So you want to design your own shipping container home and don’t know where to start? First, start with a pen and paper while hand sketching the basic layout you want.
Once you have a general idea what your new creation is going to look like with a free hand drawing, start drawing it with a computer aided drafting software (CAD). But, which one of the many available CAD software should you use?
Time and money are always greatest concerns when decisions are being made. Save both of those precious commodities by using a CAD software called SketchUp.
AutoCad is an Industry Standard in Architect’s Offices
I continue to use another CAD software called AutoCad almost everyday in my architectural practice. I have used some version of AutoCad continuously for the past several decades.
AutoCad is a computer aided drafting (CAD) software that is the most popular in most architectural and engineering offices in the US.
There are a lot of other CAD software being used, including Revit, ArchiCad among others. They all have their own pros and cons. But, AutoCad has serviced my needs when drawings construction documents of buildings for many years.
AutoCad is a perfect software for 2D drafting. I use it daily to draw floor plans, elevations, and details of my architectural projects.
Vendors of building products have drawings and specifications of their products available to be downloaded for free for AutoCad users.
But, it is not the best software to use when I want to quickly produce a 3D image to illustrate my design to the readers in this blog.
So, I looked around for another software that would be able to draw 3D drawings quickly and cheaply. That is when I found SketchUp.
I found that some construction product vendors also have free downloadable items available for SketchUp users too.
Not only do commercial vendors share their free 3D SketchUp drawings that I can download into my drawing, there are a lot of drawings that other SketchUp users have drawn. They are available for me to use for free too.
For example, the shipping container, furniture, trees, and scale figures (people) that I used in my drawings of shipping container buildings in this blog came from the large library of drawings already made available to me for free in the SketchUp library called “SketchUp Warehouse.”
SketchUp is Easier to Learn and Less Expensive than AutoCad
It took me only a weekend to learn the basics needed to draw with SketchUp. They have great tutorials to follow and Learn SketchUp. There are also some very helpful YouTube videos to follow for beginners too.
In contrast, it took me almost a year to become proficient in AutoCad. It is more complicated to learn and not as user-friendly as SketchUp.
Here is a side by side example of drawings done on SketchUp compared to a drawing done with AutoCad. It is of the same project.
I needed to design a shipping container house for my son. Since I knew AutoCad, I used this program to draw the floor plan of the house I designed.
But, I was soon stuck and still didn’t have a 3D drawing of the design without plugging into some other third-party program that also had a bid learning curve.
The simple 2D black and white floor plan was not the end result that I was looking for.
So, I redrew it in SketchUp the same day and quickly had drawings that I was able to post in the article, “Cost to Build a Shipping Container Home.”
The SketchUp program was able to produce a floor plan and show it in 3D with colors and materials illustrated on it in very little time and effort. This was clearly the best choice of CAD software for me to use for the article.
Where to Get a Free Version of SketchUp
Not only is SketchUp easy to learn, it is very inexpensive.
For the beginners who are not sure if they will like using SketchUp, I recommend that they go to this link, SketchUp Website and download a free version.
The free version is not for a limited trial period of time. The free version is available for as long as a person wants to use it.
I use the SketchUp Pro version because I like using the LayOut portion of SketchUp. LayOut will allow me to convert the 3D drawings from the regular SketchUp program into 2D floor plans, elevations, sections, and details.
Here’s the link to the SketchUp’s pricing sheet for some of the various subscription options. These options include the free version and the Pro version at SketchUp Pricing Sheet.
There is also a savings with the hardware that will be needed to use SketchUp. It does not require as fast or as expensive of a computer as AutoCad.
SketchUp is the best CAD software to use for any shipping container home designer who wants to save money while producing drawings that will quickly illustrate their design.
AutoCad is Offered as a Subscription
AutoCad is a very good tool to use if you want to draw a complete set of construction documents. In my opinion, it is better for that than SketchUp for 2D drawings.
You can subscribe to AutoCad (also known as AutoDesk) at this AutoCad subscription website.