Graphics Tablets

[RichardVaughanDavies]

Over the cooler months I want to have a play with CAD software with a view to produce (or trying to produce) plans from a 3 view.

I've an old copy of Adobe Illustrator CS3, so that should do, but what of a grahics tablet?
I've narrowed down the choices to:-
1 Wacom Intuos Pen & Touch, Medium (was Bamboo). New
2 Wacom Intuos Pro Pen & Touch Medium (was Intuos). Used

Of course there is also the question as to whether or not I actually need one.
What do you designers use? Any help would be most appreciated, I've been going round in circles looking at reviews on t'web.

Cheers

Richard

[Stuart Solomon]

Richard, all you need is a program like Turbocad, a laptop/pc and a mouse. Easy :-)

[Rob Buckley]

For all the hundreds of hours I've spent drawing pictures in CAD over the years I've never used anything more complicated than a mouse.

For making a drawing to build from, a proper CAD package would probably be better than illustrator. Turbocad as Stuart mentioned is free for version 12 & about 80 quid for version 20. Other CAD software is of course available!

[RichardVaughanDavies]

Well, that's saved me a few bob.

I've now got a copy of TurboCad for the Mac and now for a spot of learning. Should keep me out of mischief during the long cold nights of the harsh winter the doom and gloom merchants are saying is on the way.

Thanks for the replies

Richard