I'm looking for software to layout a shop.

woodchucker

woodchucker

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It used to exist at grizzly, but now that adobe flash is no longer supported it went away. It was nice because they had machines in their library that matched my machines in size. I am not happy with my metal shop, some of my tools are in my wood shop, hydraulic press, band saw (hand held table mounted). My last big piece was the surface grinder, which through a monkey wrench into the whole thing.

I would like to find software that can redesign the room. I have tried the paper method, but it's a pain sitting there cutting out machines and moving them around.

Does anyone use any current software that is good for shop planning. I could probably use a re-design in my wood shop too.

Just entering the thinking about it phase... Want more space but have to deal with what I have, so I need to be more efficient with the space I have.
 
I don’t have a separate wood shop and do little with wood, but I feel your pain with trying to get a handle on organizing. I felt like a surface grinder would be one machine too far due to space and the logistics of power and abrasive collection. So didn’t go there. My long term goals are to get everything out of my shop that is seldom used, but used enough I can’t get rid of them and get them into a good shed which would free up quite a bit of space.

Do you think something like Sketchup like some members use could work? It wouldn’t be fancy but basic boxes approximately the size of your machines in spaces approximating yours might help.
 
I’ve used SketchUp for this type of thing and it’s good once you are comfortable with it.

It would probably be quicker to try a variety of arrangements with paper cutouts and a scale drawing though.
 
The problem with any of these software packages is it takes longer to get accustom to using them than is worthwhile for one shop. I've thought about trying to use something to lay out my new shop. I've used a PDF tool on my ipad called "Notability" but it doesn't do scaled drawings so very crude for layout.
 
At the risk of being flamed, FreeCad does have a 2D "Drafting" toolbox, which I have not tried.
 
I have used CAD programs for this, I just drew a rectangle scaled to the same dimensions as my room and draw boxes to represent the space required by each machine. From there it is easy to drag them around and play with different layouts to see how things fit. I need to do this again sometime in the nearish future, recent lathe acquisition threw a monkey wrench into the current layout. It is mostly okay now, but I think it could be better.
 
I used a 2D CAD program like AutoCAD to do room layouts. I would make simple shapes like rectangles to represent the footprint and work space of the machine and group the lines so they moved as one entity. They can easily be repositioned using a move entity command or typing in a new coordinate for one point on the entity.
 
If one has FreeCAD, then why not do it in 3D? Doesn't have to have high fidelity in Z, but might help with planning out storage (shelves). But learning the tool can be a time investment.
 
sketchup was a good choice long ago. I had a copy or actually a few versions. Now it is web based. And I don't feel like redoing that.
freecad is a pain to use. I have to say it's not a very good interface for this.. maybe as Randal says the 2d might work better.

Obviously , there's no free lunch here. Grizzly did a pretty good job, you just had to match your machine to their machine... But my shop has changed quite a bit. More tools , less available space over time.
 
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