on your menu bar, under which you will find 'Extrude along a path'. I've used the feature several times and although it's not 'officially' part of the program yet it's worked perfectly.

Love SketchUp!

gary

[Jim Becker]

If you are using the windows version, Ctrl+Shift+D will put the Debug menu on your menu bar, under which you will find 'Extrude along a path'. I've used the feature several times and although it's not 'officially' part of the program yet it's worked perfectly.
I just got that from the tech support folks in an email while I was traveling last week. I have not had the chance to test it, but am glad to hear it works! Hot dang! :D

[Richard McComas]

Might take a look at this program, I have not used it but it's inexpencive and may work for you what you want.

http://www.roomarranger.com/