I'm a construction contractor in the U.S., and a few years ago I needed to draw some computer plans for a client. So, I looked for a CAD program to use to draw them.
What I found was...

- A few wonderful programs that cost thousands of dollars (out of my price range).
- A lot of inexpensive or free programs I could use to draw a floor plan, make nice furniture, and create a 3D view. But, they were incapable of creating a simple set of working plans.
- Draftsight, which seemed very capable, but had a steep learning curve, and I did not have the time to learn it.

So, I end up using Inkscape.

The results were professional looking, and I found Inkscape capable of doing anything I needed it to do.
The only problem was some things were painfully slow to do.
Being impressed with the outcome of the plans, I decided to write some extensions to speed up the process, and have been using Inkscape to draw my plans ever since.

Having said all that here are a few questions I'd like to ask.

- Is there anyone out there using Inkscape for Architectural drawings?
- Is there anyone else writing extensions for Architectural drawings?
- Anyone interested in my extensions?
- Whatever happened to the experimental CAD tool plug in?

I have used inkscape to draw my thesis project in architecture.
(And blender too for the 3D.)

After that is now archicad time mostly with architecture related drafting.
Why? Because 90% of the field here rely on that single program and if you cannot use it you are out of the game.

Even though it produces horrible pdf-s, limited 3D capabilities to design any "soft architecture" or alike -to this day I wouldn't have modelled my thesis project with it. Boolean operations would kill it.

I am interested and think there are others too who would like to see it at inkscape's repository.
Had made some templates myself but still not into coding.
Suv is working on an extension that can render iso lettering.
An interface to add Bézier arcs to paths is also in development (?).
The mentioned extension draws such paths for one but in the current stabile the rendering is off...

Haven't seen any CAD tool in inkscape myself, don't know what happened to it.

Checked out your thesis, very nice!

I don't know if any of my extensions would be of any use to you. There all in feet and inch scales. but if there's enough interest I could convert them to metric.

what are the common metric scales used in architectural plans ?

The Cad tool thing was some time ago http://www.inkscapeforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=2110

"Mostly" in m.

Length is measured in m and written with two digits, if it is above 1,00 m; below it is in cm. Like 9m 30 cm would be 9,30, and 70 cm would be 70 instead of 0,70.
mm-s are hardly used for built walls but if necessary (building contractors would be very upset for that) then it is written similarly to x^y, for example 3,15^5.

Height is also measured in m scales, from +-o,oo to +9,45 or -1,61.

Doors, windows are measured in cm. Like a standard door is 90/210 or 75/210.

Steel structures are measured in mm.

Interestingly heating pipe diameters are mostly in inches.
Like bicycle wheels too.


The architectural plans general scales are in 1:1000 or 1:500 for site plans, 1:200 for sketching, 1:100 for the authorities, 1:50 for construction and 1:25-1:10-1:1... for details.
For the latter probably cm measures can make better use.

Ok, this could be fun!

If you're interested, I would like to convert one of my extension to metric, and let you try it.
Only problem is I do not have any way to make my extensions downloadable.
If you know how to use a text editor, I can post the code here and you can copy and paste it into your editor. Then save it to inkscape/share/extensions.

How do you measure roof pitch in metric?
What country are you in?

I'm in Hungary.

"Modern" architecture -drafting- has german roots here.

° is used for pitched roof, % for flat roofs.

If you zip it you can attach any files in this forum.

Did not know you could post zip files here.

Next weekend I should have some time to do it.

Talk to you then,
Good morning.

Here's the converted extension.
The directions are a svg file, and you should be able to open it in inkscape .
Hope this works.
Let me know what you think.

Thank's for sharing the extension!
Testing it.

Some things are off.

In general, strokes of a plan are defined by standards. Starting from 2 mm to 0,13 mm. (Other weights are listed here).
As far as I remember 2 line weights are used in a technical drawing, one thick and a thin, all within the same scale.
The line weights are like the paper sizes, based on the 2^x system, so when a plan is printed in double size, you can work on it with the same drafting set.
Meaning 0,5 mm wide strokes are paired with 0,25 mm and 0,7 mm with 0,35.

For the measuring mark's small diagonal stroke the thicker stroke is used, for the rest the thinner.
Practical reasons is that those are measured time to time and they could wear down from the paper.
Personally I like to have a bit larger contrast in those lines, had used in the mentioned project something like 0,7 with 0,18? Can't recall.

