AutoCad... yet another skill you don't have

Not everyone needs to get their deck permitted.  If you don't know, check with your local development board.  If you do, or maybe even if you don't, you should learn how to make drawings of your deck.

I downloaded the free trial of Autocad and did a plot plan for our property.  That's just the mile high view of the property.  You just need to measure your property (ideally with a laser- this is my review of my Bosch GLM40) and make pretty one dimensional pictures.



After that, it gets a little harder.  My area requires a whole host of plans.  They want a

framing plan
foundation plan
elevations
cross-sections
connection framing
connection details

I really bogged down trying to do an elevation plan.  Then my 30-day trial ran out.

For doing my little doodles on this blog, I did find the AutoCAD 360 Web is free (at least it is now.)  Nice little tool that is not as complex as the full version.  Not sure if it's good enough to do a full design document, but maybe the connection details, or top down framing plan?

Anyway, one more thing to know if you want to pull this off by yourself.