No Grizzly Shop Planner, any alternatives?
Grizzly posted this well over 1 1/2 years ago, but they didn’t come through with a new version. Anybody see any alternatives? I haven’t. And just to keep this on-track, no “cut out your own pieces of paper/cardboard and lay them on your hand drawn plan” posts please. Thanks!
Grizzly Shop Planner V2 Coming Soon
Google has announced that the Flash platform, on which Grizzly’s Workshop Planner was built, is no longer supported and will be blocked in the Chrome web browser starting in January 2021.
Our developers are using this time as an opportunity to modernize and update the shop planner to include new features, new machines, and to utilize modern technologies that will work on all common web browsers going forward.
We thank you for your patience as we work hard on version 2 of our workshop planner. Keep an eye on this page and the homepage for updates as they become available.
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Unless you start with so much floor space that you need one of those carts with beeping lights to travel between machines no plan works. Eventually you will get to the point where you need a bigger shop or end up with a policy where if something comes into the shop then something has to go out. Moving little cut outs on graph paper works but wouldn't any Autocad program do what you want to do? I can't even imagine how a "shop planner" could be beneficial. We all have our individual requirements ,a program can't know that. A tool manufacturer creating a shop planner could however use it as a platform to sell you tools!
I'm not familiar with Grizzly Shop Planner, but if you google "Floor plan software" or "Shop plan software" you will get lots of suggestions. Like
Pantalones868, it seems to me that most any CAD software would do the job.
Maybe you never saw their planner, and maybe you have a CAD program. But for those of us that have and don’t, it was a great free tool, only gone because it was Flash based, which is no longer. They had exact scaled moveable 2d plan models of their machines. No matter how big or small your shop, trying to maximize your space is way easier by moving little pieces around on a plan than moving the actual machines, and quicker than drawing each one separately in a CAD program. In my case, I’ve added a couple of machines recently, and if there was a Grizzly planner equivalent out there I would be able to drag machines around to see how best to use my space without straining my back or cutting out dozens of little cardboard pieces.
Use 2D Sketchup or Autocad. Done.
I guess I should have added to my original post “please don’t suggest that I learn a CAD program just for this”. If you don’t know what their planner was, or don’t know of an equivalent, feel free to scroll by.
You asked for alternatives...as in "any alternatives?"
And as I said above, I should have asked to keep it to the intent of my search, for a similar app. What happens way too often in these forums goes something like this: “I’m looking for any alternative for my Subaru Outback.” “You should get a motorcycle.” :-)
Good graph paper, tape measure, 0.5mm mechanical pencil, and dedicated eraser worked for me. No CAD or cardboard..
And you dragged all the machines around the room by erasing each one and redrawing them in new places?
Not the machines, but their larger, simpler, infeed/outfeed footprints. Lightly drawn and easily visualized. Get the good green graph paper, set a scale and outline your shop walls, permanent fixtures, and door swings in pen. One or two moves and it'll all fall in place pretty quick.
How about a black board and chalk?
I use an excel or numbers spreadsheet. First I set the grid square so each cell is 1 foot X 1 foot. Then I measure the footprint of each machine, table or storage rack and use the shapes, rectangle, circle etc to draw each one and drag the shape to their location. I also put an arrow to show the direction of feed. Works well.
3 shop expansions + remodels, and 3 iterations of dust collection ducting.....lots of "plans" ended up in the trash.
Think about work flow, maximum efficiency to dimension lumber, where you're going to assemble. Stand in your space and get a 2x4 and visualize milling, then cutting to length.
Often the table saw determines where everything else goes.Ultimately you figure out the work flow. Don't hard duct anything until you've used the machines a while.
Thanks,
I have an existing shop. As I said, I added a couple of machines, so looking how to incorporate them into my existing workflow without major disruption. The Grizzly planner was a very fast way to rearrange things to see how efficient things might be. Good tip on the hard duct delay.
Thanks for all, or most :-) of the comments and suggestions. The Grizzly Shop Planner was a shop-specific very fast way to move already drawn tools and machines around a quickly created floor plan. No CAD program, chalk, or spreadsheet could do that. But the answer to my simple question seems to be a simple no.