Other thing. Those are always go from down left to top right corner of the measuring line.
Now the left and right options draw them flipped.


The numbers always go above the lines. The down and the right angle options got them wrong.

The measuring line below the numbers should go over the end "projecting lines" just as the "projecting lines" cross the measuring line.
Sometimes the projecting lines don't even reach the measuring line by the extension, depending on the direction.

To be fair in architectural drawings the projecting lines are cut short and not really showing the projection.
Just like marks on a ruler.

The angled option drew the same thing over itself on the object tested.

The measuring line would be nicer as one path in my humble opinion.


What I did with that project: draw a small cross with the thin stroke width, draw one diagonal line over it with the wider stroke, grouped them together and converted it to a marker (keeping it in mind that markers are assigned in their true scale to 1 px wide strokes..).
Then for drawing the measures, just draw a path with the thinner stroke width and added nodes where it was necessary and added the custom marker to it. This way new marks can be added by double clicking.

Something similar.
As that means the thin cross of the mark would be a double path over each, resulting in faulty rendering of the anti-aliasing.
For middle marks I'd have to go with that compromise and use such markers, but for the marks in between I made other markers without the horizontal stroke.

Thanks for your input.
The numbers should be on top of the measurement line. I used my backup version to make this extension, and I think I forgot to hit save last time I worked on it.

Anyway , it's an easy fix.

As far as the double print, and the measurement line bypass...Well not so easy.
A while back I had tried to make these changes, and realized I needed to rewrite most of the extension to do it.

I don't know when I'll have time to do it.
When I'm done I'll post it here

Here it is.
The new and improved Dimensions Line Metric.
I included the old directions (the new extension looks different but works just the same).
The directions are a svg file, so just open them in Inkscape.

Hi Phil,
Good question,

The cons -
Inkscape dose not render in 3D. If you need 3D use SketchUp.
SketchUp has more drafting friendly tools. Extensions can be made to take there place. Most ot the time they work better, but are more limiting.
If you're coming from a CAD background, inkscapes flexibility and the way things are done may drive you nuts.

The pros -
Inkscape is open source!
With the addition of the measure tool , the ability to add custom scales and do math in the spin boxes drafting in Inkscape has become very feasible.
Flexibility, if you need to customize or create something out of the ordinary, no problem.

It is quite easy importing an svg into blender, however that really won't help much.

Inkscape is relatively good in drawing "sleek" plans compared to cad softwares.
They produce the most cluttered pdf-s you can imagine, with hatched fills converted to individual lines, circles turned into straight segments etc.
Doesn't seem to bother cad program developers at all. Plans are stored in their native formats and a pdf is just an inevitable must for printing only.

What is the difference between inkscape and a decent cad program?
Handling of the data for example. You can select a "wall", one of the simplest objects in planning.
That "wall" is defined with a few nodes in 2D as its core.
But you are able to set which side the wall should it be assigned to, set the width of the wall, the angle in which the wall should be built,
the structural layers of its profile, which pattern fills and outlines should all its layers have in 2D and what textures should they be rendered with,
and there are dozen other settings on how the model should look in a detail section.
Also you can add heating parametres to the wall for energetic calculations, pricing informations and such.

Those settings can all be edited live any time, and you can render the object from any angle with many camera and lighting settings.


In general inkscape's live editing abilities are limited to lpe-s and filters, dynamic offsets and the 3D box tool, and maybe the cloning/symbols is a similar feature too.
If you want to illustrate a 3D view you are limited to it, cannot change the view angle later on.
You could construct it as you would do that by drafting on paper.


Other option is to have a 3D model. That way you can generate different renderings of the same model by different angles.
Blender and sketchup are good for such 3D "illustrational" modelling. With blender you can sort of render to svg-s -which would look cluttered compared to a rendered raster image traced manually- or you can use the render 3D polyhedrons extension to render an exported obj of your model in inkscape.
The latter wouldn't produce a nice svg drawing either.
Like if you put a window in a wall, you cannot punch a hole in a 3D face so you would have triangle or quad faces, many more than necessary in 2D -with double path segments, rendering gaps...


tl;dr
You can draw objects with a lego-block template but then you would be limited by a 1 view angle, which should be axonometric.
Can you point out an example drawing in the desired style?