Hello from Richmond, VA, USA

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Tango
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Joined: Fri May 26, 2017 12:41 am

Hello from Richmond, VA, USA

Post by Tango » Fri May 26, 2017 12:48 am

About a year ago my fiancée and I were designing our dream home, with the help of an architect. We had what we thought was just a fantastic, so we brought the contractor in on it and he told us why it'd cost something like a hundred grand more than we expected. I talked things over with the architect. I had been sending him sketches I'd do in GIMP and now I converted the PDF files of the plans into something I could edit in GIMP.

I quickly found an issue because it was hard to make sure my changes on the 1st floor would match those on the second. Keeping wall lengths was tough. To his credit, our architect suggested I download the trial version of AutoCAD and use that for a month and he'd show me how to do it. While so many pros can be scared of clients learning how to do what they do, he wasn't worried at all.

Well, there were password issues and I'm on a Mac, so all the AutoCAD tutorials were no help, since they used the Windows interface. Between those two issues, I gave up and searched for a free or open source CAD program. I found LibreCAD, which I've been using for the past year or so. I used it for our house plan changes (the architect sent me .dxf files so I could edit the plans) and I've been using it for other work.

For various reasons, I feel it's time to change. I understand QCAD and LibreCAD have a shared history and I'm checking out QCAD with the idea of switching. So far I like QCAD and am considering paying for a full version license. (My only issue is a need to change mouse/trackpad behavior - still looking for that.)

So I'm sure once I get settled and start using QCAD, I'll be asking a fair amount of questions when I'm working on projects.

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Husky
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Joined: Wed May 11, 2011 9:25 am
Location: USA

Re: Hello from Richmond, VA, USA

Post by Husky » Fri May 26, 2017 7:25 pm

Hello Tango - welcome to the forum.

Thanks for this info - sounds like you are following a solid plan. :wink:

Tango wrote:While so many pros can be scared of clients learning how to do what they do, he wasn't worried at all.
A really pro knows what is behind his trade and how he learned it over many many years - there is realistically no danger that a client is able to take over this experience just in a couple conversations and/or in buying a couple pro tools. Your architect sounds to me like a really pro!
Tango wrote:My only issue is a need to change mouse/trackpad behavior - still looking for that.
Have you tried the different settings for the mouse in QCAD? Isn't it working for you?
Husky-2017.05.26-01.png
Husky-2017.05.26-01.png (92.63 KiB) Viewed 7562 times
Tango wrote:So I'm sure once I get settled and start using QCAD, I'll be asking a fair amount of questions when I'm working on projects.
This forum already provides a lot of answers for all kind of questions and a quick search will often bring up a fast answer regarding the problem. However - if you can't find something what is helpful just ask and we are happy to help. That is what we do! :wink:
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Tango
Active Member
Posts: 34
Joined: Fri May 26, 2017 12:41 am

Re: Hello from Richmond, VA, USA

Post by Tango » Sat May 27, 2017 7:09 am

Thanks, Husky!

I was poking around this afternoon and, even without finding the setting for scroll vs. the wheel, had already started to think of replacing LibreCAD with QCAD. I was looking for "Input," "Devices" and other headings, but finally found it under Appearance, as you pointed out. Since this has everything I've been using and, it seems, more, I'll be paying for a Pro version download either this evening or sometime this weekend. Thanks for the screenshot and help on that, though. If I had checked the board this afternoon, that would have saved me some poking around!

The issue with the architect - yes, many professionals will know, as you pointed out, that they can't be replaced easily by someone who knows a little bit here and there, but I've encountered a few people in different professions that don't think that way. Generally those are people I don't work with or hire a second time. This architect is wonderful to work with. As I said, he showed me how to use AutoCAD and sent me the files so I could edit. I spent about a week, day and night (literally!), working on changes. When he got them, he loved what I had done. He also said he could use much of what I had done. Overall, it's been a wonderful collaboration. He said that my doing the redesign work made things go much faster, since if I had tried to pass on sketches or describe the changes, it wouldn't have always been easy to see just what I was talking about or how it fit into the rest of the design.

Again, thanks for the reply and help!

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