I'm looking for software to layout a shop.

I've used 2d CAD programs without problems, but 3d kind of broke me for the longest time. The real problem was me not taking the time to methodically learn it. Once I told myself, "you will commit to learn FreeCAD" then it was obvious to me that I had to spend uninterrupted time on the effort. So I structured my time to have at least 5 hours a day, so I could concentrate on this. That's what worked for me.
 
woodchucker said:
First, I am very well versed in computers, it was what I did for a living. Except I suck at cad or really any drawing program.
While excel would work, it's a clunky way to work. I prefer software designed for a similar task. The same way I found living room design software not to my liking.

My shop is fully built, all wiring, all lighting, I don't need any of that. I need to get better utilization of the space. There are things I like about the space, but many I don't like. By playing with the layout, I hope to find a better use of some space.

I am going to try the Freecad 2d to see if it is usable. Randal was able to quickly.. Randal has gotten pretty good at FreeCad. Still, I think there must be decent software out there.
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You might try to find a YouTube video on the 2D FreeCad "Draft Workbench". Like most other things in FreeCad, it is less than intuitive. But being able to draw scaled rectangles and circles on a snap-to grid is pretty straightforward. I set my grid to 76.2 mm (3") and heavy/major grid lines to every 4 grid lines (1') and just pressed on from there.

I am pretty aggressive about just making things work and not getting caught up in the "there should be a way to do this". For example I took a quick look at grouping objects to make more complicated shapes, and it is rather messy between creating groups, layers, and naming, so I just drew things as fit and select multiple shapes to move/drag them.
 
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