What are you using to Draw deckplans.

Stainless said:
If I were to draw my own deck plans, I'd use Microsoft Visio Pro. You can get a free three month trial. The Pro version comes with pre-drawn machinery, vehicle, etc. pictures.

Some where out there is a site with Traveller specific symbols for Visio.

I knew I missed an option.
 
Infojunky said:
Stainless said:
If I were to draw my own deck plans, I'd use Microsoft Visio Pro. You can get a free three month trial. The Pro version comes with pre-drawn machinery, vehicle, etc. pictures.

Some where out there is a site with Traveller specific symbols for Visio.

I knew I missed an option.

see http://www.discoverthat.co.uk/floorplans/sci-fi/index.htm

I use Visio & the floor plans (set to use a metric scale) are good enough for me.
 
I used to use DrawPlus on the Acorn Archimedes (2Mb RAM, no HDD, 1 Mb FDD) - no relation of the current Serif DrawPlus as far as I know though it would not be a bad choice nowadays.

Basically a vector package of some sort - except the incomprehensible and horribly expensive Adobe Illustrator which as a side note I am going to remove from our school network tomorrow as no one has ever used it successfully.
 
klingsor said:
Basically a vector package of some sort - except the incomprehensible and horribly expensive Adobe Illustrator

Actully Illustrator isn't all that bad nor all that expensive, a third the price of Photoshop, then consider AutoCad for a learning curve....
 
Canvas used to be pretty good (I last used it at version 5 though, when Deneba owned it - now it's owned by ACDsee and it's at version 11!). That's a cheaper vector package anyway.

Linky
 
I have been using vector packages since the late eighties, moving from one to another over several different operating systems without problem - except for Illustrator, blank wall, vertical learning curve - a weird scary alien thing. I suspect if you are a Photoshop user it is a lot easier and it is a very capable professional package, quite possibly the standard professional package.

What we really need is something relatively cheap, simple and easy to use. The list price of Serif's DrawPlus is not far off £80 which puts it at the upper end for this though there are usually offers and older versions to be found.

I have DrawPlus and CC3 but I have not drawn any deckplans in years. This new edition of Traveller looks like the stimulus I need to get me back in the saddle, I just need to finish Halo first...
 
klingsor said:
I suspect if you are a Photoshop user it is a lot easier and it is a very capable professional package, quite possibly the standard professional package.

In some ways, there are some similarities, but if you know Photoshop very well and come to Illustrator cold, it's incredibly misleading. You have to unlearn a lot of things. The learning curve for Flash isn't as high, at least as far as drawing is concerned. It's more hands on, less aloof.
 
Woas said:
Blank pieces of computer paper, a 0.7mm #2 pencil, an a unknown brand inking pen. But then again, I've only made 2 deck plans so far. 8)

I'm old school Stone Age too, I like playing around on graph paper a bit first to rough out an idea then scanning a working drawing into my PC to tweak with a graphics program.

Mind lusting after a tablet and notebook PC to 'expedite' that process a bit !
 
I use Excel. I use Excel for everything. Chargen. Worldgen. Systemgen. Why should deck plans feel they can get away with it? ;)
 
I don't draw deck plans !

But if I did, I'd use OmniGraffle* - because I'm a Mac guy. That, and Sketch Up if I wanted to 3D-ify them.


* like Visio, only about a million times better. Reads that Visio template file linked above just fine.
 
starbright said:
I use Photoshop CS3 for my Traveller spaceship deckplans
but the temptation is to make them look too pretty, and not detailed enough. I must learn to concentrate, use graph paper as background insted of pretty colours etc.

Nice work. I like using Photoshop because I'm comfortable with the toolset and it lets you do anything. That said, I prefer deckplans in the 'old school' style.
 
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