Draw programs other than Apex & WinSketch?

[Herire Ghazanian]

I guess anything can be considered easy if one has the knowledge, ability, time & the will to do it. I'm familiar with that link you provided because i started that thread. Thanks for your advice.

 

[Dave Smith]

Response to Thomas N. Morgan

Hello Tom:

Thank you for your insightful response.

You asked " Is your new associate well-seasoned in appraising, plus savvy when it comes to knowing or learning excel?" She is an excellent appraiser but not that knowledgeable about Excel nor am I except for its basic spreadsheet functions.

We keep looking for something similar to LaserDraw because it is so simple to use. I have over 1,000 LaserDraw sketches on my computer. I just wish we could get it up on running on the second computer.

I will check out the Clickforms and RapidSketch programs.

Thanks again,

 

[Patrick Davis]

Actually,

A new version of the RapidSketch application was released today.

http://www.rapidsketch.com

 

[xm39hnu]

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, OpenOffice has a built-in vector drawing program which is quite easy to use, and robust enough to get fancy when you have to. And it's free for the download. As a bonus, you get a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation program, and built-in relational database. Free. http://www.openoffice.org.

 

[Fred]

I have used Excel and MS Word. The link that Alan provided talked about making the cells square in Excel. Actually, the height/width ratio doesn't have to be 1/1 if: a) you know enough arithmentic :Eyecrazy: or b) don't care if it is not exactly to scale. I do mostly commercial. Res guys do a lot more sketching. So, cheaping out may not work for everyone.

 

[Tejus]

Steve,

I think you were referring to Herire's link to create square cells.

My link refers to using the excel drawing functions to create sketches, calculate areas, etc, etc, etc . . .

The square cells are cosmetically pleasing and potentially useful, but I'm light years ahead of that.

It's like comparing a fold up paper airplane to an F-16 fighter jet.

It's like comparing Hillary Clinton to Jessica Alba.

It's like comparing an orangutan to George Bush. Oops, poor analogy, the orangutan might win a battle of wits.

All my sketches are drawn to scale and can be rescaled. The scale can be whatever you want, i.e. ft, in, meters, miles, km, whatever. In addition, you have all the general purpose drawing functions available, such as the cloak of invisibility feature identified in another thread. This is GREAT stuff and I'm still scratching the surface.

As posted earlier, the answer to many of these issues is education . . .

bueno suerto.

 

[Aubrey Williams II]

I used Visio 2003 Professional for technical and architectural sketches, but it may not be a good choice for you as it has a ton of features.

 

[Patrick Davis]

RapidSketch Update

A free update to RapidSketch was released this morning:

Screenshots:
http://www.rapidsketch.com/1.gif
http://www.rapidsketch.com/2.gif
http://www.rapidsketch.com/3.gif
http://www.rapidsketch.com/4.gif


This update includes tons of new features and fixes, most of which were user suggested over the past 6 months. This update to version 2.3 is free (as always). Even if you have tried RapidSketch in the past, this update is worth looking at as it has many additions and enhancements.


Just a few of the new features:

With our vastly improved snap-to-grid feature, you now have the ability to keyboard draw in inches or fractions of a foot regardless of your mouse’s snap-to-grid precision. This new feature will give you industry first freedom to sketch as you like; it’s an uncompromising improvement for both precision and usability.

New keyboard drawing in feet and inches in addition to feet and tenths

Drag and drop labels menu

Tons of new symbols

Area calculation breakdown/proof screen and print options! Show the area calculation proof on your reports!

Tons of new industry standard keyboard shortcuts

Improved print quality

Wintotal users: Garage and basement transfer as well as intelligent floor transfer
​

It is hard for me to express how many improvements are in this update; it truly is a huge step forward for RapidSketch as a whole and it is in large part to the feedback our users have provided us. Our vastly improved help guide for version 2.3 is available at http://www.rapidsketch.com/RapidSketchGuidev23.pdf


We have the best support in the industry, and it is FREE. I encourage you to take advantage of it whenever needed. Some of the highlights of our support include:

FREE phone support Monday - Friday 9am-6pm EST

FREE one-on-one training at your convenience via webinar (WebEx), or by remote desktop control

FREE training webinars 3 days per week
​

As a small company, we can relate to your specific needs and strive to exceed your expectations in the quality of our product and our customer service.

We need your feedback! It goes into a database and is used to create future updates, so please take the time to write or call and tell us your thoughts.

Please feel free to contact me directly with any questions or concerns.

-Pat Davis

 

[jdbiggers]

Try FDSketcher.

That portion of the NCVSoftware Bundle is free.

Lookup NCVSoftware if interested. FDSketcher is extremely easy to use and has ALWAYS been a "no point of begiining" type program, meaning you can draw however you like. ALWAYS had snap to grid and snap to end point. Rotate to ANY angle. Overlays of images. Rich Text text fields (not just all bold o all not bold). ALWAYS had drag and drop labels and symbols. Easy keyboard or mouse drawing.

For appraisal, it is more than adequate. But , it has features, too, that can take it well beyond simple sketching, such as full OLE support, cropping images to any shape, poly-lines, conversion of line in poly's to bezier/arc, etc, easy arc creation, easy-build symbols, etc.

JD Biggers

 

[jdbiggers]

Dave,

At one time, John-David Biggers was working on a sketch program. He was asking Formites what characteristics appraisers thought such a program should have. The responses were not very informative. Mostly, people told him which program they used, not the features they liked.

I sort of believe that if the designers and programers of Clickforms are also the ones that designed it and are now sitll associated with Area Sketch, it will be improved where needed, without getting too complicated.

I already had one, but was improving it. My Sketching is for both Pocket PC and for desktop applicaitons, and integrate with each other.

As for the responses I got from the post, most people emailed me directly with their thoughts on features. Most of them I already had, but I implemented the others and more.

There are videos of using the sketcher both on the desktop and on the PDA available at my software site...

http://www.ncvsoftware.com/videos.htm

Sketcher can still be used for free to an extent.

JD