Planning a new deck for your home is the single-most important thing you can do. If you plan properly and work off a good set of prints, the actual building of your deck will go smoother and you will have fewer problems and questions. A good plan will include blueprints, elevations, and a materials list. Usually, creating these documents required a lot of time and very careful measurements. Today, mush of this is simplified with deck planning software that runs on either Windows or Macintosh computers.
The advantage of deck planning software over doing it "the old-fashioned way" with pencil and paper, is that most software can automatically generate a three-dimensional view of your deck plan. If you take the time to include the surroundings in your drawings, then software can render trees, bushes, and even your house. This way you can get an exact view of what your finished project will look like.
Another advantage to using deck planning software is that you can make changes quickly and easily without having to start all over from scratch. You can create many different deck designs, save them all, and then print them all out. This way you can look at many different options during your design phase of deck construction.
Also, once you have chosen a final design, you can print out blueprints of your new deck, elevations, and even cross-sections so you can more easily see how to build your deck once it comes time to actually cutting lumber. Most deck planning software can print out blueprints that are acceptable by building code enforcement offices. They can approve your building permit right from your plans you made with your deck planning software.
Lastly, you can print out a materials list that you can take to the lumber yard or home center when it comes time to get your material for your deck. Some software will even generate cut lists for you so you can be sure you can stay on budget.
Deck planning software is typically not very expensive. Some of the simpler software programs can be found for under $20. For this price don't expect lots of high-end features. But you will get the ability to layout a deck design, generate blueprints and material lists. If you are willing to spend up to $99, you can get professional-level software that will allow you to generate blueprints, elevations, cross-sections, material lists, 3-D views of your project and more. Some even offer a "fly-by" animation feature that allows you to see your finished project and be able to walkthrough your virtual deck.
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