CA for future home builder/owner

[SkagitDesign]

Just get the $50 version of Home Designer.

Play with it, if you like it, then get Chief.

That is really what I did. I bought some cheesy Better Homes and Gardens program to design houses. Turns out, it wasn't cheesy, it was really Chief. I drew and played with it, then sent to a friend when I wanted real prints, eventually.

Now, I am still no "Architect", but in our state, I draw, send it the engineer, he redlines, it, I put his redlines on the prints, he sends Calcs, the county is happy. Sometimes they want a letter from him that he engineered it, he did, and provides the letter.

Not rocket science. But any brain surgeon wouldn't be impressed either.

[lbuttery]

James:

since the OP already has some cad experience and plans to do his own CD's
I think he would be better served with $500 HD PRO

the $50 HD products are very limited to doing basic floorplans with the stock library objects

while the $99 or $199 HD products might be ok
only PRO has manual roofs and manual cabinets and manual framing and a 1 page layout tool etc

plus the $500 cost is applied to the upgrade to chief Premier if the OP runs into PRO's limits - which he probably will

Lew