The first step to finding the right one for you is deciding what you want it to do. No single CAD program is best for all deck builders. Whether you’re dissatisfied with your current program or you’re making your first foray into CAD, buying a new program means investing a chunk of time and money hopefully this article will help you spend both wisely. How do the various CAD programs out there stack up for deck builders? That’s the question we set out to answer.
The drawing on the bottom shows the manual changes that were needed. In the drawing at top, the deck bumps out, but the software continued the main beam straight. While most do an adequate job automatically filling in the framing, they tend to hiccough when the deck isn’t a simple rectangle. A common weak spot for all the software was the framing drawings.
