Some freeware allowed me to draw the deck freehand and filled in the details automatically, but some didn't. When you get back to your starting point, the software should fill in footings, posts, beams, joists, decking, and railings, all with your pre-selected specifications. With good CAD software, drawing a deck should be just like drawing on paper, except with a mouse instead of a pencil: Place the cursor at a corner, click the mouse, drag the cursor to the next corner of the deck, click, and drag to the next junction point. But then again, none of the expensive software-such as Chief Architect or SoftPlan-that I helped evaluate in an earlier article could either. None of the freeware I tested could match RLA's rendering ability. I can generate construction drawings with it, but for me its most valuable function is producing photorealistic renderings I can print out or email to a client. This is a relatively inexpensive ($400) full-featured design program that I use nearly every day in my deck business. All promise to make deck design quick and easy-to find out how well they live up to that promise, I rounded some up and gave them a try.įairly or not, I compared the programs with the CAD software I'm most familiar with, Realtime Landscaping Architect ( ). If you want to dip a toe in the CAD waters before investing hundreds, or thousands, of dollars in software you're not even sure you're going to like, you could experiment with one of the many free deck design programs online.
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