Paper and pencil look awful good after awhile. When I visit clients I take measurements and draw a floor plan back at my office. To help streamline this process and try to get a scale drawing that can be emailed and easily edited on the train or anywhere, I have been looking into computer solutions. Here is the complete list of top solutions:
Visio - $199 at Microsoft Visio
Review: Part of the Microsoft Monopoly.
Visio will do the birds-eye layout trick. Limited if you want to do 3d stuff. Julius
Simple, easy to use, nice interface, free trial version. Maxwell
Visual Home 3D - free - www.freeafterrebate.info
Review: I believe this program is good for making 3d renditions for your floor plan. I haven't used it though so I don't know how cool it is or isn't. Julius
3D Home Architect - $99 - Broderbund
Review: Puts many of the same resources within reach of do-it-yourselfers, allowing them to make plans with near-professional precision. Lets Windows users create in meticulous detail new walls, wings, gardens and gazebos.
For newcomers to home design, the detail may seem overwhelming. Mark Glassman
See My Design Layout - free - www.SeeMyDesign.com
Review: Cheesy. Maxwell
Arrange A Room - free - www.bhg.com
Review: This is more fun, more interactive, and offers you more variety than See My Design. Jackie
My Virtual Home - free - www.myvirtualhome.com.au
Review: Not yet available so hard to tell. A friend is doing 3d modeling of the furniture, so hopefully it will be more aesthetically pleasing than See My Design. Pippa
Sketch-Up - $475 - www.sketchup.com
Review: 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. Regan
Pencil and Paper
Review: 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. Rob
And the winner is??? I would say that unless you do this for a living, I remain skeptical of all of the programs and still prefer pencil and paper. If you want to use the computer for simple stuff, however, I would go with 3D Home architect or Visio for room layouts, etc. It is a shame that no one makes a really simple birds eye view program that is super cheap...something that almost has the qualities of the video game Pong for rearranging furniture and walls. Something you could play with on your cell phone as you sit on the subway and rearrange your apartment on the way home. MGR
IKEA has simple planners for their office line and kitchen lines. They're pre-loaded with IKEA products (natch) but you can use them to visualize layouts quickly. I haven't used the office planner, but I have used the kitchen planner extensively. It's small, fast and clean.
www.ikea-usa.com/ms/en_US/rooms_ideas/office/download1.html
(other localized versions available from your country's IKEA site)
Sketchup has a free version of its 3d tool. Its easy enought to use and produces great results.
This is a very easy planner for furniture plans and cheap, also has a 30 day free trial. It saves me so much time over AutoCAD.
http://www.easyplanpro.com/
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I use Jordan's Furniture Room Planner. Web-based, easy, and free. http://jordans.com/roomplanner.asp
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