Software for Room Planning and Design? 26
anandsr asks: "Hi everybody, I am looking for a software that allows creating 3D models of house and furniture etc, to see how a house would look before building it, and populate it. What would you all recommend, are there any that amateurs can use." I've seen these in use in stores like Lowe's and Home Depot, but is there anything out there geared and priced for the home user?
I tried this... (Score:3, Informative)
To be more specific, I was hoping the package would have more of a wizard type of approach that would walk me through the house room by room. Allow me to move things around a lot, etc. As it was, the program had me placing walls one section at a time, doors one by one, etc. I never even got around to finding out how to texture the floors, etc. It was just too painful for the amount of time I was willing to put into it (which, admittedly, wasn't much). Additionally, the 3D walkthrough was a beast to use, and slow to boot! I never even found out how to do a walkthrough of the interior of the house. I could only ever get the exterior view working, and it was nothing to write home about.
If you do decide to go with a package, make sure it fills your specific needs. What I mean here is that some of the packages were more oriented towards a builder. So they would help you with things like materials estimation, etc. That's great if you're doing your own general contracting. However, if you're like me, you just wanted to get a feel for the house before it was built. I didn't find a package that really helped with that (without a lot of pain that is).
If you're still curious, one of the better vendors is at http://www.punchsoftware.com/
Good luck!
Quake? (Score:2)
Re:Quake? (Score:1)
Re:Quake? (Score:3, Informative)
Baring a Quake engine based app, I'd recommend the newest version of 3D Home Architect. It may not do exactly what he wants, though, as the user has to select couches, chairs, etc, from the program's own database. Also, you have to build your house/floorplan from the ground up before you can start virtually touring it.
Note that these are Windows-only solutions, but the poster didn't specify Linux only:
Broderbund's 3D Programs [broderbund.com]
I've toyed around with a couple of these programs on a friend's PC, and they're not too bad. I'm impressed the company that brought us PrintShop for the VIC-20/C64 is still around and making money!
Home user.. (Score:2)
Uhh.. Those *are* for the home user. Geesh. You don't really think the pros use that stuff, do you know?
The Sims (Score:5, Funny)
Try http://thesims.ea.com/.
Sketchup (Score:2)
Photoshop (Score:2, Interesting)
3D Home Architect from Broderbund (Score:3, Informative)
Quality just isn't there (Score:3, Interesting)
I've got something (at home, though, so I can't tell you right offhand what it is -- it uses a
* Very difficult to draw the floor plan -- snaps when I don't want it to, doesn't when I do; sometimes walls get totally screwed up; difficult to draw angled walls
* Limitations to the built-in objects -- doors, windows, etc, are "take it or leave it" -- use the ones they've got, and if it's the wrong size, you *might* be able to stretch it to fit.
* SLOW
* difficult to switch between floors
* 3-D walkthrough is a "through walls" flythrough that's difficult to use -- you choose FOV, and direction, and then sort of move your pointer around and you kinda walk through
All in all, good enough to play with, but I gave up trying to put in my new house after two weeks of frustration.
Why we can't have a simple floor-plan editor that's as easy as Visio (or easier, since Visio suffers some problems, too), with a game-engine walkthrough so you can actually, well, WALK through (and go up stairs, etc), is beyond me.
I'm going to try out some of the other packages suggested in this thread, but I'm not holding my breath....
I've run into the same problem with "home CAD" stuff. The home design program I described above also does landscaping and simple furniture design, but it (like other "home cad" software I've tried) is extremely difficult to use. CAD software all seems to be based on volumes, simple shapes, and kinda-sorta managing to manipulate those items in a 3-D space.
I'd like to find a "Wood CAD" program that lets me grab a 6' 2x4 from a pallette, chop a foot off the end, nail it to another, etc., etc. -- so that I'm not only 'building' something that starts with standard dimensional lumber components, but it'd be within the realm of possibility for the software to produce, based on what I started with and what I ended up with, a step-by-step set of assembly instructions.
I've got a lot of woodworking I have to do for the new house (finishing a basement, shelves and desks for a server room, closet organizers, etc.), and I'm going to be doing all the design the way my father did -- on quadrille paper with a sharp pencil. At least it'll look professional, even if I can't do a realtime 3-D rotation on the paper.
Angled Walls (Score:1)
> when I don't want it to, doesn't when I do;
> sometimes walls get totally screwed up; difficult
> to draw angled walls
Difficult to do angled walls? You sould like a contractor!
-Pete
Well (Score:2)
If you felt like it, you could remove the doors and see how your family would die and become ghosts...fun fun.
You mean for Linux? (Score:3)
Or were you looking for a (free) Linux alternative? There's really nothing at all like that in the free-Unix space yet. There's okay 2D and 3D CAD software out there, but nothing with an interface for easy, amateur floorplan design, rendering geared toward easy, quick views of room interiors and walkthroughs, or the huge texture and object libraries the commercial Windows packages have.
Cliff, do you even read these Ask Slashdot submissions? Have you ever been in a store that sells consumer software? What's next from Ask Slashdot? "Word Processors that Can Use Multiple Fonts?" "Does anyone make color printers?" "Anyone have instructions for rotary telephones?"
Home/Office design with GtkRadiant (Score:2, Informative)
I've modelled an entire 20,000 sf office building with it with realistic reasults.
The interface is nice and quick to learn.
Plus, you can chase your freinds around in it.
A teenager modelled his school and also did a Quake mod without weapons for it.
Sketch from SmartHomesite.com (Score:1)
We have tried to make Sketch easy enough for your significant other to use. Let me know what you think...
punch software is one that works okay (Score:2)
It is specifically for designing #d views of places. My friend used it to design models of a building and layouts of what the place would look like had they chose other buildings. It has furnature and you can reshape the furnature. It has textures so you can panel a room, paint it or whatever and you can then get snapshots of the rooms. They make more than one package and one may be right for you. It is worth a look. I know my friend like it a lot.
COSMI Software... (Score:2)
They used to have a DOS/Windows program that had a 2D editor to build the rooms, drop the furniture in, etc - then would shell out to a version of REND386 to display the 3D version for a "walk-through". It was limited to a single floor, but the models it used (.PLG) and the 3D world files it created (.WRL) conformed to standard REND386 formats - and so could be used in that package as well - a cheap and easy to use virtual reality world building package, in effect.
Something similar to this might be able to be done in Linux - seems that a few people have the "scratch" - someone is bound to itch it sooner or later.
I also seem to remember an article back a couple of years on /. about a company or university in Europe (UK?) using the Quake or Quake2 engine to develop walkthroughs of large architectural structures - seeing as how both engines are now open source, it wouldn't take too much (ok, it would take a bit - but less than from scratch) to create an "easy-to-use" application to interface with them for floor-planning and walk-throughs...
buy one cheap secondhand (Score:1)
My wife had the same question. She hit on the solution of a used software store. There's a local Seattle store called Half Price Books and Software where she picked up something for about $5. It wasn't a perfect program (what Windows software is?), but for $5, you forgive a lot.
Quake/GtkRadiant (Score:1)