Hot Door at HotDoor.com has a CAD plugin for Illustrator that makes it possible to use it as a 2-D CAD-like program - I use it for most of the exhibit drawing that I need to do and can do renderings with a CAD layer either turned on or off for printing. Saves me a lot of time - but it is not a full CAD program - just handy and worth having as a tool. Darrol Shillingburg Exhibit Designer Farm and Ranch Heritage Museum Las Cruces, NM ----- Original Message ----- From: "Lisa Friedlander" <[log in to unmask]> To: <[log in to unmask]> Sent: Monday, September 10, 2001 7:21 PM Subject: Re: cad programs for exhibit design > I work for a Mac-based company specializing in the design and construction > of museum exhibits, and have used Architreon for many years. It is > currently owend by a company in France but available in the US. Our > designers work back and forth between Architreon, Freehand, Photoshop, and > rendering by hand to achieve the drawings we present. > > We plan to upgrade to FormZ. > > Freehand and Illustrator are not CAD-like programs (with 3D rendering and > convenient scaling capabilities) but various designers use these programs > for elevations, plans and to visual how an exhibit will look. > > Canvas may have 3D capabilities, haven't used it in a long time. Otherwise > it's similar to Freehand and Illustrator. > > In my experience, these programs are more user-friendly that CAD and give > the designer greater capability to make drawings that do not look/feel > highly mechanical. But the programs are limited in the degree of > construction drawing the designer can easily/accurately generate. > > As Margot said, no program is going to give you beautiful results. It takes > a fair amount of time, experience and skill to work successfully with any > of the complex graphic programs. > > Lisa Friedlander > Split Rock Studios > 2071 Gateway Blvd. > St. Paul, MN 55112 > 651-631-2211 > > > >Are there any good CAD related programs that are helpful in designing > >exhibit displays? > > > >My director would like a system that would allow the staff to view what an > >exhibit will look like prior to the first nail being driven. > > > >Any advice? > > > > > > > > > >_________________________________________________________________ > >Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp > > > >========================================================= > >Important Subscriber Information: > > > >The Museum-L FAQ file is located at > >http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed > >information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail > >message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should > >read "help" (without the quotes). > > > >If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to > >[log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read > >"Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes). > > > Lisa Friedlander > [log in to unmask] > > ========================================================= > Important Subscriber Information: > > The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes). > > If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes). > ========================================================= Important Subscriber Information: The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes). If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).