# decks



## tazmanian

are there any good free deck design tools out there to mock up a deck -


----------



## Cole

Sketchup:


----------



## tazmanian

is it difficult - i have the sketch up but still trying to use it better....:w00t:


----------



## Snobnd

Cole said:


> Sketchup:


Cole that is a nice mockup,,, How long did it take you??


----------



## RobertCDF

Once you get the hang of it and build your component library its amazing what you can do in 30 mins. I use sketchup for all my designs as well and I love it.


----------



## Cole

Snobnd said:


> Cole that is a nice mockup,,, How long did it take you??


A couple of hours, but I have been working with Sketchup for a couple of years now.


----------



## SullivanForbes

Sketchup is a pretty good tool. You can get down to some pretty fine detail using it too.


----------



## Willie T

Cole,
I just gotta ask......... How did you come up with the interesting names for your outdoor kitchen, pregola and arbor designs?


----------



## Cole

If I am not working you can find me fly fishing for trout. They are all bug names but soon will be all changing once the new site launches.


----------



## outdoorescapes

*Deck Works*

We have deck works and although it cost $2800 it was worth it. The pic below took me about 30 min and then it took about another 30 min to get it ready for permit. The sales people do the initial drawing and then if needed we hand it off the the Cad guy to finish it up. We have been able to land a lot of big decks with this. You get what you pay for and with sketch up it takes a long time to make something.


----------



## RobertCDF

outdoorescapes said:


> We have deck works and although it cost $2800 it was worth it. The pic below took me about 30 min and then it took about another 30 min to get it ready for permit. The sales people do the initial drawing and then if needed we hand it off the the Cad guy to finish it up. We have been able to land a lot of big decks with this. You get what you pay for and with sketch up it takes a long time to make something.


I beg to differ, I can get a more versatile image of the same design in roughly 30-40 minutes (minus the blueprints, but since we do steel frame its all different anyways, so any of the deck programs plans are going to need to be modified) Sketchup will allow me to design the way I would actually build the project instead of the way something thinks I should. By using components wisely you can make sketchup work very fast, I sell high end decks with it just fine. And standard decks can be done in minutes (or I just load a similar size that I've drawn before, and maybe move the stairs)


----------



## outdoorescapes

*Vectorworks*

I like the ease of use of this and it works well for us. Maybe sketchup works well for you but there is no way you can tell me that a true cad program is better than a free program. Actually sketch up pro is $500 about the same price as the deck works plug in for vectorworks. Great things are not free. Here is a more intricate drawing that took about 3 hours. This is very photo realistic. I will put this up against any other design software.


----------



## redwood

Who left the lights on?

Seriously, a drawing like that can be done with a number of software packages, probably even sketchup.

The trex and vectorworks combo, i'm sure is a great tool, but a little costlier then some of the other high end cad programs.

Curious, does it allow for other decking, besides trex? Will it place posts, for the railing, outside of the framework?


----------



## outdoorescapes

*Still best for decks.*

Yes I know there are a lot of other programs out there but trex put a lot into this and there is 5 plus years of research and that is what makes it so user friendly. 
As far as other deck products no it only has ipe and cedar and trex. There is a work around that we have figured out from our CAD guy. As far as moving posts and stuff like that yes it can all be done it is still vectorworks.


----------



## DecksEtc

outdoorescapes said:


> Yes I know there are a lot of other programs out there but trex put a lot into this and there is 5 plus years of research and that is what makes it so user friendly.
> As far as other deck products no it only has ipe and cedar and trex. There is a work around that we have figured out from our CAD guy. As far as moving posts and stuff like that yes it can all be done it is still vectorworks.


Too bad Trex is garbage.


----------



## Willie T

Now, I am a huge SketchUp fan... probably one of the biggest here. And I think we all know that either program can look almost identical.

But what difference does the material depicted have to do with anything?


----------



## Winchester

I have Revit Architecture 2011 and Chief's HDP, (and even 3DSmax).

I had deck tools for a while and have played with lots of programs but I always end up going back to sketchup. every other program i use has really good features in so many areas but there is always at least one place where you just can't find a reasonable work around that doesn't take a long time. I always revert back to sketchup in the end.

it is quick and foolproof. and the only program i've used that makes all the little tweaks easy if you want to do any.
I'd like to be able to do nice renders but they aren't really necessary for decks and if i felt like it I could buy an addon for it or take the time to learn 3DSmax

I did a deck today in about an hour once I figured out how I thought it should look. Wants to keep half covered, half pergola (for vines). Same post locations, etc...

Existing:










Proposed:




























I could add more detail but really, how much is needed to get the design idea across and look presentable?


----------



## SC sawdaddy

outdoorescapes said:


> We have deck works and although it cost $2800 it was worth it. The pic below took me about 30 min and then it took about another 30 min to get it ready for permit. The sales people do the initial drawing and then if needed we hand it off the the Cad guy to finish it up. We have been able to land a lot of big decks with this. You get what you pay for and with sketch up it takes a long time to make something.


Why 12" o/c 2x10s?
I dont put them that close in a house floor. Seems like overkill to me.


Ah... 45 degree decking :thumbsup:..... Nevermind.


----------



## Cole

Winchester said:


> I could add more detail but really, how much is needed to get the design idea across and look presentable?


I agree. I love seeing photo realistic renderings but honestly, 99% of the time they are not needed. Yes they are cool but imho a waste of time.


----------



## redwood

Ryan, that's very nice, and definatly get's the ideas across. Now, what would it take to convert that into construction drawings, to pull a permit.

I never got to the point of being able to do something like that in Sketchup, in a hour, or even two.

Sketchup is a great tool to model things, I just could never get up to speed, to do actual layouts and plans. I'm probably too old.:sad:


----------

