Architects & Engineers: Question

[2014GT]

Long story short, I've been in the petroleum, mechanical, civil, structural, pipe, and 3D drafting for about 8 years. I've done tons of design work, planning, topographic, etc, all kinds of junk.

I've been approached by the owner of the company I'm with now to start producing house plans. I've never done house plans. Looking for a good software to start with that is fairly user friendly.

Is this something that I should be able to pick up fairly easily? I know you need to know lots of basic little details just like any other type of design work.

Just looking for input from guys that might have done this type of work before. Any input would be appreciated.

 

[Mattio]

Seems as though you are well rounded in design however with 8 years of experience and 5 different practices; how well rounded are you really?
I've been a mechanical/piping designer for 12 years now and got started in design with architecture. Home design is cake compared to anything ive done marine/offshore. Getting familiar with building codes and staying up to date would be the first challenge. Ive played around with 3D home design and created entire custom homes complete with furniture and electrical diagrams in a matter of hours. Give it a shot, bet you'll enjoy it.

 

[2014GT]

I started in civil design work about 8-10 years ago. I've been doing oil/gas design work and permitting plats for Exxon and similar companies and working with their engineers and geologists developing wells. I've been doing this while working for a surveying and civil engineering company so naturally I've been pushed into producing site plans and basic civil design work and topographic.

Since it's a rather diverse company I've done a good bit of mechanical for them as well as side work for myself. Actually mechanical design is where I started when I was younger.

I'm finishing a piping degree at the moment, it's interesting, hopefully I'll get into it more. Right now it just seems sorta boring, especially since it's something I'm not getting paid for.

A division of the company I work for now builds and finances homes. We've been using a local architecture firm for the past 15 years or so. We feel like we're getting gouged a little on price. The owner knows I'm diverse and wants me to pick up on this so we can start producing in house...

He's asking me to pick out a software and such to get started with. I don't deal with anyone that does this type of work so I'm just trying to get an idea of what to look for...

 

[2014GT]

We have a whole room full of house plans. Seems to me they all have the same basic specs as far as foundation design and reinforcement. They appear to all use the same basic truss setup, offsets, etc... Just different roof lines and sq footage and moving rooms around and such. I'll need to know what the standard sizes are for certain areas. Tub sizes, door req for different access, wall thickness, counter depth and height, req area around water heaters and toilets, etc... All seems like it'd be straight forward once I know the basics.

 

[dirtyd88]

Google Sketchup......:lol1:

Honestly, is he looking for a software to strictly produce plans and blueprints from? Or actually go through and design a house? Because now you are talking drafting vs. actual design work...AutoCAD vs. Revit

 

[BLOWN PONY]

I design custom homes for a living as what my industry calls a "Sales Engineer".

I'm responsible for designing the floor plans and elevations per customer requests, and then costing them.

I've only worked with ACAD, and it seems to work just fine for what we need. Once you learn around 30 basic commands, you're ready to rock and roll.

 

[dirtyd88]

We have a whole room full of house plans. Seems to me they all have the same basic specs as far as foundation design and reinforcement. They appear to all use the same basic truss setup, offsets, etc... Just different roof lines and sq footage and moving rooms around and such. I'll need to know what the standard sizes are for certain areas. Tub sizes, door req for different access, wall thickness, counter depth and height, req area around water heaters and toilets, etc... All seems like it'd be straight forward once I know the basics.

There's a lot more to it than that. You have to follow IBC, you have to know timber design, ASCE design manuals for wind and snow loadings. There are standards on minimum stud spacing, all that good stuff.

 

[2014GT]

I would say plans and blueprints. But it seems all our plans have window and doors lists, section views of exterior walls and footings, etc...

I know he wants me to be able to sit in on his meetings with the purchasers and help them put a basic floor plan together and give them a solid floor plan, with elevation views of the home and a basic foundation print for the crews to work with.

I know we haven't been dealing with the super specifics like wall texture, tile/carpet, etc. Just the basic plan.

 

[2014GT]

We only build locally, so I know there's a good bit that won't change from house to house. I'll see if there are any samples saved here on the server I can upload. I need a little schooling here...

