Garage Shop Floor Plan Software

Pencil & graph paper. Cut out scale machines to position. Fancy, no, expensive, no, learning curve, none. Effective, yes.

-- The hump with the stump and the pump!

Grizzly used to have one available. But it was written in Flash code, which is not longer supported.
The web site shows v2 coming soon?
https://www.grizzly.com/user/shop-planner

-- If it wasn't for bad luck, I wouldn't have no luck at all, - Albert King - Born Under a Bad Sign released 1967

I find it is smarter to use newspapers on the floor of the real shop. Just make outlines of your machines.

Newspapers!? Where did you get them? ;)

-- "It's getting better..." - put this on my RIP stone!

There is always the old tape outlines on the floor method to get a real world “feel” but I would probably do graph paper first anyway because tape looks easier than it is.

Garage is full of stuff right now. Impractical to lay out plan on garage floor. Need a plan on paper or computer and then move stuff in garage per plan. I have ~ 770 square feet, of which is shared by wife’s stuff, a car (or two), and my space.

Treat it as a project layout and proceed accordingly. Step 1, measure the space and all your major (stationary) tool sizes.

Step 2, draw plan to scale.

Step 3, crumple plans in frustration.

Step 4, pack it in until it all fits, worry about using it later.

Step 5, move somewhere with a bigger space.

Step 6, repeat.

—- 770 sq ft! I should be so lucky. My space is 8’ x 16’

-- The hump with the stump and the pump!

Phil – just out of curiosity, is it a one or two car garage ?
and – what power tools do you have that you want to make space for ?
(all my big tools are on casters, they are never in the same place all the time).
they are continually shuffled around according to the projects going on at the time.

-- there is no educational alternative to having a front row seat in the School of Hard Knocks. --

I use sketchup to layout my shop. In some cases you can find exact or close enough machines and fixtures in their online 3D warehouse that you can tweak their dimensions to match your own equipment. I have a few things that I designed in Sketchup and I actually just imported those into the layout. In some cases, I simply made a shape that represents the size that something requires or occupies. Once you have everything there is is a lot easier than pencil and paper or playing Tetris out in the shop to test different layouts. You can look at it from different angles and also do sort of a fly through.

BTW, if you don’t already know and use Sketchup something like Fusion 360, it is a good tool for designing things you want to build too.

Here is a before and after layout of the reorg that I currently have underway.

And here is the target. Notice the addition of a new workbench which is ultimately the goal of the reorg.

-- Nathan, TX -- Hire the lazy man. He may not do as much work but that's because he will find a better way.

The garage is 3 car, and has about 770 square feet of floor space. This space will be occupied by at least one car (two if I can fit it in, a space for my wife’s stuff (~75 – 100 sf, or 10%). Power tools include miter saw, table saw (not yet purchased), grinder on pedestal, floor standing drill press, bench top router table and router, and usual drills, and hand power tools. This does not include tool chest, shelving units, workbenches, etc.). I intend to use casters to degree possible. Previous table saw had casters and was a MAJOR plus.

I found in my last garage organization (at last home), the Grizzly software tool was hugely helpful and I ended up with a LOT more room than I ever expected. Paper works, but tedious and inaccurate. Last time, my paper plan said a bench would fit. I moved the beast of bench into position, and the bench blocked the door from opening by about 1/8”. Argh! I just was not dead-on accurate with my scissors when cutting out the rectangle.

Thanks,

Phil

Phil – just out of curiosity, is it a one or two car garage ?
and – what power tools do you have that you want to make space for ?
(all my big tools are on casters, they are never in the same place all the time).
they are continually shuffled around according to the projects going on at the time.

- John Smith

Hi Nathan,

Hi,

Thanks for the helpful response. I do not have Fusion 360 or Sketchup, but do have Alibre Professional (which I have not learned). It is overkill for this, but maybe this is the incentive to buckle down and use, though not sure how it will work as a floor plan design. I do like what Sketchup can do as shown by your examples, and may explore it if there is a free or cheaper version. Thinking of dropping Alibre anyway due to steep maintenance costs. I would want to be sure there is a good video tutorial for Sketchup.

Thank you,

Phil

I use sketchup to layout my shop. In some cases you can find exact or close enough machines and fixtures in their online 3D warehouse that you can tweak their dimensions to match your own equipment. I have a few things that I designed in Sketchup and I actually just imported those into the layout. In some cases, I simply made a shape that represents the size that something requires or occupies. Once you have everything there is is a lot easier than pencil and paper or playing Tetris out in the shop to test different layouts. You can look at it from different angles and also do sort of a fly through.

BTW, if you don t already know and use Sketchup something like Fusion 360, it is a good tool for designing things you want to build too.

Here is a before and after layout of the reorg that I currently have underway.

And here is the target. Notice the addition of a new workbench which is ultimately the goal of the reorg.

- Lazyman

I like the idea of using this as an excuse to learn a more robust design software. We bought a house last year and I stumbled my way through modeling the whole thing in Fusion to get a feel for his things would fit. It was really neat to get the different viewpoints and be able to actually see things in the space.

-- At some point in your life you will use everyone of your tools as a hammer.

Both Fusion 360 and Sketchup can be used for free, with limitations, by hobbyists. Both are very handy for designing woodworking and other projects (not to mention laying out my workshop). On several of my projects posted on LJ, I posted the SU design if you want to see what I’ve done with it. I learned Sketchup before discovering Fusion 360 and switching between them is a little tough but I think that F360 is the more robust tool if you are going to pick one. The current free version of Sketchup is web based and not as capable as the older versions so I recommend that you download the 2017 version which runs on the desktop.

-- Nathan, TX -- Hire the lazy man. He may not do as much work but that's because he will find a better way.

I use graph paper with cut outs for machines. It is as accurate as your measurements. However, the plans are only good until you put your first machine in place.

For the Linux users (probably the only one) SweetHome3d is a good choice. I could take what Lazyman said, replace Sketchup with Sweethome3d.

Actually just created our new house plans in it including the basement. While I am an old school Draftsman/Designer it is really nice to be able to do a ‘walk through’ 3d view.

-- Jeff Horton * Kudzu Craft skin boats* www.kudzucraft.com