Home Design: Do It Yourself Software

More software = more manuals to read. Reported in the Times last week by Mark Glassman, Broderbund has just put out a new version of their popular 3D Home Architect Design Suite software, which includes interior design capabilities ($99). While neat and maybe useful, I am wary of the new complications this sort of thing would create for us, and of the "overwhelming" choices that it gives you. Not to mention this has nothing to do with apartments. So, what I really want to know is does anyone know of a GOOD, SIMPLE program that helps draw floorplans and position furniture?? I have looked and looked and come up empty handed. This is the sort of thing I do everyday and which people I meet really could use. MGR

Comments (7)

Better yet, something that can take your current home dimensions and work with it.

posted by Suresh on 2004-04-20 14:03:25

If you use Office then you might also have Visio. It comes with several building plan templates, including one for "home plan". Once you create a document from one of these templates you then drag/drop and position "shapes" onto the document. There are many included shapes including furniture, walls, appliances, etc..

A better and easier to use product (sadly discontinued) was Autodesk's Actrix. Another product knocked out by MS "giving away" a product in their Office lineup. Oh well.

posted by Hans on 2004-04-20 14:36:12

Yeah, Visio will do the birds-eye layout trick, but I think an important element would be something that let you see things in 3d and also let you play around with different colors, which Visio doesn't support.

posted by Julius on 2004-04-20 19:43:57

I have no idea what your price range is, but I work in Architecture and a quick and easy 3D modeling program we use is Sketch-Up. Good for basic, rectilinear volumes (like apts.)and comes with generic furniture/building components with a growing user forum for more custom items. Best part is it took me about 30 minutes to learn the program and generate photo-real images. Free demo from their website, runs about $450 for a single licence.

posted by Regan Martin on 2004-04-20 21:23:56

Use a pencil and paper. Its cheaper, quicker, easier (I'm assuming you know how to use paper, pencil, measuring tape, ruler or scale, and a little math.) and can be used for other things when you're done. Paper and pencil is intuitive and has less VOC's.

If you want to get fancy buy a portable drafting board: (http://www.draftingequipment.com/DEW/products/tables/alvin/portable_drafting_boards.htm) which is STILL cheaper and better than any decent CAD program. Low-end CAD software is very limited in usefulness. If it were simple to use and powerful, would not architects and designers be using them? Yet we spend thousands on CAD programs and grouse at how they can't do half of what we want them to do.

I'm serious, draft out your apartment. Its just like sketching out your apartment, just be a little more careful and use a straightedge. Draw out your sofa, futon, big silver TV, table and chairs to scale, then cut them out. It will take you a couple of hours at the outside. You can now move them around at will, as much as you want. Why try to be designing more like work (sitting at a computer) when you can make it more like art class. Its fun, like playing with those paper dolls as a kid, or at least I'm assuming that was fun, because as a boy I thought those paper dolls gave you cooties.

Paper and pencil is the way to go.

posted by Rob D on 2004-04-23 00:03:38

anybodyu know about software for managing an apartment reconstruction - keeping tabs simply on costs, estimates, time frames, etc.? thanks - peter

posted by Peter on 2006-07-23 20:11:08

I have been looking for a program that runs on a MAC--visio is windows only--???

posted by taracakes on June 25th 2007 at 9:17am
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