App for house design

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RunningMan

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#165842 22-Feb-2015 15:34

Can anyone recommend an app (pref iOS to use on an iPad, but would consider something for a desktop OS) to draw up plans of a house, and then be able to make changes to see what renovations would look like?

Had a quick play with the free versions of Home Design and RoomPlanner under iOS - any other suggestions of what people have used recently?

Don't really know what features to look for, and what is and isn't useful... More looking for something to tinker with ideas/concepts, than generating actual final plans.

Stu

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#1244191 22-Feb-2015 15:40

Perhaps not what you're looking for but I've created a scale model of our house from old blueprints with Sketchup. Can apply colour/paper/whatever to walls to see what it would look like

ETA: Available for Mac and PC

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blakamin

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#1244192 22-Feb-2015 15:42

I was just about to type sketchup, but was beaten to it! :D

timmmay

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#1244198 22-Feb-2015 15:48

Sweet Home 3D is awesome, and free. Much easier than general purpose design software, it's made for home design. I used it to help design my new bathroom since the bathroom firm were hopeless at that sort of thing.

Jase2985

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#1244200 22-Feb-2015 15:51

i use smart draw 2013 offer a 7 day trial then need to pay but i was able to still use it after the 7 days for some reason.

TwoSeven

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#1245134 23-Feb-2015 20:33

Any drawing tool capable of doing line drawings can be used for doing a floor plan, or good old fashioned pencil and [gormack] graph paper works as well. I use an artist sketch book for basic ideas and scribbling.

One of the things I like doing is create a foam-board scale model (1:25) to see if things work out. YouTube has some good tutorials on how to do these (and I also use balsawood for decorative bits).

I used the demo version of Sketchup to do a timber frame model sans cladding to work out if my ideas might work - One gets 20 days which is good enough to learn how to use it. I've not investigated any of the basic CAD tools to see if one can do the same thing.

I'm not sure any of the tablet software would be as good as a desktop application because of the amount of detail involved in some of the drawing.

I just make the drawings/models as a hobby, not really intending to actually build anything of yet.

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mattwnz

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#1245142 23-Feb-2015 20:41

You can download a copy of revit for a 30 day trial which will do this. A very powerful tool for visualization. Otherwise sketchup which I believe is free.

RunningMan

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#1245178 23-Feb-2015 21:01

Thanks for all the ideas

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timmmay

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#1245220 23-Feb-2015 21:43

Instead of a generic 3D package like Sketchup or making paper models try the software I suggested - it's designed for exactly what you're trying to do. You start by modeling a floor plan before making it 3D, can model parts in Sketchup or bring in models, generate viewpoints, generate movies, etc. Very easy to use.

snowfly

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#1245246 23-Feb-2015 22:23

Another vote for Sweet Home 3D.
Currently using it on both a laptop and desktop for a house extension/renovation (builders have just started).

Was easy to modify the 2d plans, and then visualise the end result in 3d.
I ended up drawing our entire existing house, and the new extension, including decks, drive, garage, trees, etc, to make it almost an exact replica.

RunningMan

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#1245327 24-Feb-2015 07:28

timmmay: Instead of a generic 3D package like Sketchup or making paper models try the software I suggested - it's designed for exactly what you're trying to do. You start by modeling a floor plan before making it 3D, can model parts in Sketchup or bring in models, generate viewpoints, generate movies, etc. Very easy to use.

Downloading - thanks!