"No CAD program"?...not correct. I suspect if you had some experience with them you wouldn't say that either. You can get all sorts of tools (see link following) and use them/scale them/move them within a simple 2D plan i.e. "your shop". You can make a simple 2D outline of other tools e.g. For all the time writing and reading this thread a simple plan could have been accomplished in Sketchup. It would take one about the same time to learn the Grizzly app as Sketchup plus or minus.
https:///collection/80a996a1dddd788439f8afeea95c6cfc/Woodworking-Machinery-Shop-Tools-Workbenches
For free? Without having to learn a CAD program? Geez, let's get down into the weeds. :-) The point is, anyone could immediately move a shop around, no learning curve, no cost, no time-consuming "I wonder if there's a template for this machine" hunting in template libraries.
By the bye, it took me under ten seconds to find those Sketchup woodworking models
And another 10 seconds to learn Sketchup? I'm done with this silliness.
Pencil & paper
Yes, I'm serious. The software can be helpful to some, but with everyone's shop being so individualized, the best the software can do is get close.
I'd consider making 3d cutouts and move those around on a graph. We think about the footprints of our machines and workflow around them but the varying heights of things can interfere with that. The top of my old jointer without the fence was lower than the top of my tablesaw and even with the fence lower than my bandsaw. I recently replaced that with a combo machine and the bed is 1/2" higher than the tablesaw and that's a new problem. The tablesaw and the jointer / planer are generally side by side because that is where my maximum length is. I went for the combo machine because i believed it would give me more space. Also if the fence is on the combo machine or if its set up to plane it's higher than my bandsaw. The jury is still out on that thing. I planned to sell my old jointer but I havent gotten around to it and its clearly in my way but if the combo machine is set up to plane and dialed in to something Im working on and I need to join something well there's the old jointer sitting there...The combo machine is taking up critical space in the 3rd dimension that I never considered or didn't consider enough.
I have a mark on my wall that is the center of my shop ,if I line up my sawblade on the tablesaw with the mark I get the maximum length of cut inside my shop. I have big doors on both ends of my shop if I need to rip or plane long boards. 20' no problem! Everything is on wheels so I can reconfigure the shop to accommodate whatever project I'm doing. If I need floor space for assembly I can push things out of the way. I move things around alot! I've given up on doors on any low storage because if I move something too close and then need something in there I can't open the door to get it without moving my set up.
I've always had a shop at my house but I had a much larger shop where I worked. I lost that when someone decided to trade in his wife for a new model so I retired from woodworking --to take up woodworking. It's much better this way,I only do what I want! My woodworking business was based around a lot of architects ,designers and wealthy home owners that had thumbed through a copy of Architectural Digest and had opinions. It worked for me, i made a living as a woodworker. Some of it however was just a job. I have a commission for a coffee table that I'm working on right now. What it is ,well I won't even discuss it! Don't like it? Don't buy it! In fairness if I know a little bit of where their tastes are or if I know where it's going I'll consider that. Is their house arts and craft or was it designed by Mies?
I do find working in limited space challenging though!
And your new boss was an a**hole, right? :-) That's what I always told people who didn't know I owned my own company when they asked me how my job was. "It's ok, but my boss is an A*hole"
Mine is a little different. Someone comes by-- "who's in charge here?" " Oh, your looking for Godot, he's not here right now. Wanna wait?"
I don't do much with cad myself. I prefer to sketch ,then scale draw and then sometimes draw at full scale. Those Boston guys are real big on full scale drawings and sometimes I see the advantage but if I was building a railroad would I need a full scale drawing? I like the drawing, it takes time and time gives you an opportunity to think things through. Sometimes the whole thing in in my head and I just need to assign numbers. I have a son however who is really good with tech stuff. Builds rockets and such. Computers and 3d printers , lasers,cnc are easy for him. I will assign anything in that realm to him. He'll be done before I have it turned on. He lives pretty close by but these days that isnt even necessary. All of that stuff has its place and can be really useful and analog guys such as myself are kind of dinosaurs.
Take heart, all the post-apocalyptic dystopian books and films always show the analogue guys winning in the end. :-)
I think "SketchUp" still have a free version and if you google "SketchUp 3D Warehouse" you can find various Grizzly tools to download.