 

[BLOWN PONY]

I would say plans and blueprints. But it seems all our plans have window and doors lists, section views of exterior walls and footings, etc...

I know he wants me to be able to sit in on his meetings with the purchasers and help them put a basic floor plan together and give them a solid floor plan, with elevation views of the home and a basic foundation print for the crews to work with.

I know we haven't been dealing with the super specifics like wall texture, tile/carpet, etc. Just the basic plan.

Sounds like exactly like what I do. Come up with the floor plan and elevations then send it off to get "working prints" engineered.

Learning the system isn't the hard part, it's making sure what you draw can actually be built.

 

[2014GT]

Luckily I've worked in the construction side before, so I know what is possible. I just need to be able to produce an Elevation, Floor plan, and Foundation drawing.

I'm just trying to figure out if I'm getting into something I might need to stay away from. I'm fixing to find a couple to upload so you guys that are familiar with this type of stuff can see what we're working towards...

 

[dirtyd88]

I would say plans and blueprints. But it seems all our plans have window and doors lists, section views of exterior walls and footings, etc...

I know he wants me to be able to sit in on his meetings with the purchasers and help them put a basic floor plan together and give them a solid floor plan, with elevation views of the home and a basic foundation print for the crews to work with.

I know we haven't been dealing with the super specifics like wall texture, tile/carpet, etc. Just the basic plan.

Footings will still need to be designed by geotech engineers. I know ETX has almost the same soil profiles for most of the Tyler area, but bedrock isn't always in the same place. A geotech will also determine how many footings the house will need, as well.

Sounds like exactly like what I do. Come up with the floor plan and elevations then send it off to get "working prints" engineered.

Learning the system isn't the hard part, it's making sure what you draw can actually be built.

And this is where architects can never come to terms with reality.

 

[dirtyd88]

It sounds like AutoCAD will be your best bet for this stuff.

 

[BLOWN PONY]

And this is where architects can never come to terms with reality.

That's the sole reason my company almost always promotes from within. Every single one of our "Engineers" came out of the production side of the company. meaning they actually swung the hammers for years before they got the chance to tell others how to swing the hammer.

 

[dirtyd88]

That's the sole reason my company almost always promotes from within. Every single one of our "Engineers" came out of the production side of the company. meaning they actually swung the hammers for years before they got the chance to tell others how to swing the hammer.

I started college as a architect major, and ended up switching to civil/structural engineering when I figured out I didn't have that "off the wall" design niche. I would look at something and say "what the ****?" where others would see some other crazy resemblence that made no sense. It's fun to be able to say what works and what doesn't.

Even in the Transmission and Distribution industry I work in now, some of the utility structures that show up for design bids is like "WTF?"

 

[BLOWN PONY]

I started college as a architect major, and ended up switching to civil/structural engineering when I figured out I didn't have that "off the wall" design niche. I would look at something and say "what the ****?" where others would see some other crazy resemblence that made no sense. It's fun to be able to say what works and what doesn't.

Even in the Transmission and Distribution industry I work in now, some of the utility structures that show up for design bids is like "WTF?"

Mehh, it's all just a big game of Tetris designing floor plans.

Make these rectangles fit inside this square and figure out the best shaped triangle to fit on top. :-D

 

[2014GT]

These are how the plans leave our office. I know they are being sent over to an engineer of some sort to be looked over and revised and such...

 

[2014GT]

I'd love to be able to also have a 3D rendering. Which I know if fairly easy to do with most software.

 

[xl2ockl3ottomx]

The software you would need to use depends on how detailed you are going to be working on the,.

If you are looking to do floor plans only, a 2d program would probably be easiest (try DraftSight, its a free version of AutoCAD made by SolidWorks).

 

[dirtyd88]

These are how the plans leave our office. I know they are being sent over to an engineer of some sort to be looked over and revised and such...

Yeah, all that is bascially AutoCAD work. I have a buddy here in DFW that actually does conceptual 3D rendering for homes. If that is something your boss would want to look into, I can maybe get some contact info?