OK, I have to have my say.
First of all if you are going to purchase AutoCAD look into AutoCAD LT. The LT stands for lite. I have done a lot of facility layouts and it works well for me. I think the difference is that it does not do 3-D drawings, but then I don't do 3-D drawings either.
AutoCAD is NOT that hard to learn, at least for facility layouts. I love to teach people how to use it. Many people think it is difficult and once you learn about 10 to 15 commands you can do most of the drawings that you want. It is fun to see the light go off on their head when they realize that they can do it. I just taught our IT guy AutoCAD. He was reading the book and trying to make drawings how they described. In less than an hour I showed him how to use it. He had spent a couple of hours trying to make a simple drawing. We redid his drawing in less than 15 minutes.
Plotters. Yes they are just big printers. However if you are going to purchase one I would suggest getting one that uses a roll of paper. We had one that you had to load the paper into, and if you did not load the paper into it exactly straight it would reject the paper. Very frustrating when you spend 15 minutes loading the paper.
When you are ready to go you can e-mail me and I will help you learn AutoCAD. Scotts@valex.com. Also if you have any questions about AutoCAD or plotters e-mail me. I would rather help you buy the right one then have you realize later that you got the wrong one.
Scott
