Illustrator or Sketchup Pro For Scaled Concept Drawings???

Jimnibob

Jimnibob

New Member
Hi,

I am a joiner and was wondering if I am better to learn Illustrator of Sketchup Pro to produce scaled concept drawings and illustrations with dimensions?

Regards

Jimnibob
 
I'd suggest you should learn actual CAD software, like AutoCAD for example. Working in Illustrator on something that requires precision can be a complete pain, as the points and lines don't always join up perfectly. Add to that there's no in-built way to accurately draw lines coming off at a tangent, or perpendicular to a normal and you'll likely find it's a waste of time and money. CAD software will allow you to easily draw measurement lines, drill holes, etc, and quickly produce a drawing to an exact scale because that's exactly what it's intended for.
 
I agree with Paul, but of those two I would choose Sketchup, specially if it's for working drawings.
 
Paul Murray said:
I'd suggest you should learn actual CAD software, like AutoCAD for example. Working in Illustrator on something that requires precision can be a complete pain, as the points and lines don't always join up perfectly. Add to that there's no in-built way to accurately draw lines coming off at a tangent, or perpendicular to a normal and you'll likely find it's a waste of time and money. CAD software will allow you to easily draw measurement lines, drill holes, etc, and quickly produce a drawing to an exact scale because that's exactly what it's intended for.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice
 
For now I'd probably just use SketchUp. I'm not exactly what you need to produce, but the free version of SketchUp will probably do you for basic plans.
 
I'm going to go completely different... I work in 3D design, background is product design so in essence do a lot of what the OP wants to do... ie present ideas to clients.

IMO you ideally want to be looking at a 3D modelling program that can support export to autocad format plans. Now the reason I suggest this is two fold, one it is exact measurements and 2 you can also export your parts for machine cutting if designed in the right way (basically making assemblies of parts as if you were making the real thing.).

Paid software like solidworks and inventor would be my personal suggestion if budget is no issue but I'm guessing it is so I'm going to suggest FreeCAD.

Now I haven't used it personally but this should support export to most formats that companies require when machine cutting from digital plans etc.

If all you want is 2D planning (freecad does it too) then something like draftsight is free but I feel you'd be better suited with freecad. .
 
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