I’d like to render some illustrations for work, using them to show how the township defines a building’s height. I’d like for them to look good, and be professional, and be suitable for publishing on the township’s website. Right now, I’m thinking that a document like this might be the sort of thing I’m looking for, only done well. This project may not be unique since, if it goes well, I may have other things to apply it to.
I downloaded a ray-tracing thingie, Now3D, and it looks like it might be helpful and easy, or maybe not. Either way, it looks like it’ll take some getting used to, i.e. a fair amount of play time before I’m any “good” with it.
Know of something that is for a full-on doofus to sit down with and have success with for this type of thing? Especially for creating documents w/ multiple pictures & text?
So basically your township wants professional quality illusrations, but doesn’t want to pay a penny for them? Good luck. Pretty much you’re stuck with MS Paint, or paying out some cold hard cash.
Pretty much what you want is something like Visio or it’s no-name competitor, SmartDraw. Unfortunately, both of those cost money. Not a whole lot, but some. You can download SmartDraw and play with it to see if it’s as easy as you need it to be, but IIRC it puts a big watermark saying something like “SMARTDRAW DEMO” over everything made with the for free version.
[small rant pointed at js_africanus’s workplace, not js_africanus himself]
Why oh why do places of business think that software should be free?!? They don’t call a graphic artist and ask them to make some drawings without expecting to pay, do they? They don’t expect the paper and printer cartridges used to print out drawing to be free. Why is it that in this day and age, people STILL think software should be FREE?!?
[/small rant]
In this case it is that I’d like to do this because I think it would be handy and informative and the township has no knowledge of it. I was trying to put together some info sheets to make the ordinance more understandable, and I thought that this would be a good addition. So I thought there might be a nice easy shareware program out there to make it a simple little project.
My apologies if I miscommunicated this part of the OP!!
Okay, I’ve always had really bad luck trying to use MS Paint. I hate even trying to open the program because of all the bad memories. But, I gave it a whirl anyway. The results aren’t half-bad. Though the image is small and looks better on a full sheet of paper, you can see it here
Unfortunately, I’m not so sure my luck is going to hold. I decided to try another project, a visual representation of the rules governing accessory buildings, and the outcome is looking like it will be rather shoddy and unprofessional. This is a case of being smaller making it look better.
So, I am re-submitting to the SDMB the following: Anybody know of good free-ware type programs for drawing that a doofus can use?
