I have yet to build anything from plans I haven’t drawn myself.
I tend to look at a lot of pictures for inspiration, and I’ll admit to just…watching episodes of the New Yankee Workshop and just ripping off what Norm did; my parents have a very nicely plagiarized set of bookcases flanking their front door. But I often take a design element from here, another from there, and combine them into what I want.
I do tend to use the drafting process almost as a dress rehearsal for building the piece, creating the parts in 3D CAD and then assembling them teaches you things about the build.
I personally use FreeCAD, because basically nothing else is viable.
I have yet to build anything from plans I haven’t drawn myself.
I tend to look at a lot of pictures for inspiration, and I’ll admit to just…watching episodes of the New Yankee Workshop and just ripping off what Norm did; my parents have a very nicely plagiarized set of bookcases flanking their front door. But I often take a design element from here, another from there, and combine them into what I want.
I do tend to use the drafting process almost as a dress rehearsal for building the piece, creating the parts in 3D CAD and then assembling them teaches you things about the build.
I personally use FreeCAD, because basically nothing else is viable.