Educational CAD software

[kezbratt]

Hi all,

 

I have recently started teaching the BTEC production course at a secondary school. The kids love it! However I really want to get some lighting design software. I have looked into WYSIWYG but the cost and time commitment of the training makes it totally out of my reach. Does anyone have any ideas about any easy to use software????

Thanks

Kez

[Andrew C]

I don't use it (yet?) but Capture ran me through there offering at PLASA. It looked OK, and they do educational pricing, but I can't remember the ££.

[Tomo]

Capture Sweden also have a free, fully functional version available for download - the only limitation is that you can't save anything.

 

Unfortunately the UK dealers' website is awful, but if you phone them they are much better.

 

Full list price is around £700 - £900, but I don't know what educational discounts are available.

 

One thing to be aware of - it doesn't play nice with ATI graphics cards, due to the (awful) drivers.

It works much, much better on nVidia cards.

[mackerr]

I don't know what availability or pricing is like in the UK, but here in the US both Vctorworks and TurboCad are available with steep education discounts. Vectorworks in only $159 for a package that lists for over $2000. Vectorworks Spotlight is a pretty full featured lighting design package.

 

Mac

[kezbratt]

Hi Andrew and Tomo,

Thanks great info, I have downloaded the Capture demo and am trying to get my head around it.

Kez

[Gistybit]

You can also check out Sketchup

 

Theres a free version (since Google bought them) available from http://www.sketchup.com . It's one of the most intuitive software I've come across.

 

With the pro version comes a Film and Stage plugin plus a raytracer (ie. realistic lighting) which is made for production planning of shows.

 

I have only tried the free version, but you can download an 8 hour trial version of the pro version and see if it fits the bill.

 

Film and stage plugin: http://www.sketchup.com/?sid=25

Pro version trial: http://www.sketchup.com/?id=76

[lxkev]

Hello,

 

I have wysiwyg learn 10 licence, I've used wyg for years before hand. I took a test and thus din't need the training ;) and got wyg at a very good price (Still it was fight at the school to buy it) if you download the wyg demo, spend a few days playing on it, you may find you can pass the test. Contact cast directly to see if possible for you to take the test........

[merlin24]

Hello,

 

I have wysiwyg learn 10 licence, I've used wyg for years before hand. I took a test and thus din't need the training and got wyg at a very good price (Still it was fight at the school to buy it) if you download the wyg demo, spend a few days playing on it, you may find you can pass the test. Contact cast directly to see if possible for you to take the test........

 

 

I'm afraid not, it doesn't work that way. The training is mandatory for establishments that purchase the networked LEARN system.(You can buy the standalone educational editions but these are only valid for one year and then are subject to subscriptions. LEARN Systems are not. Stand alonea are aimed at final year students not as a teaching aid)

 

With Respect to the original poster, the training encompasses aproximately two and a half days, which in the grand scheme of things really isn't that much. That two and a half days is speant if needed in a one to one learning situation and is done so that the member of staff running the course for the students is clued up to every possible situation they are likely to have to deal with. Intense yes, but Iwould say worth it. Generally Schools/Uni's buying the software take it out of two budgets, They use their capital expenditure for the software and the training comes out of the Staff Development budget.

 

Capture and Wysiwyg are two very very different entities. Capture is predominantly a visualiser, The ability to build and print plans is quite limited, We spent a large amount of time running comparisons between Wysiwyg and various other software, and to be honest Wysiwyg may not be 100% perfect but it still is the only peice of software that does everything to an exceptable standard with in one package and is recognised industry wide.

 

 

Any queries please feel free to contact me directly on 01494 838380 or via PM or via email address below.

 

Kind Regards

 

Andy

[Tomo]

All true Merlin!

 

Capture is primarily a real-time visualisation tool.

 

Wysiwyg is really more aimed at producing the paperwork, and extremely good still renderings.

[lee weathers]

im not sure if this info is correct for your uses...

 

however

 

showcad artist is now recocnized as industry standard in nightclubs today..

 

download 30 day free trial www.showcad.com

 

lee weathers

[Nick S]

Vectorworks Spotlight is a pretty full featured lighting design package.

 

Indeed - I'd prefer to use Wysiwyg, but Vectorworks has a decent set of lighting design tools (although no pre-vis, it is really just a plotting package), and is a good solution if you're looking for an extremely powerful CAD package which also has a half decent lighting design implementation (it's gotton a lot better since Vectorworks 12).

[Robe575xt]

Hi,

 

Stardraw Lighting 2D is a good little tool for CAD drawing, also links into Excel and exports data as WMF, DXG, or DXF format so can be used with other applications commonly found in schools such as Corel Draw and MS Publisher, tho why any one would use publisher for anything other than their kids birthday party invites is beyond me, however having spent a year working in a secondary school I know MS publisher is a very common app in the education sector. Also the ability to export as DWG enables it to sit comfortably along sie Autocad.

 

However I digress, stardraw has a demo that is available for download at http://www.stardraw.com/products/stardrawlighting2d/and they offer training if memory serves me correctly.

 

The program has quite a steep learning curve but may be what you are looking for.