An unofficial Blog about TurboCAD, DoubleCAD and Google SketchUp.

I’ve always thought that the secret with CAD was to find a package that is relatively easy to get started with, but with use reveals depth not obvious at the start. File compatibility is also a big issue. The more formats that it reads and supports, the greater its usefulness.

Planning Permission

Clearly the housing market has seen better times and unless you really have to, now is a risky time to move home. Despite what any estate agent says, things are not going to change for some time, so for those needing more space the safe option is to extend, which probably means that you are going to have to get Planning Permission from your local council.

Whether or not you need to apply for planning permission, you should think about two things before you start work. Firstly let your neighbors know about work you intend to carry out to your property, no point in upsetting the people that you live next door to. Secondly, consider the design. Everyone’s taste differs and your idea of good design might not be the same as others, it does not matter too much if you are not going to move, but some improvements could actually bring down the value of your house.

Once you know what you want, you need to get drawing. While most people at this stage get in contact with an architect or surveyor most of you would be able to put plans for the first stage together yourself. In most cases you are able to submit to the council a full application at the beginning stages. However, initially, you may want to make an outline application to see what the council thinks of the building work you intend to carry out before you go to the trouble of making detailed drawings, although you will still need to submit details at a later stage. Details of the procedure can be found on your council’s site.

You send the completed application forms to your council, together with the fee. Each form must be accompanied by a plan of the site and a copy of the drawings showing the work you propose to carry out. Planning applications can now be carried out on-line using the Planning Portal, just google it and follow the instructions.

Once you have the outline planning permission approved you can either complete the drawings yourself of hand over what you have already done to a professional. As long as your drawings can be read as DWG and DXF formats, then no professional will have a problem reading and editing them. TurboCAD Deluxe v15 would be perfectly adequate for the job. Doing it this way ensures that you get exactly what you want and will save a great deal of money, architects do not come cheap.

TurboCAD has free training notes to get you going and there are several training videos on you tube. As you will only need to use the 2D aspects of the package, it should not be too difficult to learn.